ILR absence calculator for the 180-day rule
This ILR absence calculator checks your time outside the UK against the continuous residence rule for indefinite leave to remain: more than 180 days away in any 12-month period of your qualifying period breaks it. It counts whole days only and finds the 12 months with the most days away, so you can see whether any of them goes over. Official sources: Appendix Continuous Residence and the Home Office continuous residence guidance.
Result
- Most days away in any 12 months
- Not set
- Status
- Not assessed
- Those 12 months
- Not set
- Qualifying period checked
- Not set
Choose a route and enter the start of your qualifying period, on or before the application date, or today if you leave that empty. An application made before the route's current rules began is not assessed.
The count is the most whole days you spent outside the UK in any 12 months of the qualifying period, and the dates are the first 12 months that hold that many. More than 180 is over the limit, and 170 to 180 is close to it. The result is a day count under the 180-day rule.
Most days away in any 12 months: Not set. Status: Not assessed. Those 12 months: Not set. Qualifying period checked: Not set.
How the 180 days in any 12 months are counted
To meet the continuous residence requirement, the applicant must not have been outside the UK for more than 180 days in any 12- month period (unless CR 3.2., CR 3.3., CR 5.1. or CR 5.2. applies, and subject to CR 3.4.).
You must only include whole days when calculating an applicant’s absences. Part day absences, less than 24 hours are not counted.
For example, if the applicant was absent for 180 days during the 12-month period and started their journey back to the UK on day 180 but arrived on day 181, day 181 would not be a day of absence and the period would not exceed 180 days.
The 12 months roll forward a day at a time, so they do not have to be a calendar year. Take two trips on the Skilled Worker route, away from 1 August to 1 November 2024 and from 1 April to 2 July 2025. Each trip is 91 whole days, and no calendar year holds more than 91, but the 12 months from 2 July 2024 to 1 July 2025 hold both trips: 182 days, so the calculator shows 182 and over the limit. Come back on 30 June 2025 instead and the most in any 12 months is 180. That is not more than 180, so it is within the limit, and the calculator shows it as close.
The day you leave the UK and the day you come back do not count, because you are in the UK for part of each. A trip from 1 June to 10 June is 8 whole days away, and a trip that comes back the same day or the next day counts as none. If you come back on 10 June and leave again on 11 June, you are in the UK on both of those days, so trips from 1 June to 10 June and from 11 June to 20 June are 8 whole days each, 16 in all. If you are still away, tick Still away and the count runs through today.
The qualifying period runs back from your application date, or from today if you leave it empty, by the route's 3, 5 or 10 years, and starts no earlier than the date you enter as its start. The Rules count it back from the date that suits you best: the date of application, any date up to 28 days after it, or the date of decision, so you can enter any of those as the application date. The calculator checks every 12 months that end inside the qualifying period and counts only the days away inside it. On the 10-year partner and parent routes, absences before 20 June 2022 are not counted.
Some absences do not count toward the 180 days. They include time helping with a humanitarian or environmental crisis overseas, agreed by your sponsor if you have one, travel disruption caused by a natural disaster, military conflict or pandemic, and compelling and compassionate personal circumstances, such as your own life-threatening illness or the life-threatening illness or death of a close family member. Research comes off the count too when your sponsor approved it and your Skilled Worker job is one of the listed research occupations, or when you are on Global Talent with an endorsement from the Royal Society, the British Academy, the Royal Academy of Engineering or UKRI, or with a listed prize. So does time abroad with a partner on Crown service. On the 10-year partner and parent routes, time away for work, study or supporting family overseas does not count while your family life stays in the UK and the UK remains your permanent home. Leave those days out of the absences you enter.
Questions about ILR absences
How does this ILR absence calculator work?
Choose your route, enter the start of your qualifying period and, if you know it, your application date, then add each trip outside the UK. The calculator counts the whole days away, checks every 12 months of the qualifying period and shows the most days away in any of them, with the dates of those 12 months. More than 180 is over the limit, and 170 to 180 is close to it.
How do you calculate 180 days for ILR?
Count the whole days you were outside the UK, leaving out the day you left and the day you came back, and add them up for each 12-month period of your qualifying period. No 12 months may hold more than 180. The period rolls forward a day at a time, so 12 months such as 2 July 2024 to 1 July 2025 count as much as a calendar year. Exactly 180 is within the limit, and 181 is over.
Do the departure day and the return day count?
No. Only whole days outside the UK count, and you are in the UK for part of the day you leave and the day you come back. Away from 10 January to 10 July 2026 is 180 whole days, 11 January to 9 July, which is within the limit. Come back on 11 July and it is 181, which is over. A trip that leaves and comes back on the same day counts as none.
Which routes does this UK absence calculator cover?
Routes to indefinite leave to remain under Appendix Continuous Residence, each with its own qualifying period. 3 years: Innovator Founder, and Global Talent endorsed by the Royal Society, the British Academy, the Royal Academy of Engineering or UKRI, endorsed as exceptional talent by Arts Council England or Tech Nation, or granted with a listed prize. 5 years: Skilled Worker, Global Talent endorsed as exceptional promise, UK Ancestry, Hong Kong BN(O), including partners and adult children on that route, and the partner of someone on Global Talent or Innovator Founder. A Skilled Worker's partner also needs 5 years, so choose Skilled Worker visa. 10 years: the partner and parent routes under Appendix Settlement Family Life, which do not count absences before 20 June 2022.
Does time in Northern Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey or the Isle of Man count as time away?
Northern Ireland is part of the UK, so days there are not absences. Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man are not part of the UK, but time spent there lawfully on a route equivalent to a UK one counts as time in the UK when your most recent permission was granted in the UK, so leave it out of the absences you enter.
Geostay records the days and counts each rule the way that rule counts them.
The app records which country your iPhone is in each day, even when it is closed, so there are no trips to type in. Pick your UK visa and it adds its clock for time away in any 12 months, which counts whole days away. It has visa and residence status clocks for 40 countries and over 800 statuses.
Download on the App Store