ILR 10 year long residence - exceed 540 days

[In_your_beat]

Hi everyone, I know this might have been asked before but I am hoping to gather some opinion here. Thanks in advanced for all your commments and replies!

I arrived in the UK under tier 4 from Aug 2007 to Oct 2015. Few days before my visa ran out, I went back to my home country to be with my mum who was terminally ill for 170 days. I later on returned to the UK with a spouse visa in Apr 2016. I have three questions -

1) I left before my tier 4 expired and return with a new spouse visa (170 days gap), does this count as a break of continuous stay?

2) in total I was outside of UK for 710 days due to my mum’s illness and funeral, what are the chances that the home office would exercise discretion on this?

3) If I am eligible to apply for ILR, when can I submit my application ? i.e. do I need to consider the 170 day gap ?

Thanks again for taking your time to read this! I would very much appreciate any help

[zimba]

1) I left before my tier 4 expired and return with a new spouse visa (170 days gap), does this count as a break of continuous stay?

Not on its own, as your returned within 6 months

2) in total I was outside of UK for 710 days due to my mum’s illness and funeral, what are the chances that the home office would exercise discretion on this?

very unlikely that will be disregarded

3) If I am eligible to apply for ILR, when can I submit my application ? i.e. do I need to consider the 170 day gap ?

You are not eligible as your continuous period of stay is broken

[In_your_beat]

1) I left before my tier 4 expired and return with a new spouse visa (170 days gap), does this count as a break of continuous stay?

Not on its own, as your returned within 6 months

2) in total I was outside of UK for 710 days due to my mum’s illness and funeral, what are the chances that the home office would exercise discretion on this?

very unlikely that will be disregarded

3) If I am eligible to apply for ILR, when can I submit my application ? i.e. do I need to consider the 170 day gap ?

You are not eligible as your continuous period of stay is broken

Thanks for the reply Zimba88 - I thought so too....guess I'll just have to wait for another 3 years.....