Legal migrants, including doctors, dentists, engineers and teachers, have been told that they must wait a year longer before they can settle permanently in Britain. Campaigners say that their lives have been disrupted by a Home Office decision to make retrospective the increase from four to five years that legal migrants must work in Britain before they can settle permanently.

Those affected must reapply for work permits and have complained that any plans that they might have had to apply for mortgages and university places have been disrupted. Members of the London Chinese community staged a protest at the changes this month and 33 MPs have signed a Commons motion expressing anger at the policy.

Christine Lee, a solicitor, accused ministers of playing with people’s lives by changing the rules. “What about the people who believed they would be able to stay in Britain after four years?” she said. “They have paid their taxes, made sure they did not get into trouble and thought they would be able to integrate into the community.”

She added: “These are people who have contributed to British society and who wanted to continue to contribute. These rules should not apply retrospectively.”

Ministers were criticised when they pushed the rule change through a Commons committee. Damian Green, the Shadow Immigration Minister, called the change unfair and vindictive.

He said that those who wanted to take out a mortgage or send their children to British universities without paying international fees would be hit, even though they paid taxes and intended to settle in Britain.

Mr Green said: “Those who have been working here and paying taxes for a long time and who intend to stay here, people who are already contributing to the community and wish to contribute more, regard the change not only as a blow but as a hostile act by Britain.

“There will be bewilderment at the fact that the Government have chosen to make life more difficult for precisely the highly skilled migrants who they say they want to attract here in ever-increasing numbers.”

Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said that the introduction of the new time limit was brutal.

“I have come across a large number of families who, if the measure proceeds, will need to change their plans, leave their work or studies, sell their homes and take their children out of school or university because they have received no warning that the rules have changed, or that the understanding on which they entered this country has summarily changed,” he said.

“The measure seems to fly in the face of the basic fairness, transparency and predictability that anybody who is resident and working in this country expects and deserves.”

The Home Office said that nobody would be forced to leave Britain because of the changes.

Liam Byrne, the Immigration Minister, said: “Anyone with valid leave to remain who is continuing in employment or earning their living or investing in the UK still qualifies to remain here and should have no difficulty completing their fifth year.”

He added: “The measure prevents no one from carrying on what they were doing in the UK. They are simply being asked to carry on for one more year.”

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