New rules and 180 days per 12 months limit

[Curiosity]

I have been in the UK since Jun 2007 on tier 2 inter company transfer. My work required extensive travel, especially in 2010 and 2011. In past five years (Dec 2007 to now) I had about 500 days away from the UK, 370 days on business trips and about 130 days on paid leave.

I still have tier 2 permit until Jul 2015 therefore I was going to wait for a while until the absent days decrease a bit, as I no longer travel much, then suddenly this new rule came along.

The new rule does seem to work in my favour on the outset but I have a problem. In 2011, when most of my business trips were concentrated, I was out of the UK for the total of 197 days, going over the new rule of "absence less than 180 days over consecutive 12 months"

So my question is, will my 500 days be divided by 5 years and I will be considered to have been out of the country on average of 100 days per every 12 month, or will being 17 days above 180 days rule means that I won't qualify for ILR under the new rule until 2016, in which case I will have to extend my tier 2 permit in 2015, when the current one expires.

I have been told that even though the current immigration law says tier 2 permit cannot extent beyond 5 years (9 years if your salary is over £150,000, which mine isn't), because I arrived in 2007, that rule (which came into effect after I arrived) does not apply to me and I can extend my tier 2 permit as many times as possible, which is why I could extend my current permit for another 3 years until 2015 earlier this year when the previous permit expired in Jun 2012.

I know it's early days and I guess I will have to see other cases but your opinions would be much appreciated.

[Curiosity]

Actually after some research, I think I can answer my own question.

In the doc "Calculating continuous period in the UK"

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitec ... iew=Binary

it even gives an example to make it pretty clear.

No more than 180 whole days absence are allowed in any of the five, two, three or four consecutive 12 month periods, preceding the date of the application for indefinite leave to remain (ILR).
The specified continuous period is counted backwards from the date of the ILR application. For example, if the date of application is 11 November 2012, the consecutive periods would be as follows:

Year 1 : 11 November 2012 to 10 November 2011
Year 2 : 11 November 2011 to 10 November 2010
Year 3 : 11 November 2010 to 10 November 2009
Year 4 : 11 November 2009 to 10 November 2008
Year 5 : 11 November 2008 to 10 November 2007

So under this rule, because of the number of days I was away from the UK in 2011, I will not meet that requirement. I guess I will have to wait until 2016 to apply for ILR.