ILR 5 Year Route - Break in continuous residence but have compelling circumstances, is it still worth applying?

Hi, I have been on a UK 3-year Skilled Worker Visa starting October 2021, and was working towards the 5 year ILR route.

My visa was set to expire on August 27 2024, however, due to my company applying for a certificate of sponsorship too late, I had to fly back to my home country (Japan) before my visa expired (flew back on the 25th of August 2024) and apply for a visa from outside of the UK.

I finally received my certificate of sponsorship on September 11 2024, and applied for a new visa immediately, however I understand that this has technically broken the continuous residence due to my application for my new visa being after the 'within 14 days' rule, since the application date would have been 15 days after my previous visa expired. Please see below in the caseworker guidance:

Applications from outside the UK In limited circumstances where a person had permission before leaving the UK and made a successful application from outside of the UK, it will not break the period of continuous residence.

Applications for permission that were made outside the UK on or after 26 November 2016 will not break the period continuous residence if:



the applicant had permission when they left the UK and made a successful application for entry clearance before that permission expired

the applicant had permission when they left the UK and made a successful application for entry clearance within 14 days of that permission expiring except for applicants applying under Appendix Long Residence

under Appendix Long Residence, where the applicant had permission when they left the UK, and returned to the UK with valid permission in the same or another route, provided the applicant was not absent for more than 184 days

After I applied for my new visa it was granted within a week and flew back immediately to the UK as soon as it was available, even paying priority for it. I am now under a new 3 year visa, with the same company, but am devasted that I may have broken my chances for a 5 year ILR starting from October 2021.

I was hoping I could make a case, since it was only 1 day outside of the '14 days' rule, and I also have email evidence asking for my company to start applying for a certificate of sponsorship at the earliest possible time (which is 3 months before my visa expired in, so June), with many follow-up emails pushing them to apply for the certificate so I can apply for my visa as soon as possible to avoid overstaying, expiry, or what happened in this case. I even have email evidence from HR stating that 'the CoS should be ready to go' in July, and 'we have started the visa renewal process for you' in August, but it turns out that they were lying and have only applied for the CoS one week before my visa expired, hence the delay in me being able to apply for a visa and this situation.

Any guidance, advice, or even related experiences would be extremely helpful, thank you so much

I'd say the UKVI can exercise discretion as you applied only one day late, which was out of your control and due to your sponsor. Add a cover letter when applying for ILR and ask for discretion

Thanks so much!

I was also thinking of providing supplementary documentation, such as :

Email correspondence with HR showing you pushed for the CoS on time.

Email correspondence with the home office during the CoS application and their response which included acknowledgement of the delay in CoS issue -they were taking more than average time (which is 3 days) for issue due to a considerable backlog on their end.

Evidence of my prompt visa application after receiving the CoS.

Documentation of my return to the UK as soon as possible after the visa was granted (including payment for priority).

So hopefully with some extra documentation they will exercise discretion.