ILR absences calculator: 180 days in any 12 months
To keep the continuous residence you need for indefinite leave to remain, you can’t be outside the UK for more than 180 days in any 12 months. Only whole days away count. Add your trips below to see how long your next one can be.
ILR absences calculator
At most 180 days outside the UK in any 12 months. Only whole days count: the days you leave and come back are days in the UK.
Trips out of the UK since then
The 180-day rule for ILR
To keep continuous residence for indefinite leave to remain (ILR) on routes such as Skilled Worker, you must not have been outside the UK for more than 180 days in any 12-month period.
- Any 12 months. For permission granted on or after 11 January 2018, the 12 months roll: every 12-month period in your qualifying period must hold 180 days away or fewer. For permission granted before then, the periods are consecutive 12 months ending on the date of your application.
- Whole days only. Part-day absences — less than 24 hours — aren’t counted, so the days you leave and come back aren’t days away.
- Your qualifying period is counted back from whichever is best for you: the date you apply, the date of the decision, or any date up to 28 days after you apply.
Absences that don’t count
Appendix Continuous Residence lists absences that aren’t counted toward the 180 days, among them:
- a humanitarian or environmental crisis overseas;
- travel disruption from a natural disaster, military conflict or pandemic;
- compelling and compassionate personal circumstances, such as the life-threatening illness of the applicant, or the life-threatening illness or death of a close family member;
- some approved research, work and study absences, and a partner accompanying Crown service overseas.
Worked example
You left the UK on 31 January and came back on 12 May: 100 whole days away (1 February to 11 May). Leaving again on 1 June, you can be away 80 whole days, the last on 20 August: be back in the UK by 21 August. As your February days drop out of the 12 months, later trips can be longer.
How FlySee counts it
The calculator counts as the FlySee app does: a day away is a whole day outside the UK — the days you leave and come back are days in the UK; no more than 180 such days in any 12 months, checked over 366 days so a leap year can’t make it late; nothing before the date your visa started counts. It doesn’t know which absences fall under an exception: those days are counted.