10-Year Long Residence ILR Calculator & Tracker
Check your eligibility for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) based on 10 years of continuous lawful residence in the UK.
Needs evidence Not legal advice — always verify against GOV.UK guidance. Read more
VisaExplain is not a law firm or immigration advisory service. This calculator is for general informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute legal or immigration advice. Results may not reflect the most current immigration rules. Always verify with official UK Government sources (GOV.UK) or consult an immigration adviser regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority before making any decisions.
Needs evidence For calculation purposes only
This calculator checks continuous residence requirements only. These other requirements for ILR under Long Residence are not checked here:
- 12 months on your current route (unless permission was granted before 11 April 2024)
- English language — B1 speaking and listening now, rising to B2 for applications made on or after 26 March 2027
- Knowledge of Life in the UK (Appendix KOL UK)
- Suitability — you must not fall for refusal under Part Suitability, and must not be in breach of immigration laws or on immigration bail
- Financial requirements — no recourse to public funds
Qualifying period: 10 years. Absence limit: CR 3.3 — no more than 548 days in total where that total was reached before 11 April 2024, and no single absence over 184 days where it started before that date; 180 days in any 12 months otherwise.
Always verify with official Home Office guidance and consider professional immigration advice.
1. Exemption Rules & Application Context
Paragraph LR 1.1 Exemption Check (12-Month Current Route Requirement)
Enforces Paragraph LR 1.1 (12-month qualifying period on current route).
Used to determine whether an extension is required prior to your ILR eligibility window.
1b. Continuity Disqualifications
These break continuous residence outright, anywhere in your 10 years — even if they happened while you held valid permission (CR 2.1 / CR 2.2).
2. Lawful Residence & Gap Builder
Define continuous visa periods and travel absences held in the UK.
3. Travel Absences & Out-of-Country Gaps
Record absences and out-of-country application gaps (CR 4.1(d)(iii)).
4. Cover Note (optional)
Printed at the top of your report, so a caseworker or adviser reads your explanation and your dates together.
Anything a caseworker should read alongside the dates — reasons for gaps, evidence you are enclosing, or corrections. Up to 4,000 characters.
Keep it to dates and documents. Please do not write about your health, medical history, or any criminal proceedings here. We store this note with your report, and it is not the place for that detail — describe the period and name the evidence instead.
What this calculator works out
It takes your visa periods and your trips abroad and returns the earliest date you can apply for indefinite leave to remain on the ten-year long residence route — together with the rule behind each figure it used.
Specifically it works out:
- When your qualifying period started, which is the first lawful permission, not your arrival
- How much of your time abroad counts against the absence limit, tested across every rolling twelve-month window
- Which gaps in permission are excluded from the count, and how far each pushes your date back
- Whether your current permission expires before you become eligible
How the route works
The ten-year route asks for a decade of continuous lawful residence, whatever permission you held during it. Time as a student, a Graduate, a Skilled Worker and a partner all count as one period, provided the continuity held.
Two things end that continuity, and they behave differently. Too much time outside the UK breaks it. A gap without permission may only be excluded — the days do not count, so the date moves later, but the period either side still joins up.
That distinction is most of what this calculator exists to resolve. Full explanation: Continuous Residence and Absences.
A worked example
Someone arrives on a Student visa in October 2016, switches to a Graduate visa, then to Skilled Worker. Between 2019 and 2020 they spend 146 days outside the UK between one permission ending and the next being granted abroad.
Ten years from their first lawful permission falls in October 2026. But the 146 excluded days do not count towards the ten years, so their qualifying date moves to early 2027 — and the earliest they may apply is a short period before that.
Nothing in that history broke their continuous residence. It simply moved the finish line.
What this calculator does not do
Worth being direct about the limits:
- It does not decide your application. A caseworker does, on evidence.
- It does not know what you have not entered. Refusals, deception findings, criminal matters and periods of immigration bail all affect settlement and are not inferred.
- It cannot tell you whether a discretionary exception will be granted. Where the Rules leave a decision to a caseworker, it will say so rather than guess.
- It is not advice. It applies published rules to your dates.
If the answer is not what you expected
Three things account for most surprises:
- The start date. The clock starts at the first lawful permission, not the day you landed.
- A gap you had forgotten. Even a short one between visas moves the date.
- A cluster of trips. The limit is tested across any twelve months, so travel that looks fine year by year can still breach it.
Official sources
- GOV.UK: long residence
- Immigration Rules: Appendix Long Residence
- Immigration Rules: Appendix Continuous Residence
Every calculation states which policy version produced it and when that version took effect. If the rules change, previous results stay reproducible under the version that produced them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Continuous residence means time spent in the UK without significant breaks. You are generally allowed to be outside the UK for up to 180 days in any 12-month period. For absences before April 11, 2024, total absences should not exceed 548 days, and no single absence should be longer than 184 days.
You can submit your application as soon as you meet all the eligibility requirements (usually 28 days before the 10-year anniversary of your first arrival on a qualifying visa). You must be in the UK to apply.
Time spent in the UK on a Standard Visitor visa, as a visitor without a visa, on a Short-term study visa, on a Seasonal Worker visa, or under any of the Ukraine schemes does not count towards the 10-year continuous residence period.