Turkish businesspeople and their families in Britain under a popular visa program will be able to apply for a settled status after five years, the U.K. government announced Friday.

Axar.az informs citing AA.

A Home Office statement announced the end of a restriction on applications from July 6, which was introduced in March this year.

The announcement came with a series of changes to U.K. immigration rules.

“A new settlement category for Turkish businesspeople, workers and their families who are in the U.K. under the EU-Turkey European Communities Association Agreement (ECAA),” the Home Office said.

“This means that Turkish workers and businesspeople will be able to settle in the U.K. after five years as either an ECAA businessperson or ECAA worker (or equivalent points based system routes), as long as the most recent period of leave was under the ECAA,” it said.

“This category was first announced in March 2018 after an Upper Tribunal ruling meant the previous route had to close,” it added.

In March, the office had said they would introduce into the immigration rules "a new Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) category for current Turkish ECAA businesspersons,” announcing a halt on new applications to settle in the country for such persons. It had said the decision was made after a U.K. tribunal ruling in a case related to an application from a Turkish national’s wife, Hacer Aydogdu.

The Home Office had said applications until March 16 would continue to be processed and those who would like to stay in the U.K. and carry on under the Ankara Agreement visa would be able to apply for extensions of “up to three years at a time, provided they continue to meet the relevant requirements.”

With the latest update, Turkish citizens who are in the U.K. with such visas would be able to apply after a total of five years for an ILR visa, which would make them live and work in the U.K. without further restrictions.

The ECAA businesspersons’ visa has been a very popular initiative, with up to 20,000 Turks now living in the U.K. under the Ankara Agreement.

The visa scheme is based on the 1963 Ankara Agreement between Turkey and the European Economic Community, a predecessor to the EU.