ILR - 180 days+ absence - contractor

[kiwikristi]

Hello - can't find clear answers to my situation so thought I'd try a post. My situation is:

- I am a NZ national
- I am 4 years into my UK ancestry visa
- I have been working in temp/contract positons the whole time I have been in the UK
- I have been contracting through a LTD company since the start of the year
- I worked for a UK company (paid in £) in France for a ski season which meant I had about 140 days out of the UK at one time.
- Not including the ski season, I will have had 181 days out of the UK for other holidays this year so will be well over the 180 days by the time the 5 years is up!

I want to know if its possible to get ILR and have the following questions:

a) I am a contractor - I note there is an allowance for time out of the UK for annual leave, but in my situation, I have taken holidays in between contracts (and whenever I felt like it!). Can any of my holidays be exempted from the 180 day rule despite me not being on 'annual leave' as such?

b) Can I argue that the job in France was for UK employment so it should be exempted from the 180 days?

Any answers appreciated! Thanks

[goldfish]

I don't think the rules are especially clear for limited company contractors. I also work through a limited company and I receive a salary from my limited company regardless of whether I am consulting to a client or on holidays. Although the days I'm not at the client wouldn't be invoiced to the client, I am still paid by the limited company. I would therefore consider all my absences to be "paid leave", even if there isn't a formal and fixed number of annual leave days specified by my limited company.

What structure were you using prior to this year? If it is an umbrella, they could potentially provide you with a letter similar to the one a conventional employee could get.

Re the ski work, were you out of the UK for 140 days continuously? I believe the rules are that if you are out for 90 days or more continuously, your ILR clock starts again (regardless of your total days out, employment by UK employer, ...) Perhaps this changed recently, so others could confirm.