Absenses; 5 years or ALL of them?

Current form says this;

6.1 When did you (the main applicant) first enter the UK? This refers to the date of your first
entry into the UK at the beginning of the period of stay on which this application is based.
6.2 Since then have you had any absences from the UK? If yes, give the dates you left and
returned to the UK and the reason for the absence in the spaces below.

I first arrived 28/12/2008 under Gerenal Tier 1
Have extended twice.
Will now be applying for IRL end of August after 7.5 odd years.
For all other purposes I was under the impression that the "period of stay on which this application is based" was the 5 years ending on the IRL application date.

I'm compling a list of all my holidays out of the UK over the last 5 years but find the above instructions from the form a bit ambiguous. Do I need to include my holidays over the entire 7.5 years I've been in the UK or just the past 5 years?

Also I take it that evidence of personal holidays isn't required?

Just past 5 years from the date of application is sufficient, however there may be a question on why you didn't apply for ILR as soon as you completed 5 years. You probably have to justify this somehow, not sure how.

According to the guidance,
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... ds-v13.pdf

Calculating the specified continuous period
Applicants can submit a settlement application up to 28 days before they would reach the
end of the specified period. However, the specified continuous period is always counted
backwards from the date the ILR application is submitted. For example, if an applicant would
have reached the end of a specified 5 years with leave in a qualifying route on 30 November
2015 and they apply on 11 November 2015, the consecutive periods would be as follows:
Year 1 11 November 2015 to 12 November 2014
Year 2 11 November 2014 to 12 November 2013
Year 3 11 November 2013 to 12 November 2012
Year 4 11 November 2012 to 12 November 2011
Year 5 11 November 2011 to 12 November 2010

arunsk wrote:Just past 5 years from the date of application is sufficient, however there may be a question on why you didn't apply for ILR as soon as you completed 5 years. You probably have to justify this somehow, not sure how.

Thanks, and thanks for the tip about why I didn't apply asap. Basically I didn't come to the UK as soon as I got my original tier 1 visa so after that and it's first extension expired I wasn't sure if I'd done the required 5 years. I suspect from reading now that I might have been fine but it was just safer and easier at the time to extend tier 1 again.

Ah ok, it didn't occur to me that you entered late.
Mine is also a similar case, had visa from 2009 but entered late and went for multiple extensions.
Absences are mainly from the time you entered UK (5 years backwards from the date of application). I applied for ILR just recently in April and my visa was valid till 2018, so if you show absences for the past 5 years then you are fine.

arunsk wrote: there may be a question on why you didn't apply for ILR as soon as you completed 5 years. You probably have to justify this somehow, not sure how.

I don't think there's any requirement to justify why you didn't apply as soon as you completed your 5 years. Its entirely up to you when you apply if you have valid leave to remain. ILR application is quite expensive and not having enough savings to make an application is just one of the reasons why people may not apply straightaway.

I'm still confused as to what to write down for question 6.1.

Under 6.2 I've listed out all my holidays out of the UK for the past 5 years (no evidence supplied as I don't have such evidence, they're just holidays?).

But then for 6.1 do I write down the date I first actually entered the UK (7.5 years ago) or just the date 5 years before application date (31/8/16, so I guess 1/9/11) even though I was probably in the UK just doing a normal days work on that date and I wasn't "entering the UK" but it is the "the beginning of the period of stay on which this application is based",