Earliest ILR eligibility with more than 180 days absence

Dear All,

I need your thoughts regarding my approaching ILR application with more than 180 days absence at the beginning of my qualifying period.

I was granted ECAA (Turkish Businessperson Visa) on 06 July 2020 and would normally be eligible to apply for my ILR on/after 08 June 2025, if there wasn’t more than 180 days of absence between August 2020 and April 2021. As this absence is at the beginning of my qualifying period, shifting the date to apply will solve my problem as the caseworker will not be able to count more than 180 days absence if shifted enough and -unlike naturalisation- ILR applications don’t require you to be physically in the UK at the beginning of your qualifying period. Some important dates are as follows for your information:

06/07/2020 – Visa granted
11/08/2020 – First entry to the UK
15/08/2020 – Left the UK
02/04/2021 – Next entry to the UK (229 days of absence)
28/12/2022 – Left the UK for a holiday and all following absences are trouble-free.

According to the Immigration Rules Appendix Continuous Residence (CR 6.1), the caseworker should calculate my 5-year lawful residence counting back from (a) the date of application or (b) any date up to 28 days after the date of application or (c) the date of decision, whichever is the most beneficial.

In this case, I figured out that counting back from 04 October 2025 will solve my problem as he will only count 179 days of absence in my first year and CR 6.1(b) even allows me to apply for my ILR on 06 September 2025 as it is 28 days earlier than my 180-days-threshold date of 04 October 2025.

Although Zimba stated in many posts that the date of application is not relevant when determining the qualifying period, I would like to ask whether I can submit my application even earlier than 06 September 2025 and book biometrics after that date, since my situation is not related to reaching the 5-year-period but related to eliminate my 180 days absence.

Thanks in advance for any support and comments.

Yes you can. That has been my position on all of those posts

zimba wrote: ↑

Fri May 23, 2025 2:59 am

Yes you can. That has been my position on all of those posts

Thanks Zimba. The only thing/scenario I can't be sure of is -let's say- I applied at some point in August and booked my biometric appointment on the 7th of September. What happens if the caseworker comes to a decision on -let's say- the 17th of September, as none of the articles of CR 6.1 would be fulfilled in this case? Can this situation give him a reason to reject the application or will he wait to release the decision until the 4th of October, so that I can have a 5-year period without more than 180 days absence on the date of decision?

You will be eligible within 28 days of completing your 5 years but you are applying way past that point, making the 28-day thing kind of irrelevant. So you should ignore the whole 28-day concession and book the appointment on the date that you do not fail the absence limit, considering when counting backwards for 5 years from that point.