ILR SET(O) PBS Dependant Application - 180 day rule not met because of COVID

Dear Team
my wife is applying for ILR SET(O) via PBS dependant route, she was qualified to apply on 20th May 2020(29 days before the eligibility for ILR) but unfortunately we travelled to India in March for holiday( planned to come back in April) and then subsequently stuck there because of lockdown and came back to UK on Oct 12 2020
Because of this delay here 180 days rule (since Jan 2018) for the rolling period has not met and she has more than 180 days absence. Her current leave to remain is valid until July 2021 and she is now giving her Life in UK test and we are planning to apply in December.

I have few queries

1. Is there any consideration provided for 180 days leave because of COVID travel disruption , is there anything from our end should we submit to justify the travel back in Oct. Though the flights started in August, unfortunately I was unwell and we had to stay back for some more time before I can travel back.
2. Wrt applying for ILR, can I apply immediately as she had completed 5 years of residence since 20th May 2020 or I have to wait for few months to complete the remaining 3 months of stay in UK (Since our holiday from March- May ) for 5 years.
3. Clearly I have to go via the exception route for the absences and do I need to consider anything else when submitting my wife application.

Thank you so much for your help.

Kind Regards
Siva

There is no such exception so far in immigration rules. If she broke the 180 days absence limit on rolling basis, her ILR clock will reset from the date she broke it.

Thanks for your kind reply, however in my wife case, is there any other alternative options for us as her current PBS Dependant visa expires in 2021 May and take a chance and apply . I also saw in some other forum that home office do consider Travel restrictions because of Covid , it will be good if there are anyone in this forum has faced similar situation and they have been given some flexibility because of Covid travel disruption.

Hi
I have just read an article from gov-uk on the special concession for 180 day rule limit for Continuous residence.

This is from the Gov.uk official website so will be useful for others who are in similar situation.
While this is certainly at home office discretion, I will be keen to know if any of you recently applied based on this rule and have successful application result.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... tober-2020

Thanks

Useful to state what page is relevant or do you expect members to read through a 514 page document to find what you are referring to?

Hi
Sure, Page 505 details on the Absences from the UK. Hope it helps
Thanks

CR 2.3. When calculating the 180 days in CR 2.1. or CR 2.2. any period spent outside the UK will not count towards the 180-day limit if the absence was for any of the following reasons:
(a) the applicant was assisting with a national or international humanitarian or environmental crisis overseas, providing if on a sponsored route their sponsor agreed to the absence for that purpose; or
(b) travel disruption due to natural disaster, military conflict or pandemic; or
(c) compelling and compassionate personal circumstances, such as the life-threatening
illness of the applicant, or life-threatening illness or death of a close family member;
or

Thanks for sharing. You can quote the above reference and hope HO will apply discretion. Note, many people were able to return to UK since June. If you have valid reasons and can provide strong evidence why you could not return, you could try. If HO refuses ILR, then obviously you will loose the fees and will have to apply for an extension instead.

UKVI may or may not accept all claims. Many migrants travelled after COVID19 was declared a global pandemic, many did not return when they could get back in the summer or when there were no restrictions, etc. I believe the claims must be reasonable. Simply saying COVID prevented me from travelling for 8 months may not be acceptable. Just something to ponder as that is how UKVI has historically approached the whole 'compelling circumstances' argument

Would be interested to know if ILR was granted in this case.

Dear Moderators
Thank you for all your support , I am pleased to confirm that my wife has been granted ILR. I can see that there may be many people in a similar situation who were unable to travel, I think writing a cover letter explaining the reason , providing factual evidences on the compelling reasons may help , every case is unique so detailing the reasons does help. Also there is a Covid Visa Concession scheme announced that also clarifies on certain 180 day rule exception that can be possibly applied as a discretion , provided certain conditions are met. Please refer to this link below that may help in understanding the 180 day rule absences for applicants and dependants. Please also note that Covid visa Concession scheme currently applies for people who have travelled before 17th March 2020 so please consider this when you review the below document.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration ... -residence

I wish all the other applicants who are in the similar situation the very best . If you have any other queries please feel free to send a private message and happy to assist .

Thanks a ton again for all the moderators who are the pillars of this forum .

My wife was in the same situation. We applied for her ILR recently, wrote a detailed cover letter to explain the circumstances and included proofs.

We quoted the following from the Appendix Continuous Residence Guidance (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration ... -residence)

CR 2.3. When calculating the 180 days in CR 2.1. or CR 2.2. any period spent outside the UK will not count towards the 180-day limit if the absence was for any of the following reasons:

(b) travel disruption due to natural disaster, military conflict or pandemic;

We submitted the application online on 18 Jan 2021, received approval email on 8 Feb and BRP on 12 Feb.

All the best to others.