Check Your ILR Continuous Residence in Minutes

Log your absences from the UK and instantly see whether you stay within the 180-day rolling rule required for Indefinite Leave to Remain under the 5-year route.

Wesbridge Associates is an IAA-regulated UK immigration law firm. Our advisers support individuals, families and UK sponsors with skilled worker visas, sponsor licences, family routes, settlement (ILR), British citizenship, appeals and compliance — combining experienced legal advice with AI-powered self-service tools.

The Wesbridge Associates continuous residence calculator helps you check your UK absences against the 180-day rule that applies to most settlement (Indefinite Leave to Remain) routes and to British naturalisation. Enter your trips out of the UK and the tool tells you, for every rolling 12-month period, whether you are within the permitted 180 days or at risk of breaking continuous residence.

What continuous residence means

For most work-based settlement routes — Skilled Worker, Health and Care Worker, Global Talent, Innovator Founder, Scale-up, UK Ancestry and Representative of an Overseas Business — you must have five years of continuous residence in the UK without exceeding 180 days of absence in any rolling 12-month period. For 10-year long-residence ILR the total absences must not exceed 540 days across ten years, with no single absence over 184 days. Family route ILR follows Appendix FM rules on genuine subsistence together.

How the calculator works

Add each trip abroad by departure and return date. The tool computes rolling 12-month windows from every day in your qualifying period, counts absent days in each window, and highlights any window where the total exceeds 180 days. Partial travel days count as full days of absence. It also shows total absences across the whole qualifying period, useful for the long-residence and naturalisation tests.

Reading the results

A green result means every rolling 12-month window sits at or below 180 days — you are within continuous residence on this test. An amber result flags a window approaching the limit (150-180 days); consider reducing future travel until the window rolls forward. A red result means at least one 12-month window exceeds 180 days: continuous residence for Skilled Worker and similar routes is prima facie broken, and you may need to argue an exception (serious illness, family bereavement, Crown service, natural disaster) or restart the qualifying period.

Absences that can be disregarded

The Home Office may disregard absences for serious or compelling reasons of a compassionate nature (serious illness of the applicant or a close relative, conflict, natural disaster), absences required by the sponsor for overseas work assignments, and — historically — COVID-19 related absences within defined periods. These are discretionary; keep documentary evidence (medical letters, employer letters, death certificates, flight records) with your ILR application.

Frequently asked questions

Does the 180-day rule apply to spouse visa ILR?

No. The Appendix FM 5-year partner route does not have a fixed 180-day rule; the test is whether the couple has been living together in a genuine and subsisting relationship. Long or frequent absences can still undermine that, so take advice if you have been apart for months at a time.

Are travel days counted?

Yes. Any day on which you were outside the UK at any point counts as a day of absence, including partial travel days.

Does the calculator affect my naturalisation application?

Naturalisation has separate absence rules: no more than 450 days of absence in the five years before application (270 days for spouses of British citizens), and no more than 90 days in the final 12 months. The calculator shows total absences so you can check both tests.

What if I have already broken continuous residence?

In most work routes the clock restarts from your next entry, so you would need a fresh five-year qualifying period. Long-residence and naturalisation may still work depending on the totals. Book a consultation with a Wesbridge adviser to map your options.

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