UK ILR Calculator: Eligibility Date & 180-Day Absences
Settlement in the UK requires continuous residence: no more than 180 days outside the UK in any rolling 12-month period of your qualifying years. Enter your trips and this tool checks every possible window — the same way the Home Office does — and shows how many days you can still travel. The full rule guide covers the exceptions.
1 · Your trips outside the UK
Add every trip outside the UK during your qualifying period. Following the Home Office rules, the days you depart and return count as days in the UK — only whole days away count as absences. Lawful time in the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man on an equivalent route counts as time in the UK if your most recent permission was granted in the UK — don't add it as a trip.
2 · Your absence picture
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Why the rolling window trips people up
Two trips that each look fine can combine into a broken window. Spend October–December abroad (90 days) and then May–July (90 days), and no calendar year ever shows more than 180 — but the 12 months from October to the following September contains all 180, and one more day of travel breaks it. The rule judges your worst window, so that's the number this calculator leads with.
- Departure and return days don't count — only whole days outside the UK.
- The window slides daily — an absence only stops mattering once it's more than 12 months old relative to the window being checked.
- The limit applies throughout the qualifying period, not just the year before you apply.
Frequently asked questions
No more than 180 days in any rolling 12-month period during your qualifying period. It's not 180 per calendar year or per visa year — every possible 12-month window must stay within the limit, which is why a calculator that checks all windows matters.
No. The day you leave the UK and the day you return both count as days in the UK — only whole days spent outside count toward the 180. A Friday-to-Sunday trip is one absent day.
Continuous residence is broken and the qualifying clock generally restarts, unless the absence falls under a CR 3.4 exception: compelling and compassionate circumstances (such as a life-threatening illness of yours or a close family member's, or a death in the family), travel disruption from a natural disaster, military conflict or pandemic, helping with a humanitarian or environmental crisis, and a few route-specific cases. Ordinary work trips are generally not an exception: the work-related ones are sponsor-approved research by Skilled Workers in listed research occupations, research by certain Global Talent holders, and — on the family settlement route (Appendix Settlement Family Life) only — absences for work, study or supporting family overseas while family life in the UK continues.
Absences during permission granted before 11 January 2018 are assessed under the old rule (CR 3.2) — 180 days in each consecutive 12-month period ending on the anniversary of your application date — rather than the rolling window. If your qualifying period straddles the change, both counting methods can be relevant.
Partners on most routes have their own continuous-residence requirement, but children generally don't. Each applicant's absences are assessed individually — one partner exceeding 180 days doesn't break the other's continuity.
Yes. Enter the start of your qualifying period (usually the date your first qualifying visa was granted) and pick your route's qualifying period — 5 years for most work and family routes, 3 for Innovator Founder and most Global Talent endorsements, 2 for Tier 1 Investor at the highest investment level, 10 for Long Residence. The calculator shows the earliest date you can apply: 28 days before the qualifying period ends. If your trips break the 180-day rule, it instead estimates the date on the basis that the count restarts after the last broken window.
Up to 28 days before you complete your route's qualifying period — for a standard 5-year route, 28 days before the fifth anniversary of your first qualifying visa. GOV.UK warns that an application made earlier than that may be refused, and you must also still meet the continuous-residence test (no more than 180 days absent in any 12 months) across the whole period.
Your entries are saved only in your own browser (localStorage). We do record usage events that aren't linked to your name, including the day total and the result category the calculator shows, but not the dates of your trips.
This rule is tracked automaticallyin
Bounded
- Automatically tracks your days for this rule
- Warns you before an absence puts your status at risk
- Counts arrival and departure days correctly
- Runs alongside your other visa, tax, and residency rules
Sources
For information only. This calculator is a planning aid based on publicly available rules, not tax, legal, or immigration advice. Border officers and tax authorities make the final call — always confirm with the official sources linked above and a qualified professional before acting.