ILR (HSMP - JR) granted with absences

I know how many people there are who worry about this on here, so thought I would share my experience.

Every time I deal with the Home Office I expect the worst, but to be fair to them they have always been pretty efficient.

Background:

October 2003 - July 2005, working holiday visa (note this time does not count for ILR purposes)

July 2005 - July 2006, one year HSMP visa

July 2006 - July 2010, four year HSMP extension.

I applied for ILR by post in early April 2010 and received passport and visa back today (1 May 2010). I know I could have applied in July 2009 but with my absences I wanted to do some more time and not push my luck.

None of my absences were work related.

Since 2005 I have been out of the UK for a total of 265 days. Removing travel days, the number was around 235. Removing weekend/Bank Holiday trips it was around 220.

My longest absence was 106 days, of which just over 90 was unpaid leave.

I guess I have been lucky, but I did work for the same employer (a well known university) for my whole time in the UK and I submitted full payslips for 52 of the last 55 months plus an employer letter confirming my service.

Good luck.

Thank you for sharing your detailed post.

1.getting back a bit late ,but was your 106 days, a continuous absence out of the UK
2.Did you actually document the period of absence as requested
3.did you seek any discretionary review regarding the circumstances of 106 days absence

You may recollect my post from

angylemon
Newbie

1.getting back a bit late ,but was your 106 days, a continuous absence out of the UK
2.Did you actually document the period of absence as requested
3.did you seek any discretionary review regarding the circumstances of 106 days absence

You may recollect my post from

angylemon
Newbie

In answer to these questions:
1. Yes, continuous absence from mid Oct 2008 to end Jan 2009
2. In the space for "reason for absence" I wrote that I had been backpacking and also visiting family members in my home country
3. No

Thanks for comingback

Thanks for posting your experience, it seems sometimes you can just get lucky! I myself canceled a 3 month unpaid backpacking trip because I was worried about absences. I've stopped traveling to Europe on weekends and similar too.

In my opinion they should bring the ILR absences in line with the absences requirement for citizenship - I can't think of a good reason to have two totally difference sets of rules...

Hi,

Firstly i would like to thanks you for letting us know your ILR experiance, As i am almost on the same boat with 260 days of absence but not exceeding 90 days.

So my qn is if i apply for ILR and if they reject it, Do they gonna give a option of tier 1 extension or Go Bak to Home.

Do u suggest to apply for tier 1 extension before appling for ILR.

Your comments will be appreciated.

BR
S02

That's a tough question to answer. At one stage I was preparing for the possibility of having to apply for a Tier 1 visa if my ILR was unsuccessful. I was worried that I would be working without leave if the ILR rejection came through after the existing HSMP expired.

I think I read on the Tier 1 form that you might be able to apply for an extension even if you don't have your passport available (i.e. it is already with the Home Office).

Will you be applying for ILR with some time up your sleeve before your existing leave expires?

One thing to consider is that apparently in-person applcations will not be considered where excessive absences are an issue. I have read on here that if you apply in person and have more than 180 days absence your application is converted to a postal one and you are sent away to wait for a letter.

Good luck