Exceeding 450 days

[hikmethasanov]

Good day for everyone,

I worked and lived in UK in 2019-2022 before leaving to work outside due to my job. I am currently planning to return back to the UK at the end of this year (December 2024). My upcoming role will be quite travel intensive and I might be travelling up to 25-35% of my time in year to be outside the UK. With my vacations, to visit family members outside UK, there is very likelyhood that I will exceed 450 days requirement for the citizenship. Is there any specific guideline confirming that travels done due to the work will be disregarded (as I will be working for an international company having business in other countries). Or I have to limit my personal travels as well? With my personal travels I won't be exceeding 450 days for sure. But this will be caused by the business travels.

Let's say I am going to be out of country 500 days due to the work and 150 days due to personal reasons. So, will the disregard 500 days absences which were necessary for theb business? And if yes, what type of evidences I should keep for each travel?

I know this topic was discussed under many threads, but my condition is not after the fact but proactive planning.

Any advise how I should plan?

Thanks all in advance for sharing your opinions and experiences.
Hikmet

[contorted_svy]

How many absences do you have in the last year? They have to be in the region of 90-100 days. You said you have been out of the country for the last two years, what is your total of absences for this 5 year period? When do you intend to apply?

See this thread viewtopic.php?t=347813 for an example of someone who managed to get approved while exceeding the 90 days absence limit making the case that the trips were unavoidable and due ti the nature of the work (and the 3 year absences were just over the allowed 270 days for 3 years for a spouse fo a British citizen). You fall in the reverse situation.

The guidance on this is vague, you don't have to keep any specific evidence for your trips but it is not obvious how to build a case.

You will need to show strong ties to the UK to help your application, eg mortgage statement, a spouse living here.

It may be more likely that your application will succeed if you apply in 2026, so you will have two extra years of residence in teh UK before your qualifying period starts.

With all that being said, there is no guarantee the application will succeed - if you read the other thread you will understand there are not many cases of extra absences being waived because of someone's job. If possible, limiting personal trips for a while seems sensible.

[hikmethasanov]

Thank you for reply,

I will start my clock again end of this year as I gave 2 years break. So, I am hoping to apply at the end of 2030. I currently have a house on a mortgage to which we are planning to return and live there, while I am trying to close my mortgage ASAP. I believe having a house in UK will be a strong tie as well, while my children going to school there.

The intention of my previous question was to understand how to keep record of my business travels to ensure that in the case of exceeding 450 day during first 5 year, I can relate them to work related travels not personal travels.

Regards,
Hikmet

[contorted_svy]

The mortgage in itself won't be a strong argument if you don't have resided in the UK for at least 2 yers without big absences in the last year of the qualifying period. Keep a spreadsheet of your business trips but as I said, this is not guaranteed to work as successful case studies are few.