How the calculator counts
- Only whole days abroad count. Travel days count as days in the UK, so a Friday-to-Sunday trip is one day away.
- Your worst 12 months are checked too. The tracker shows the 12 months to the date you pick. With a start date, an earlier 12 months over the limit is flagged too.
- Older trips are ignored. Add your start date to drop older trips and see your earliest application date.
The ILR absence rule
You can't spend more than 180 days outside the UK in any 12-month period while qualifying for ILR, or your continuous residence breaks and the clock resets. How long you qualify for depends on route — 5 years on most work and family routes, 2 or 3 years on some investor, talent routes, 10 years on long residence.
Absences for British citizenship
Your trips keep counting after ILR. To naturalise, you can be outside the UK no more than 450 days across the 5 years before applying, and no more than 90 days in the final 12 months. Spouses of British citizens get a shorter route — 3 years and 270 days. These years usually overlap your ILR period, so trips that passed the ILR test can still fail this one.