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UK Immigration

UK Indefinite Leave to Remain Calculator

Track your qualifying period for UK Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) under the 5-year, 3-year (spouse of British citizen), or 10-year long-residence route. The calculator flags any 12-month rolling window with absences exceeding 180 days and totals your days outside the UK.

ILR eligibility inputs

You can apply up to 28 days before the qualifying period ends.

Absences over 6 months (180 days) at a stretch can reset continuous residence.

Eligibility status
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Enter your details and click check.

Estimate only. The Home Office caseworker makes the final decision. Continuous residence can also be broken by a prison sentence, a deportation order, or certain immigration breaches.

UK ILR continuous-residence rules explained

Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) — also called settlement — is the immigration status that lets you live, work, and study in the UK without time limits. To qualify, you must complete a continuous residence period on an eligible visa route, and you must not have broken that continuity through excessive absences or immigration breaches.

Qualifying periods by route

  • 5-year route — Skilled Worker, Scale-up, Global Talent, Innovator Founder, most family routes. Total absences cannot exceed 180 days in any rolling 12-month window within the 5 years.
  • 3-year route — Spouse, civil partner, or unmarried partner of a British citizen or person with settled status. The 180-day rule does not apply, but absences should still be reasonable.
  • 10-year long residence — Combines time on any combination of lawful UK visas. Total absences cannot exceed 540 days, and no single absence may exceed 6 months.
  • 2-year route — Tier 1 (Investor) entrants who entered on or after 6 November 2014 and invested £10 million.

The 180-day rolling rule

For the 5-year and 10-year routes, the Home Office examines any 12-month period within your qualifying residence. If you spent more than 180 days outside the UK during any such window, your continuous residence is broken — and the clock typically restarts.

"Rolling" means the window is not aligned to calendar years or visa anniversaries. The caseworker can pick any start date that produces the worst-case absence count. Planning ahead requires tracking absences month by month, not just annually.

Exceptions to the absence limits

Certain absences can be disregarded when computing the 180-day limit:

  • Compelling or compassionate reasons — serious illness of the applicant or a close family member, death of a close family member, or other significant compassionate circumstances.
  • Pandemic-related disruption — the Home Office published guidance allowing travel disruption caused by COVID-19 to be treated as a permitted exception, particularly during 2020–2022.
  • Work-related travel — for Skilled Worker applicants, business trips for the sponsor do not count toward the 180-day total, provided the applicant remained employed by the UK sponsor.

For the complete picture — including Life in the UK test requirements, English language standards, and the application form (Form SET(M), SET(O), or SET(LR)) — see our UK ILR eligibility guide.

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Common Questions

Frequently asked questions

Q: What is the 180-day rule for UK ILR?

The 180-day rule limits how many days an ILR applicant can be outside the UK during the qualifying period — typically 5 years for most work and family routes, or 3 years for spouses of British citizens. Under the Home Office's continuous residence guidance, applicants should not be absent for more than 180 days in any 12-month rolling period, with a total absence cap of 540 days across the full qualifying period. Single absences of more than 180 days generally break continuous residence, though exceptions exist for serious illness, conflict, or work-related travel. The rule is set out in the Immigration Rules at paragraph 245CD (for Skilled Worker applicants) and related appendices. Days of arrival and departure typically count as days of presence in the UK, not absence.

Q: What happens if I break continuous residence?

Breaking continuous residence resets the qualifying clock — you generally must start a new qualifying period from the date you re-established residence in the UK. A single absence exceeding 180 days (outside allowed exceptions), or repeated absences that push you over the 540-day aggregate cap, can be treated as a break. The Home Office may exercise discretion for compelling or compassionate reasons (e.g., serious illness, family emergency, or inability to return due to travel restrictions), but you should document these thoroughly with medical records or employer letters. Some visa routes, like Global Talent, have more flexible absence rules. If your break was due to COVID-19 related travel disruption, the Home Office issued specific guidance in 2020-2022 allowing some flexibility.

Q: What documents prove continuous residence?

The strongest evidence is a complete set of passport stamps, entry/exit records, and boarding passes covering the entire qualifying period. For employees, P60s (annual tax statements), payslips, and employer letters confirming continuous UK employment are powerful corroboration. Self-employed applicants should provide HMRC Self Assessment tax returns, bank statements showing regular UK transactions, and utility bills or council tax letters in their name at a UK address. The Home Office may also accept letters from GP surgeries, schools, or universities confirming UK presence. Avoid relying on a single document type — a portfolio of overlapping evidence covering each year of residence is most convincing.

Q: When can I apply for ILR (the 28-day window)?

You can apply for ILR up to 28 days before the end of your qualifying period — for example, if you entered the UK on a Skilled Worker visa on 1 June 2020, you could apply as early as 4 May 2025, rather than waiting until 1 June. Applying within this 28-day window does not shorten the qualifying period; it simply allows the Home Office to process your application in time for your visa expiry. If you apply too early (more than 28 days before), the application will be refused and you will lose the £2,885 application fee under the 2025 fee schedule. The 28-day window is set out in the Immigration Rules and applies to most work, family, and long-residence routes.

Q: What is the Life in the UK test pass mark?

The Life in the UK test consists of 24 multiple-choice questions based on the official handbook "Life in the United Kingdom: A Guide for New Residents" (3rd edition). You must score at least 75% — meaning at least 18 of 24 questions correct — to pass. The test costs £50 per attempt (as of 2025) and can be taken at one of approximately 30 approved test centres across the UK. You have 45 minutes to complete the test, and most candidates pass on the first or second attempt with adequate preparation using official Home Office materials. If you fail, you must wait 7 days before rebooking, but there is no limit on the number of attempts.

Q: How much does the ILR application cost in 2025?

The ILR (settlement) application fee in 2025 is £2,885 per adult applicant, following the April 2024 fee increase that saw the previous £2,404 rate replaced. The fee includes the £19.20 biometric enrolment charge for fingerprinting and photograph capture. Most settlement applicants do not pay the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) because ILR itself grants free NHS access. You may also need to pay for English language testing (£150-£200) if you have not already met the B1 requirement through a degree taught in English. Priority service (£500) and super-priority service (£1,000) are available for faster decisions, typically within 5 working days or 24 hours respectively.