Information Required for ILR Employment Support Letter

Hi Team,

I’m reaching out for clarification regarding the information needed to prepare my Employment Support Letter for my ILR application.

I understand that my company has outsourced to XXXXX Legal to provide Employment Support Letter, and they have requested details of my absences from the UK over the past five years. Can someone please you please confirm

1. What specific information will be included in the Employment Support Letter, will these leaves or absence details be mentioned in the Employment Support Letter ?

2.What type of absence information is required from me
Should I provide only the dates of annual leave taken
or
Do they require full travel details, including all entry and exit dates from the UK, even when I was abroad but still working?

I want to highlight that on a few occasions I was outside the UK for several weeks, during which part of the time was annual leave and part was remote work. The remote working arrangement during those periods was not an officially designated or formally recorded remote-work arrangement, so I want to ensure what information should I provide for the Employment Support Letter fir ILR process ?

Please let me know how I should present this information so that the Employment Support Letter can be prepared accurately and smoothly as per the norm. I'm bit worried how it will impact internally within the company as well.

Thank you for your guidance and support in advance.

Your employer is NOT expected to know when you left the country or what you did or when. This is a misconception and is NOT required under the rules at all. The only need to say that any absence from WORK was approved by them. How do they know you left the country or not when you were away from work ?? They are NOT expected to know. Also the rules do not expect them to know or say anything about this.

Read--> All you need to know about the sponsor letter for Skilled Worker route

Thanks, Zimba, for your helpful response.

When I asked my company for the employment letter, they asked me to complete a form regarding my absences from the UK. The Excel sheet includes columns for “Date of UK Departure” and “Date of UK Return.”

I’m a bit unsure about what to enter in these fields. Should I provide the dates when I officially applied for leave, or should I list the actual dates I exited and re-entered the UK? I’m concerned because on a few occasions I worked from my home country without official leave approval, so the dates would not match my recorded leave in the system.

Could you please advise which dates I should enter in the form? Also, will these dates appear in the employment support letter for my ILR application?

Thanks in advance.

For ILR, it is not required to include any Excel sheet detailing all the absences from the UK.

The employment letter only needs to say that all your absences from work were approved by the employer as advised above. The link cited by zimba clearly says so. No need to specify every single date in the letter!

You will manually input all the absences in the ILR application form.

Thank you for the clarification.

However, my company is still asking me to complete the Excel sheet they provided, which includes the fields for “Date of UK Departure” and “Date of UK Return.” I want to make sure I fill this in correctly. Should I enter the actual dates I physically left and re-entered the UK, or should I enter the dates of the leave recorded in our internal system?

Some of my travel dates don’t match my approved leave records because I worked from my home country on a few occasions, so I want to ensure I provide the correct information.

Could you please advise which dates are appropriate to include in the Excel sheet?

It seems you're mixing two different things here.

For ILR, the only requirement is - once again - that the letter says all the absences from work were approved by your employer. If you were inside or outside the UK during your time off work is irrelevant.

On the other hand, if you travelled outside the UK and worked from abroad without your employer's authorisation or knowledge is more a contractual affair. We on this forum can advise very little on what you have to respond if your employer asks you that.

preetun20 wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 10, 2025 12:41 pm

Thank you for the clarification.

However, my company is still asking me to complete the Excel sheet they provided, which includes the fields for “Date of UK Departure” and “Date of UK Return.” I want to make sure I fill this in correctly. Should I enter the actual dates I physically left and re-entered the UK, or should I enter the dates of the leave recorded in our internal system?

Some of my travel dates don’t match my approved leave records because I worked from my home country on a few occasions, so I want to ensure I provide the correct information.

Could you please advise which dates are appropriate to include in the Excel sheet?

Your employer has the right to ask you to detail of any work you have done while away from the UK but this has nothing to do with the employer letter or satisfying the requirements under the immigration rules. The rules do not care about what you have done or any work arrangements you had with your employer. Your employer asking for such details has nothing to do with satisfying the rules. Do not mix things up