Absences, Indefinite Leave to Remain and Citizenship

Dear All,

1) According to an immigration consultant who contacted a Senior Caseworker in the Home Office, the allowable absences over a 5-year period for Indefinite Leave to Remain are 225 days or 45 days "on average" per year. That is exactly 6 months (180 days) + 45 days.

She also mentioned that the Home Office will release new guidance to reflect this.

2) The consultant mentioned that the day of departure and the day of arrival do not count as absence from the UK. So, for example, a one week holiday outside the UK counts as 5 days absence, as opposed to 7 day. And only actual absences (i.e. excluding days of departure or arrival) need to specified in the ILR application form (SET (O) etc.).

3) According to the Guardian newspaper, the new changes for British Citizenship iproposed n the Green Paper Changes "will apply to new arrivals after the new laws are passed, and not to foreigners already living in the UK, so reforms are only likely to affect migrants arriving from 2010." (http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008 ... mmigration). In fact, the Green Paper itself refers to "newcomers" which seems to mean these changes will not apply to existing immigrants but only to those who come to the UK after the law is implemented.

Could anyone confirm if (1), (2) and (3) above are correct?

Thank you so much,
Rajesh

that sounds right

Thanks alot for your reply.

Could you please elaborate further? Have you heard any news or information about (a), (b) and (c)?

Best,
Rajesh

rajeshbhanu wrote:Thanks alot for your reply.

Could you please elaborate further? Have you heard any news or information about (a), (b) and (c)?

Best,
Rajesh

No there is nothing more to elaborate on

The first two points are already widely known.

Victoria

[quote="rajeshbhanu"]Dear All,

1) According to an immigration consultant who contacted a Senior Caseworker in the Home Office, the allowable absences over a 5-year period for Indefinite Leave to Remain are 225 days or 45 days "on average" per year. That is exactly 6 months (180 days) + 45 days.

She also mentioned that the Home Office will release new guidance to reflect this.



Lot of members in this forum emphasize the absence should not exceed 6 months (180 days) rather than 225 days! How did you know the allowable absence is 225 days?

It is more point 3 that worries me. As it stands if I continue my divorce this legislatin will come into effect 24 days (assuming april 1) before I can apply - and there is no 'bucket' I'd fit into. I am going to try to putmy divorce on hold and apply in two months - I am v worried and do not trust that those like me (who have never been on benes but who wont fit the apparent ideal image of a British Citizen - a married person or someone with very high skills) wont get the boot

VictoriaS wrote:The first two points are already widely known.

Victoria

Hi, Victoria, do you mean that 225 days allowable absence is widely know? In this forum, it seems everybody tries to emphasize absence not exceeding 6 months according to Annex F