ILR - over two years overseas

[maneki]

Hi, happy christmas! Would like to get some opinions on what to do in the following case for a friend.

He has an ILR after working for some time, but he has returned to his home country a few years ago due to family commitment. Every year, he would make a trip to UK (indirectly meeting the not being away for >2 years rule for ILR...). However due to Covid restriction, he has now been away from UK for more than 2 years.

He is planning to come to UK for a visit at some point, any advice how to approach this when it comes to immigration counter? it seems that he would need to apply for returning resident visa but the problem is, he is planning to return to the other country after a few weeks, so he is not returning to UK to "settle". In this case, it seems that Immigration would cancel the ILR upon realising this? How to navigate this? he has a property in the West Midlands, which can show proof of "connection to UK".

The main objective is not to have the ILR cancelled upon immigration entrance, any advice what to do ?

thanks.

[zimba]

Their ILR status is lost as they have stayed outside the UK for more than 24 months.

Note: Occasionally travelling here will not maintain ILR status. ILR is granted to people who want to settle here. If they do not, then they may lose their status. There is no navigating around this. Returning resident visa must be applied if they want to come back and settle here and UKVI will require evidence of this.

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