The present invention is a method to rapidly lock a type II phase locked loop (PLL) after a frequency jump without degrading the output signal much. The method to decrease the settling time and improve the quality of the output clock during the settling disclosed herein comprises of the following broad steps: Estimate new frequency offset with a separate circuit outside the PLL loop to measure the frequency of the input signal accurately. Ramp integrator to the new frequency offset. Do phase build out or phase pull-in. The remaining phase offset is build out when no edge to edge alignment is required. Otherwise, the remaining phase offset is pulled in while the integrator in the PLL's loop filter is disabled. Reduce the PLL bandwidth and/or lower damping to let the PLL settle. Switch the PLL to final bandwidth and damping required by the application.