What documents do I need for ILR?

How the checklist works

The online ILR form generates a tailored document list once you have answered its questions, and that list is the one that counts. What follows is the set almost every five-year-route applicant ends up needing, so you can gather it before you start — most of the delays described in how long ILR takes come from something on this list being missing or inconsistent. Documents are uploaded as scans or photographs; you normally keep the originals. Anything not in English or Welsh needs a certified translation.

1. Identity and current status

• Current passport (or other travel document), plus any previous passports that cover the qualifying period. The stamps in old passports are part of your absence evidence.
• Your current immigration status — a biometric residence permit if you still hold a valid one, or your eVisa via your UKVI account. Make sure the account is linked to your current passport.
• Biometrics — not a document as such, but you will either use the UK Immigration: ID Check app or attend a UKVCAS appointment for fingerprints and a photograph.

2. Your absence record — the document that trips people up

The form asks you to list every trip outside the UK during your qualifying period — dates out, dates back, and the reason. UKVI cross-checks this against its own travel records, so gaps and guesses stand out. The caseworker uses the list to test the 180-days-in-any-12-months rule; if any rolling window exceeds 180 days, or the list looks incomplete, expect a request for further evidence or a refusal.

Build it like this:

1. 1Reconstruct your trips from passport stamps, airline and ferry confirmations, calendar entries, and bank card transactions abroad. Border Force no longer stamps most passports on entry, so the bookings matter.
2. 2Enter each trip into the ILR absence calculator. It totals every rolling 12-month window, flags the worst one, and gives you the earliest application date the record supports.
3. 3Copy the list into the application form exactly as counted, with a one-line reason per trip (holiday, work, family, medical).
4. 4Keep evidence for any absence you want treated as an exception under CR 3.4 — for example medical letters for a compassionate absence, or your sponsor's approval of research travel if you work in one of the listed research occupations. Ordinary work trips are not an exception.

The free UK ILR calculator exists for exactly this step: it turns a pile of trip dates into the absence summary the form needs and tells you whether the record supports an application yet. Check the result before you pay the fee, not after.

3. Skilled Worker: the employer letter

If you are settling from the Skilled Worker (or Health and Care Worker) route, paragraph SW 24.2 requires your sponsor to confirm that it still requires you to work for it for the foreseeable future, and that you are, and will be, paid at least the settlement salary. The sponsor must also still hold its licence on the date of decision (SW 24.1). Sponsors usually give this confirmation in a signed letter on headed paper, dated close to your application, which typically states:

• Your job title, occupation code and start date, and that you are still employed in that role.
• That the sponsor still needs you for the foreseeable future.
• Your current gross annual salary, and that it meets the salary requirement for your occupation at the date of application (the general threshold or the going rate, whichever is higher, subject to any concession you are relying on).
• The sponsor licence number and contact details for verification.

Support it with your most recent payslips (typically the last few months) and matching bank statements. If you changed sponsor during the five years, you do not need letters from former employers, but your immigration history must show a valid permission covering each job.

4. Life in the UK test and English language

Life in the UK test

You must have passed the test before you apply, unless you are under 18, aged 65 or over, or exempt on medical grounds. The result is checked electronically using the unique reference number on your pass notification, so keep that letter or email. A pass does not expire.

English language

Skilled Worker, Health and Care Worker and Scale-up main applicants do not need English evidence for ILR applications made before 26 March 2027, and Innovator Founder and T2 Minister of Religion main applicants have no settlement English requirement at all. Most other adult applicants need English in speaking and listening at B1 on the CEFR scale, rising to B2 on most routes (Skilled Worker and Scale-up included) for applications made on or after 26 March 2027. Acceptable evidence is one of:

• A pass in an approved secure English language test (SELT) at the required level, in speaking and listening.
• A bachelor's degree or higher awarded in the UK, or a degree from outside the UK with Ecctis confirmation that it meets the UK standard and was taught in Ireland or a listed majority-English-speaking country other than Canada, or was taught or researched in English.
• A passport from a majority English-speaking country on the GOV.UK list.
• A GCSE, A level or Scottish qualification in English language or literature, awarded after education at a UK school that began before you were 18.

If you already proved English at the level now required in a previous successful application, you can rely on that rather than testing again. Exemptions exist for age and for long-term physical or mental conditions, with medical evidence. Details are in the English test for ILR.

5. Proof of continuous residence

On work routes UKVI mainly relies on its own records plus your absence list, but caseworkers can ask for corroboration, and on the partner and long residence routes it is expected. Have a spread of documents across the whole period — not just the most recent year — such as:

• P60s and payslips, or self-assessment records if self-employed.
• Tenancy agreements, mortgage statements, or council tax bills at your UK addresses.
• Bank statements showing day-to-day UK spending.
• NHS or GP registration letters, utility bills, HMRC correspondence.

On the partner route add the relationship evidence the route requires: joint tenancy or mortgage, joint bills or accounts, and correspondence addressed to both of you at the same address across the five years.

6. Dependants

A partner or child applying with you (or later, on the strength of your settlement) needs their own set of documents:

• Partner — passport and current status, their own absence record for the qualifying period (the 180-day rule applies to them separately), evidence you are still in a genuine relationship and living together, their own Life in the UK pass and English evidence.
• Children under 18 — passport and status, full birth certificate naming both parents, and evidence they live with you. Children are exempt from the Life in the UK test and English requirement while under 18; a child who turns 18 before applying is not.
• Children whose other parent is not settled or applying — evidence that you are the sole surviving parent, that you have sole responsibility for the child’s upbringing, or that there are serious or compelling family or other considerations.

A dependant’s absences are counted independently, so a partner who travelled more than you may not be eligible on the same day. Run each person’s trips through the calculator separately and see when you can apply for ILR for how the earliest date is worked out.

Sources

• GOV.UK — Indefinite leave to remain (settlement)
• GOV.UK — Indefinite leave to remain if you have a Skilled Worker, Health and Care Worker, T2 or Tier 2 visa
• GOV.UK — Prove your knowledge of English for citizenship and settling
• GOV.UK — Indefinite leave to remain (Skilled Worker, T2 or Tier 2): how to apply and documents
• GOV.UK — Life in the UK Test
• GOV.UK — Prove your English language abilities with a secure English language test (SELT)
• GOV.UK — Immigration Rules Appendix Continuous Residence
• GOV.UK — Immigration Rules Appendix Skilled Worker (SW 22A.1 and SW 24)