United Kingdom — 10-Year Long Residence ILR (Absence Rules)

Summary

Qualifying period

10 years continuous lawful residence

Absences from 11 April 2024

≤ 180 days in any rolling 12 months

Absences before 11 April 2024

No single trip > 184 days; ≤ 548 days total

Current route

Held for ≥ 12 months at application (with exception)

Earliest application

28 days before the 10 years complete

Basis

Appendix Long Residence; Appendix Continuous Residence CR 3.1, 3.3, 3.4

The 10-year long residence route lets people who have lived lawfully in the UK for a decade — often across several different visas — apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR). Since 11 April 2024 the route sits in Appendix Long Residence, which replaced the old paragraphs 276A–276D, and its absence rules now come from Appendix Continuous Residence. The result is a two-part test: absences that started on or after 11 April 2024 must stay within 180 days in any rolling 12-month period, while the earlier part of your 10 years is still judged against the legacy caps of no single absence over 184 days and no more than 548 days in total.

Who it applies to

This route matters most if you are:

• Someone who has been in the UK lawfully for close to 10 years across a mix of routes — student, work, family, or other visas — and does not qualify for the standard 5-year settlement on any single one.
• A long-term resident whose travel history stretches back before 11 April 2024, so both the old and the new absence rules apply to different parts of the period.
• A frequent traveller who needs to know whether historical trips, added together, have already used up the 548-day allowance.

The 10-year route is distinct from the 5-year routes covered by the general ILR 180-day rule. If you are on a route that leads to settlement in 5 years, that shorter route is usually the one to pursue; the ILR guide compares the options.

The rule — and why it has two parts

Appendix Long Residence requires 10 years of continuous lawful residence. Whether that residence is "continuous" is decided by Appendix Continuous Residence, and the rules changed on 11 April 2024:

• Absences starting on or after 11 April 2024 (CR 3.1). You must not have been outside the UK for more than 180 days in any rolling 12-month period. It is an aggregate of every day abroad in each 12-month window, not a per-trip cap.
• Any part of the period before 11 April 2024 (CR 3.3, transitional). The old long residence caps still apply: no single absence of more than 184 days where that absence started before 11 April 2024, and no more than 548 days in total where that total was reached before 11 April 2024.
• An absence that straddles 11 April 2024 is treated as a pre-April absence: the whole trip is checked against the 184-day cap, only its days before 11 April 2024 count towards the 548-day total, and it does not enter the 180-day rolling test. Home Office guidance starts the rolling windows with the first absence that begins on or after 11 April 2024.

Two further conditions sit alongside the absence rules. You must have been on your current route for at least 12 months at the date of application, unless your current permission was granted before 11 April 2024. And you can apply up to 28 days before the 10 years are complete, but not earlier.

Why it works this way: the Home Office moved every settlement route onto a single rolling 180-day standard so that absences are measured the same way regardless of visa. But people on the 10-year route had already accumulated up to a decade of travel under the old caps, so the transitional rule stops historical trips being re-judged under a test that did not exist when they were taken.

Counting the days

Start with a complete list of every trip outside the UK across the 10 years, with exact departure and return dates. Then split the list at 11 April 2024:

1. 1For trips that ended before 11 April 2024: check that no single trip lasted more than 184 days, and add every day abroad together — the running total must not have reached more than 548 days before that date.
2. 2For a trip that started before 11 April 2024 and ended on or after it: check the whole trip against the 184-day cap, and add only its days before 11 April 2024 to the 548-day total. Do not carry it into the next step.
3. 3For absences that started on or after 11 April 2024: pick any day, look back 12 months, and add up every whole day outside the UK in that window (departure and return days do not count). Repeat for every possible window — the highest total must not exceed 180.
4. 4Confirm you have held your current permission for at least 12 months at the application date (unless it was granted before 11 April 2024), and that the application date is no more than 28 days before your 10 years complete.

The free ILR absence calculator runs the rolling 180-day check for you from your trip dates and shows the worst window. Its 10-year option applies the split described above: the rolling test counts only absences that began on or after 11 April 2024, and earlier absences are shown against the 184-day single-absence cap and the 548-day total.

