Continuous residence for ILR: the rules explained

To meet the continuous residence requirement for settlement, you must not have been outside the UK for more than 180 days in any 12-month period (rule CR 3.1 in Appendix Continuous Residence). Exactly 180 days is within the limit; 181 is not.

Use the absence checker to test your own trip dates.

• Permission granted on or after 11 January 2018: absences are looked at on a rolling basis, in any 12-month period they fall within.
• Permission granted before 11 January 2018: absences are looked at in consecutive 12-month periods ending on the date of the application.
• Only whole days count. A part-day absence of less than 24 hours is not counted. The guidance gives the example of a person who starts the journey home on day 180 and arrives on day 181: day 181 is not a day of absence.
• Any time outside the UK counts, including while your permission is still valid, while you have no permission and while an application is being considered.
• Time lawfully spent in the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man on an equivalent route is treated as time in the UK, if your most recent grant of permission was in the UK.

The qualifying period is counted back from whichever of these dates is most beneficial to you: the date of application, any date up to 28 days after it, or the date of decision.

These absences are left out of the 180 days:

• assisting with a humanitarian or environmental crisis overseas (on a sponsored route, with your sponsor's agreement)
• travel disruption due to a natural disaster, military conflict or pandemic
• compelling and compassionate circumstances, such as the life-threatening illness of you or a close family member, or a death in the family
• sponsor-approved research by a Skilled Worker in certain research occupations, and research by Global Talent migrants endorsed by the Royal Society, the British Academy, the Royal Academy of Engineering or UKRI, or qualified through a listed prize
• for Settlement Family Life applicants, absences for work, study or supporting family overseas while family life stays in the UK and the UK remains the permanent home
• accompanying a partner on Crown service overseas

• being outside the UK for longer than allowed without a permitted reason
• a prison sentence (unless suspended) or detention in an institution other than a prison
• a deportation order, exclusion order or exclusion direction, or removal from the UK
• a period without permission, with limited exceptions
• leaving the UK voluntarily after being refused permission or settlement, once any permission has expired

The caseworker guidance explains each exception in detail.

The qualifying period for each route is set in the rules for that route and is listed in the caseworker guidance table.

Updated: 4 Nov 2026