Who it applies to
People applying for settlement on routes that require continuous residence under Appendix Continuous Residence of the Immigration Rules — for example Skilled Worker, Global Talent, Innovator Founder or UK Ancestry, usually after 5 years. Some routes follow their own rules instead, such as the family (partner) route and the EU Settlement Scheme. Long residence (10 years) uses the 180-day rule only for time from 11 April 2024, with older limits for time before that.
How it's counted
The limit applies across the whole qualifying period, not only to its last year.
- No more than 180 days outside the UK in any 12-month period. There is no limit on the total over the 5 years.
- The 12 months are rolling: every possible 12-month window inside your qualifying period has to stay at 180 days or under, not just each calendar year or each year of your visa. For permission granted before 11 January 2018, absences are instead assessed in consecutive 12-month periods ending on the date of the application.
- Some absences are disregarded, among them those caused by a humanitarian or environmental crisis, travel disruption from a natural disaster or a pandemic, or the serious illness or death of a close family member. You will need evidence.
- The qualifying period is counted backwards from whichever date is most favourable to you: the date of the application, any date up to 28 days after it, or the date of the decision.
- The calculator counts whole days outside the UK and leaves out the day you depart and the day you return, the same way the Home Office counts absences for citizenship.
Worked example
Suppose you hold a Skilled Worker visa and plan to apply for ILR after 5 years. Two of your absences were long: 150 days between August and December 2024, and another 60 between February and April 2025. Counted by calendar year it looks fine — 150 days in 2024 and 60 in 2025. But the 12 months from August 2024 to July 2025 contain 210 days of absence, over the limit of 180, and continuous residence is broken.
Common questions
Is there a total limit over the 5 years, like the 450 days for citizenship?
No. For ILR only the rolling 12-month limit applies. The 450-day and 90-day limits belong to the citizenship application that comes afterwards, and they are stricter in the final year: absences that are fine for ILR can still delay naturalisation.
Does the 180-day limit apply to long residence (10 years)?
For time from 11 April 2024, yes. For time before that date the older limits apply: no single absence of more than 184 days and no more than 548 days in total.
I already have ILR. Do absences still matter?
Yes, in two ways. ILR normally lapses if you stay outside the UK for more than 2 years in a row (5 years for settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme). And if you plan to become a British citizen, the naturalisation limits start to matter: 450 days in 5 years and 90 in the last 12 months.
Is the qualifying period for settlement going to change?
The government has proposed an "earned settlement" model with a baseline qualifying period of 10 years for most routes, and consulted on it until February 2026. When this guide was last reviewed, no new Immigration Rules had been laid before Parliament and the rules described here were the ones in force. Check GOV.UK before you apply.
Check it at the source
These are the official GOV.UK pages this guide is based on. Immigration Rules change: check them before you apply.