Examples

Example 1 — historical travel within the old caps

You arrived as a student in 2016 and moved through work visas. Between 2016 and April 2024 your longest trip was a 5-month stay abroad (about 150 days) and your absences total roughly 420 days. Since April 2024 your busiest rolling year shows 95 days away. You pass the 184-day and 548-day legacy caps and the 180-day rolling test, so your continuous residence is intact.

Example 2 — one old trip breaks the single-absence cap

Your overall total is a modest 300 days, but in 2019 you spent 200 consecutive days overseas caring for a parent. That single absence exceeds 184 days and started before 11 April 2024, so it breaks continuity under the transitional rule unless the Home Office accepts it as a permitted reason such as the life-threatening illness or death of a close family member, which you would need to evidence.

Example 3 — a trip that straddles the changeover date

You left the UK on 1 February 2024 and returned on 30 June 2024 — about 150 days, under the 184-day cap. Only the days up to 10 April 2024 go into your 548-day total. Because the trip started before 11 April 2024, none of it counts in the 180-day rolling test: your rolling windows start with your next trip. A further 110 days of trips before 11 April 2025 therefore stays within the 180-day limit.

How Bounded helps

A 10-year application needs a decade of travel history, and the two-part test means every trip has to be placed on the right side of 11 April 2024. Bounded is a country-days tracker that logs each day you spend outside the UK automatically, so the absence record is built as you travel rather than reconstructed from old passport stamps at the end:

• Automatic day count. Each trip is recorded with its departure and return dates, and the days abroad are counted day by day against the UK. Over 10 years that is the list the Home Office asks you to provide.
• The rolling 180-day check, live. Bounded counts your days outside the UK in the 365 days ending today, and with planned trips added it shows the first day a trip would take you over 180, so you know before you go whether it fits.
• The legacy caps from the same list. Bounded’s trip history lists every pre-April-2024 absence with its dates, which is what the 184-day and 548-day checks need. The ILR absence calculator runs both the rolling test and the transitional caps without an account.

Bounded records where you were; it does not decide whether an absence is excused. Whether a permitted reason under CR 3.4 applies is a Home Office judgement on your evidence, and the ILR guide explains what that evidence usually looks like.

Exceptions & edge cases

• Permitted reasons (CR 3.4). Absences are not counted where they were caused by travel disruption due to a natural disaster, military conflict or pandemic, by compelling compassionate circumstances such as the life-threatening illness or death of a close family member, by helping with a humanitarian or environmental crisis overseas, or by accompanying a partner on Crown service overseas. Every case must be evidenced.
• Permission granted before 11 April 2024. If your current permission was granted before that date, the requirement to have held your current route for 12 months at the application date does not apply.
• Lawful residence, not just residence. The 10 years must be continuous lawful residence. Whether your immigration permission was unbroken is a separate question from how many days you spent abroad, and both must be satisfied.
• Other requirements still apply. Passing the absence tests does not by itself grant ILR; the English language and Life in the UK requirements and the suitability rules must also be met. The English level rises from B1 to B2 for applications made on or after 26 March 2027 (LR 13.1).

Common misconceptions

• "The 548-day rule is gone." Not for older travel — it still governs any part of your qualifying period before 11 April 2024 through the transitional provision in CR 3.3.
• "180 days is per calendar year." False — it is any rolling 12-month period, so a heavy stretch of travel spanning a year end can breach the cap even when each calendar year looks fine.
• "The calculator has checked everything." The ILR calculator checks the absence limits only. Whether your residence was lawful throughout, whether an absence is excused under CR 3.4, and the 12-month current-route rule are separate questions it cannot answer.
• "I can apply as soon as I am close to 10 years." Only within 28 days of the 10 years completing, and only if you have held your current route for 12 months (unless that permission predates 11 April 2024).

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• GOV.UK — Immigration Rules Appendix Long Residence
• GOV.UK — Immigration Rules Appendix Continuous Residence
• GOV.UK — Long residence: caseworker guidance
• GOV.UK — Continuous residence: caseworker guidance