Counting days for ILR

[leondj]

Hello,

I am just about to apply for my ILR. I have been out of the UK for quite a few days during the last 5 years. There seems to be a lot of conflicting information on how many days you are allowed out of the UK and how you should count and list the days. My questions are:

1. How many days in total are you allowed to be out of the UK during the 5 years?
2. Should I count and list the days I left and arrived in the UK as being out of country?
3. There is not enought space on the form for all my absences. Should I continue on a seperate paper and attach this?
4. Should I list even days where I was out of the country for 1 day for work?
5. What if I can't remember the exact dates for all holidays in the past 5 years?

Thanks for any help on this!

Leon

[SYH]

Hello,
1. How many days in total are you allowed to be out of the UK during the 5 years?
2. Should I count and list the days I left and arrived in the UK as being out of country?
3. There is not enought space on the form for all my absences. Should I continue on a seperate paper and attach this?
4. Should I list even days where I was out of the country for 1 day for work?
5. What if I can't remember the exact dates for all holidays in the past 5 years?

1.There is a guidance regarding the number of days so please familiarize yourself with it.
however it is besides the point, you can apply if you can provide good reasons for your absence
2. the days you left and return are not considered absences. Again that is besides the point because you list the day you left and day you return and calculate accordingly and provide a reason.
3. I didn't use the form because I had many business trips so I used an excel spreadsheet and listed per column, day out, day in, number days absent, purpose of absence.
4. You list every day, whether it is one day or not. If it is one day in and out, then you calculate 0 days absent
5. Try very hard to be as accurate as possible, look through your records, credit card, frequent flyer, whatever that will give you a clue.
the application states you attest it is to the best of your knowledge, so you are not required to be perfect but your stamps in your passport better be accounted for and I guess you can include a disclaimer that the holidays can be off a day or two as it is an estimate.

You are very welcome

[Eugene_UK]

Hi SYH,
is it HO`s requirement that we need to calculate number of days out of the country as I understand there is no clear policy whether include in and out days in the list. Please correct me if I am wrong. My lawyer says that I should include both days of travel as absences. Did you give specific reason for business related absences, such as "client meetings" or "research trip" or just mentioned "business trip" - would it be enough?

[vinny]

The BIA's policy on continuous residence is given in Chapter 5 - Employment annexes > Annex F - Settlement guidance general. However, their interpretation has been challenged.

[SYH]

Hi SYH,
is it HO`s requirement that we need to calculate number of days out of the country as I understand there is no clear policy whether include in and out days in the list. Please correct me if I am wrong. My lawyer says that I should include both days of travel as absences. Did you give specific reason for business related absences, such as "client meetings" or "research trip" or just mentioned "business trip" - would it be enough?

If you have an attorney, I don't understand why people do that. Is he submitting your application?
It says right on the application or is it guidance what is an absence, please read it.

[leondj]

Thanks SYH and veryone for the help on this. I starting listing my days out of the country and it looks like I will be OK. I average about 45 days out of the country each year with none of them having more than 90 days for any 1 year period. Now if I counted the days when I leave and return that will be a different story alltogether as I normally take lots of short business trips.

[ismangil]

Thanks SYH and veryone for the help on this. I starting listing my days out of the country and it looks like I will be OK. I average about 45 days out of the country each year with none of them having more than 90 days for any 1 year period. Now if I counted the days when I leave and return that will be a different story alltogether as I normally take lots of short business trips.

As SYH said, it is clearly stated on the form itself that you do not need to count day of departure and arrival.

Maybe the immigration lawyer's know something the we don't?

[John]

I average about 45 days out of the country each year with none of them having more than 90 days for any 1 year period

Then clearly you do not have a problem, do you.Just to confirm, you don't include in the day counts either the day of departure or the day of arrival back in the UK.

Simple example, you leave on a Monday and return the next Friday ..... 3 days! ... the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday .... because neither the Monday nor the Friday count.

[jes2jes]

I average about 45 days out of the country each year with none of them having more than 90 days for any 1 year period

Then clearly you do not have a problem, do you.Just to confirm, you don't include in the day counts either the day of departure or the day of arrival back in the UK.

Simple example, you leave on a Monday and return the next Friday ..... 3 days! ... the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday .... because neither the Monday nor the Friday count.

John and co, since I am feeling a bit under the weather at the moment, could any of you provide me with the Link to the above statement in terms of counting of days. I did check Vinny's links above but could not see that.

I know it makes sense that the day you travelled out and arrived back in the UK, you were literally in the UK on both occasions it would be nice to have the policy document to back that.

Many thanks