Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) Solicitors — Specialist Settlement Support

Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) — or 'settlement', as it's commonly known — gives you permanent residence in the UK. There are several routes you can apply through, and each one comes with its own set of requirements. The qualifying periods below are typical, but you should always check the current rules for your specific route on GOV.UK before proceeding.

Not sure which route applies to you? We'll work that out together at your free consultation.

More settlement applications come unstuck on absences than on anything else. And it's the one requirement you can actually audit yourself tonight — passport stamps, boarding passes, kitchen table.

The current rule sits in Appendix Continuous Residence to the Immigration Rules. Under paragraph CR 3.1, you must not have been outside the UK for more than 180 days in any 12-month period. The phrase that matters is "any 12-month period" — it's a rolling window. Not a tax year, not a visa year. Every single day in your qualifying period is the end of some 12-month window, and the 180-day limit has to hold across all of them.

Older permissions work differently. Paragraph CR 3.2 measures 180 days across consecutive 12-month periods that end on the date of your current application — fixed windows, counted back from one date. That's not a minor technical difference. A pattern of long trips either side of a single anniversary can sit comfortably inside the fixed windows and still break the rolling test. So the same travel history can pass under one rule and fail under the other, depending on which applies to you.

Here's how to check. Write down every departure and return date across your whole qualifying period. Then, for each return date, add up the days you spent outside the UK in the twelve months before it. If any of those totals goes over 180, that's the window a caseworker will find. Count days of absence as whole days outside the UK, and keep the evidence — stamps, tickets, visas — because you may be asked to account for a specific trip years later.

There's one rule that works in your favour and gets missed all the time. Paragraph CR 1.1 lets the qualifying period be counted back from whichever date is most beneficial to you: the date you apply, any date up to 28 days after you apply, the date your application is decided, or — on the UK Ancestry route — the date your most recent permission expired. If a long absence sits awkwardly near the start of your qualifying period, shifting the counting date can move it outside the window altogether. It's worth modelling before you file, not after you're refused. And it's the single most common reason an application that looks a few weeks short is actually ready to go.

Some absences are treated differently again, and the rules on what breaks continuity aren't the same for every route. Check your own route against Appendix Continuous Residence on GOV.UK, and bring your travel list to the assessment. We'd rather find the problem now than have the Home Office find it later.

Every application is prepared by a qualified, SRA-regulated immigration solicitor — not a call centre or an unregulated adviser. In practice that means:

We handle straightforward and complex cases, including extended absences, gaps in documentation and applications after a previous refusal, and we will tell you honestly where a requirement is difficult to meet.

Past results do not guarantee any particular outcome; every application is decided by the Home Office on its own facts.

Here's what our ILR service actually includes:

And if we can't help you, we'll tell you straight. No runaround.

One thing to note: Home Office application fees are set by the Home Office, not us. Check the current amount at gov.uk before you apply.

Call **0203 355 9823** or email **info@abrahamssolicitors.co.uk** to arrange your consultation.

You've spent years building your life here lawfully. Don't let the application let you down.