Work related absences not allowed for 180 days residency req

[FaeLLe]

Hello all,

It seems that you are no longer allowed to claim exemption for being outside UK for 180 days even if it is for work or employment related absences when applying for ILR.

Quoting the Immigration guideline for Indefinite leave to remain – calculating continuous period in UK at http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitec ... iew=Binary

The standard clause still exists which says you must not break residence by being outside UK for 180 days in 12 months except for serious or compelling reasons,

Absences of more than 180 days in each consecutive 12 month period preceding the date of application (in all categories) will mean the continuous period has been broken. However, consideration may still be given to granting indefinite leave to remain (ILR) outside the rules if evidence is provided to show the excessive absence was due to serious or compelling compassionate reasons.

But then they further clarify that you cannot use employment related reasons to gain exception to residency requirement.

Absences of more than 180 days in any 12 month period for employment or economic activity reasons are not considered exceptional.

What this means is that Tier 2 workers will now have to refuse overseas engagements if they ever wish to gain ILR which in turn might piss a lot of employers off.

Any thoughts or comments from the resident experts?