Retain Settled Status After Moving Abroad

[learner1947]

Hi all,

My wife has a settled status, we moved to the EU in Feb 2024, we are planning on visiting the UK for a few days this summer, would the visit reset the 5 years settled status lapsing cycle?

Thanks!

[Ixeon659]

Theretically it will. But in reality - knowing the mess they have in their systems, I doubt they even have some kind of working "counter" that counts how long you have been in the UK or away. So better to keep some kind of proofs that you indeed been in the UK - tickets, bank statements with UK spending, other stuff like this. It will help in the future to prove the 5 years counter was reset