Looking to Prove 10 Years Long Residence in the UK? Watch Out for Your Absences!

The long residency route (10 years lawful residence) to Indefinite Leave to Remain (“ILR”) (also known as permanent residence) has recently been the subject of more attention than usual, in part due to the number of refusals the Home Office has been issuing to hopefuls applying under this route. It would appear that this is due to a consistent misunderstanding of what constitutes a ‘continuous period’ of residence in the UK – the vital component of an application under the ‘long residence’ rules. No less important is to understand how this ‘continuous period’ can be broken.

Anyone who wishes to apply for ILR after having been in the UK for 10 years, on various different visas, would logically consider applying under the long residency route. However, anyone contemplating this option must ensure that, over the entirety of the continuous 10-year period, they have never spent more than 6 months continuously outside of the UK, or a total of 18 months outside of the UK during the entire 10 years. As the Home Office defines a month as being 30 days, this would translate to no more than 180 days at any one time, or no more than 540 days across the 10-year period. This is relatively strict, and does not allow for prolonged absences.

The trap into which many may fall is to believe – mistakenly – that the level of absences permitted by alternative routes to ILR are similarly applicable to the 10-year-long residency route. They are not!

Read more: Gherson Immigration, https://is.gd/dAjxxg