United Kingdom Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR)

Key parameters
Limit	180 days of absence
Period / Window	Rolling 12 months
Counting	Whole days of absence
Routes	2, 3, 5, 10 years
Additional requirements	Life in the UK test, English

How long you have to qualify depends on your route:

• 5 years — Skilled Worker, Health and Care Worker and most other work routes, partners of British citizens and settled people, Global Talent endorsed for exceptional promise, British National (Overseas) visa holders, and Commonwealth citizens on the UK Ancestry route.
• 3 years — Global Talent endorsed as a recognised leader or holding an eligible award, and Innovator Founder.
• 2 or 3 years — the closed investor routes, depending on the level of investment.
• 10 years — long residence, built from any lawful leave rather than a single route.

Whichever applies, what the rule protects is continuous residence — the unbroken stretch of lawful UK residence settlement is built on. Absences are one way to break it and gaps in valid leave are another, and a broken chain generally means restarting the qualifying period rather than waiting a little longer.

Residence isn't the only requirement. Most applicants also have to pass the Life in the UK test and prove English in speaking and listening, both waived from age 65.

You don't have to wait until the exact day your qualifying period ends. You can apply up to 28 days early, and the Home Office treats the application as if it were made once that period completes — later than 28 days early, though, and it's refused outright for not yet meeting the requirement.

• It isn't 180 days per year. It's 180 days in any rolling 12 months, which is a stricter test — two compliant calendar years can still contain a window that breaks the limit.
• You can break continuity without leaving the UK. If one visa expires before the next is granted, that gap breaks continuous residence the same way a long absence would — your day count can be perfect and the clock still resets.
• Absence rules still differ by route. Some family routes use their own tests, so a figure you read for one route can be simply wrong for another.
• The 5-year qualifying period is under review. The government has consulted on lengthening it and on tying it to measures of contribution. Nothing has changed in the rules yet, so the periods described here are what currently applies.

Exceeding the limit generally breaks your continuous residence, and the cost is the clock rather than the calendar — the qualifying period usually starts again from zero, pushing settlement years further out rather than months. That delay flows through to citizenship as well, since naturalisation normally requires holding settled status for a further period on top. Professional advice is strongly recommended in situations like this.

Comfortably inside the limit

You work in the UK on a skilled worker visa and travel regularly, but your absences never exceed about 150 days in any 12-month stretch you check. Your continuous residence holds, and you reach the end of your 5-year qualifying period on schedule.

Two compliant years that hide a bad window

You spend 170 days abroad between July and the following June, then 170 more the year after. Each calendar year looks fine, but the 12-month window straddling the two contains far more than 180 days, which is the window that counts.

Applying inside the 28-day window

Your qualifying period starts on 15 September, 5 years before it ends on 14 September. You don't have to wait for that exact date — you submit on 17 August, 28 days early, and the application is accepted rather than refused for being premature.

• GOV.UK — Settle in the UK (indefinite leave to remain)
• Home Office — Continuous residence: caseworker guidance
• Home Office — Immigration Rules Appendix Continuous Residence