What happens if someone exceeds 180 days of absence?

[Ess2013]

I'm applying for my Tier 1 extension in a couple of weeks and naturally I'm looking ahead to the ILR to make sure my absence from the UK does not exceed 180 days. I have two questions:

a) If I exit the UK for another country on 11 Feb (for example) and I come back on 12 Feb, how many days absence is this?

b) If i DO exceed 180 days, i understand i will have to apply for another extension to make up the days for the ILR. How difficult is it to apply for another extension? Do people normally do this or is it an exceptional case? Would this negatively impact my ILR?

Sorry, that's more than 2 questions...please help!

Thanks.

[longshift]

a) If I exit the UK for another country on 11 Feb (for example) and I come back on 12 Feb, how many days absence is this?

Not sure on this one. Common Sense says 1 day. But I did read somewhere on ukba website which is down at the moment, about this and it said 0 days for such trip.

b) If i DO exceed 180 days, i understand i will have to apply for another extension to make up the days for the ILR. How difficult is it to apply for another extension?

Extensions are not affected by your stay outside UK, so long you apply within UK and can claim enough points required.

Do people normally do this or is it an exceptional case?

Many have done this in the past. If you go through this forum then you will see a lot of people have applied for second extensions.

Would this negatively impact my ILR?

No of extensions do not impact ILR. So long you can prove you have met the requirement for it, you are fine. Once again, just to be very clear, there is no restriction on the no. of extensions you can do for Tier 1. Atleast not for now. Hope this helps.

[Ess2013]

Thanks longshift. I think i was miscalculating - i thought you couldn't exceed 180 days in FIVE years, instead of 180 days in a 12-month period. WHEW!

[mulderpf]

Part-days outside the country do not count. So the answer to point a is 0 days.