10 years ILR route with more than 540 days away

Hi folks,

Long story short, I'm eligible to apply for SET (LR) for almost 2 years by now, but due to the different circumstances mostly related to the fact that I needed to be able to travel in that time, I have not applied knowing that Home Office can hold documents for up to six month while reviewing my application.

I've lived in the UK for almost 12 years, never being away for more than 100 days at a time, totally I've reached around 570 days away. However if we count only last 10 yeas I was away for 450 days. On the official gov page for SET (LR) says only:

Your 10-year qualifying period starts from either:

• when you arrived in the UK with a visa
  when you were given permission to stay in the UK

Can I still apply as long as long I don't exceed allowance in the LAST 10 years and not from the date of a given permission?

Official page does not say clearly you can count 540 days of absence for 10 years backwards from the date of application. I know it kind of makes common sense that I should be able to apply but unfortunately Home Office does not always follow common sense and I wanted to check with the forum. If you can also provide a link to a source where it says something like 'count the total absence for the LAST 10 years' that would bring me strong sense of comfort

I would appreciate all answers!

Alex88 wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 16, 2021 7:40 pm

Can I still apply as long as long I don't exceed allowance in the LAST 10 years and not from the date of a given permission?

IMHO you can rely on your 10 year continuous period of residence being the last 10 years of your 12 years stay in the UK (see below).

I also think that what you quoted from the website https://www.gov.uk/long-residence/eligibility
is imprecise drafting. Instead of "Your 10-year qualifying period starts from either...." it should have said said "can start from either..."

The law is the Immigration Rules which is interpreted and expanded by the Caseworker Guidances published by the HO.

Immigration Rule 276A

For the purposes of paragraphs 276B to 276D and 276ADE(1).
(a) “continuous residence” means residence in the United Kingdom for an unbroken period, and for these purposes a period shall not be considered to have been broken where an applicant is absent from the United Kingdom for a period of 6 months or less at any one time, ….but shall be considered to have been broken if the applicant:
(v) has spent a total of more than 18 months absent from the United Kingdom during the period in question,

Note that the rule refers to "an unbroken period" rather than a specific period.

From the Caseworker Guidance https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... gov-uk.pdf

Once an applicant has built up a period of 10 years’ continuous lawful residence, there is no limit on the length of time afterwards when they can apply. This means they could leave the UK, re-enter on any lawful basis, and apply for settlement from within the UK based on a 10 year period of continuous lawful residence they built up in the past.

Note that here, too, there is no reference to a specific period

The qualifying period for ILR is can be calculated from the date of application and counting backwards

Thank you so much manci and Zimba for your answers that really helps!

Zimba wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 17, 2021 11:43 pm

The qualifying period for ILR is calculated from the date of application and counting backwards

@Zimba
It seems to me that the qualifying period can be any 10 year period in the near or more distant past during which the requirements have been met and the applicant is free to choose the period s/he wants to rely on.

If that is the case do you agree that the passage the OP quoted from the website https://www.gov.uk/long-residence/eligibility is poorly drafted and can be misleading?

Yes I agree that it is a bit misleading