ILR & Citizenship: How Many Days Outside UK? - Residence Requirements Study

ILR & Citizenship: How Many Days Outside UK? – Residence Requirements Study

What are the lengths of absences from the (days outside) UK to avoid in order to get ILR (Indefinite Leave to Remain) and Naturalisation (citizenship).

Our UK Immigration lawyers get asked many times about ILR applications and Citizenship applications. One of the main questions about ILR and Naturalisation is how many days outside UK am I allowed to have without effecting a successful visa application? The rules can be considered as contradictory but they are not. They are often referred to a way to calculate “continuous period” or the “residence requirements” in UK for the purposes of Visas & immigration.

The routes to permanent residency and British Citizenship are varied and the amount of days outside UK permitted are slightly different but quite uniform in their interpretation. Some routes lead to permanent residency after 2 or three years but most are after 5 years. In those periods, you want to know how long you can travel outside the UK and return without losing your rights to residency.

Each visa route you are on will have residency requirements. If you are not careful to keep to the amount of time you can be out of the UK, you could lose your immigration status, be refused a visa or even be refused entry back into the UK.

For example, even if you have permanent residency, you can still be denied re-entry into the UK, and have your indefinite leave to remain cancelled by an immigration officer. This can happen if you spend two or more years outside the UK. The only exception to this rule is if you are a British citizen, as citizenship can only be revoked in certain limited circumstances.

So what are the exceptions to the residency requirements? How long can you stay outside the UK without losing your visa status or damaging it?

Details to retain as a case study:

Applicant, working outside of the UK and with a foreign national fiancée;
Applicant was on a Skilled Worker (previously tier 2 General visa) or other 5 year route work visa.
Applicant left the UK to be with fiancée abroad.
Are there any exceptions?

The exception to the residence requirements will need to fit your own circumstances as permitted “exceptional circumstances” to the residence requirements and being with your fiancée abroad will not fulfil those requirements as to how many days outside UK you are permitted. Therefore just being with your fiancée will not be considered as a valid compassionate reasons.

Nonetheless, you may still be able to meet the standard requirements for absence if it is due to work reasons, or other defined compassionate reasons, and is crafted in those terms only. Our specialist UK Immigration lawyers assist you by guiding you through ensuring you meet the continuous residence requirements. This may mean that our immigration advisors will need to ensure the time you spend outside the UK will be planned correctly in order for you to work and be with your Fiancée.

If you are on a entrepreneur type visa route, the issue with you will have to bear in mind is that aside from the days outside UK, you may need to keep in mind the other requirements of your visa, such as income. But if you are working for other companies, you may still be able to come back within the requirements of your visa. The issue will then be by how much and whether it is sufficient for indefinite Leave or naturalisation.

With regards to writing a statement in support of your application(s), our immigration lawyers always suggest this and do so on your behalf as part of our application processing. We detail all the issues in a cover letter as well as provide you with templates, if required, in order for you to accomplish your documentary requirements such as getting letters from your employer(s).

As for Naturalisation, the standard residential requirements are that you must have:

been resident in the UK for at least five years (this is known as the residential qualifying period); and
been present in the UK five years before the date of your application; and
not spent more than 450 days outside the UK during the five-year period; and
not spent more than 90 days outside UK in the last 12 months of the five-year period; and
not been in breach of the Immigration Rules at any stage during the five-year period.

Again, therefore, we will need to plan and craft your absences in order for you not to fall foul of these requirements.

Maybe you have not also considered whether it may be feasible to get married before you hit the five years in order to bring your partner into the UK earlier so as you can both get ILR at the same time (depending on your circumstances) and thereby having settlement and potentially giving your fiancée the right to naturalise earlier.

You can get your comprehensive list of documents required online along with free advice from our immigration lawyers which gives them the chance to ensure we have your full details of your current and previous immigration status so as the list is detailed to your immigration application. The Application Checking Service can provide you with template cover letters as well as check that you meet the requirements.

We can also do this through a consultation (and can be arranged by booking your immigration consultation to start your free assessment, get a detailed documents request list or start your ILR Application or British Citizenship.

After which, one of our immigration advisers will be in touch. You can also reach us to discuss our services through our Contact Us page*.

_{Please note that these are not advice sessions that you will get through the immigration consultation service.}