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I have a question related to the continuous stay in the 10-year ILR route. I left the UK on 8th Dec 2012 my visa expired on 10 Dec 2012. I applied for my new visa in Feb 2013 which I got the validity starting from 19th Feb and I enter back in UK on 24th Feb 2013. Is this gap of approx 70+ days when I was not holding any Visa, will be considered in continuous stay for 10 years route or not?

Remember you asked this in 2019 ??
indefinite-leave-to-remain/gaps-in-10-y ... 90749.html

Thanks for your reply zimba. Yes I remember, and as per your response only I understood that my 1st year in the UK from 2012 will be considered, including that period my 10 years suppose to be completed this year, in Dec 2021. With this understanding, I have shared all my details and asked the solicitor to proceed with the preparation of my ILR application in 10 years route. He shared the snippet from an online portal and told me that you are not meeting the eligibility criteria mentioned in bullet point 3. Furthermore, he mentioned that 'As you have not applied for visa within 28 days after the expiry of your previous visa so your continuity is broken',

I will be very thankful if you can suggest if I can go ahead and apply my ILR this year in December or not. Below is the snippet which he shared after which I'm completely confused. Please help me.

Long Residence ILR, Absences And Time Spent Outside the UK
In order to meet the requirements for an application for ILR on the basis of 10 years continuous and lawful long residence, you must have:

• Not been absent from the UK for 6 months or less at any one time;

• Had existing leave to enter or remain when you left and returned – this can include leave gained at port when returning to the UK as a non-visa national;

• Departed the UK before 24 November 2016, but after the expiry of your leave to remain, and applied for fresh entry clearance within 28 days of that previous leave expiring, and returned to the UK within 6 months.

If you had existing leave to enter or remain when you left and returned to the UK, the existing leave does not have to have been in the same category on departure and return.

Your issue is something I have dealt with numerous times on this forum: Why are you paying someone to represent you that you cannot fully trust ?? Do you have extra money to waste ?? I never got any rational answer from a single person on this forum when I asked them this question. You do not need an expensive solicitor to fill in a straightforward application for you

Here is the snippet from the official long residence guide from UKVI:

Events that break continuous residence
Continuous residence is considered to be broken if the applicant has:
• been absent from the UK for a period of more than 6 months at any one time
• spent a total of 18 months outside the UK throughout the whole 10 year period
• left the UK before 24 November 2016 with no valid leave to remain on their departure from the UK, and failed to apply for entry clearance within 28 days of their previous leave expiring (even if they returned to the UK within 6 months)

As you can see the 28 days requirement ONLY applies if you had no valid leave/visa when you left the UK. This is why in 2019 I asked you if you had a valid visa when you left the UK. If you had a visa, you can return within 6 months with any other visa and your continuous residence remains intact.

Funnily enough, the snippet your solicitor shared with you says the same thing but it seems they do NOT even understand it

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... gov-uk.pdf

Thanks a lot zimba. I really don't have words to thank for the work which you are doing, guiding the people in the right direction. Otherwise I would have kept waiting for 1 more year thinking that I'm still not eligible if I listened to him.

I really agree with what you said. He was reading and sharing the same information but his interpretation was not correct. When I was discussing and telling him, look like it talks about the people who overstayers as the statements says "... but after the expiry of your leave to remain" He was telling me that everyone leave the country when do have leave to remain. Its is same for you also.. Although I left the country 2 days before the expiry of my visa. I was not convivence with him so thought of getting in touch with you again

Many Thanks

Just go and apply as you are eligible and please fire him