Dear All,
1) According to an immigration consultant who contacted a Senior Caseworker in the Home Office, the allowable absences over a 5-year period for Indefinite Leave to Remain are 225 days or 45 days "on average" per year. That is exactly 6 months (180 days) + 45 days.
She also mentioned that the Home Office will release new guidance to reflect this.
2) The consultant mentioned that the day of departure and the day of arrival do not count as absence from the UK. So, for example, a one week holiday outside the UK counts as 5 days absence, as opposed to 7 day. And only actual absences (i.e. excluding days of departure or arrival) need to specified in the ILR application form (SET (O) etc.).
3) According to the Guardian newspaper, the new changes for British Citizenship iproposed n the Green Paper Changes "will apply to new arrivals after the new laws are passed, and not to foreigners already living in the UK, so reforms are only likely to affect migrants arriving from 2010." (
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008 ... mmigration). In fact, the Green Paper itself refers to "newcomers" which seems to mean these changes will not apply to existing immigrants but only to those who come to the UK after the law is implemented.
Could anyone confirm if (1), (2) and (3) above are correct?
Thank you so much,
Rajesh