ILR and British citizenship calculator

The calculator follows one chain of dates. It counts the qualifying period your route sets for settlement from the day permission began, tests every trip abroad against that route's absence rule, and dates the earliest application. Then it treats that day as the grant of indefinite leave and checks each later day until every naturalisation condition holds at once.

Indefinite leave to remain, or settlement, is permission to stay in the UK with no time limit. On the Skilled Worker route it needs 5 years of continuous residence. Paragraph CR 1.1 of Appendix Continuous Residence counts that period back from the most favourable of three dates. They are the application date, any date up to 28 days later and the decision date, so an application can go in 28 days early. With permission from 1 February 2022 and two holidays abroad, the years end on 31 January 2027 and the application may go in from 3 January 2027.

British citizenship comes at least a year after the grant. Section 6(1) of the British Nationality Act 1981 requires the applicant to have been free from immigration time restrictions for the whole final 12 months. The 5 years before applying may also hold no more than 450 days abroad. In that example the earliest citizenship application is 2 January 2028.

Until ILR is granted, the calculator assumes it arrives on the earliest application day. A decision takes time, so the real grant, and the citizenship date that hangs on it, usually come later. With ILR already held, choosing British citizenship and entering the grant date starts the chain from the real day.

The calculator reads a period as complete on the day before the same date some years on. Permission from 1 March 2021 therefore completes 5 years on 28 February 2026. GOV.UK's dated examples for citizenship are among the reference cases the calculator has to reproduce.

In whole days, and never more than 180 days outside the UK in any 12-month period. That is the test paragraph CR 3.1 of Appendix Continuous Residence sets for the work routes, Long Residence and the 10-year family route.

Version 10.0 of the continuous residence caseworker guidance tells caseworkers to "only include whole days" and not to count part-day absences of less than 24 hours. The day you leave and the day you come back are therefore days in the UK. A trip from a Friday to the following Monday is 2 days abroad, and an overnight trip is none.

The test is a rolling 12-month period, not a calendar year or a visa year: every run of 12 months inside the qualifying period counts. The calculator reads one window as running from any day to the day before the same date a year later. It counts only the days that fall inside the period.

Paragraph CR 3.2 keeps an older method for permission granted before 11 January 2018. Absences in it are counted in consecutive 12-month periods ending on the same date as the application. The calculator tests rolling periods throughout, which catch every breach the fixed periods would catch, and flags the older permission in a row.

One day over the limit breaks continuous residence. In the calculator's reading, the trip during which day 181 falls is the break, and a new period starts the day after that trip ends. With permission from 1 February 2022 and one trip from 1 March 2023 to 29 August 2023, the earliest ILR application stays at 3 January 2027. Coming back a day later moves it to 2 August 2028.

Paragraph CR 3.4 leaves some absences out of the count altogether. They include work on a humanitarian or environmental crisis and travel disruption from a natural disaster, conflict or pandemic. Absences for compelling and compassionate personal circumstances are left out too, such as a life-threatening illness or the illness or death of a close family member. So are approved research and accompanying a partner on Crown service. The calculator counts every trip entered, so such absences stay out of the list.

Three more rules shape the list. The days between a grant of entry clearance and arrival in the UK count as absence, according to the guidance, so they go in as a trip. Under paragraph CR 3.5, time in the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man can count as time in the UK. A custodial sentence, a deportation or exclusion order, or removal directions end the residence whatever the days say (CR 4.1).

Skilled Worker and most other work routes take 5 years, Global Talent for exceptional talent and Innovator Founder 3 years, and Long Residence and the family route 10 years. For permission that began on 1 September 2024 with no trips, the earliest applications fall on the dates below.

Time on Global Talent, Innovator Founder, Scale-up and several other listed routes can be added together towards the Skilled Worker period. Global Talent for exceptional promise takes 5 years, and so do UK Ancestry and BN(O). The calculator's Skilled Worker choice gives them the same count with the 180-day test and the 28-day window; each route's own Appendix decides which absence rule applies to it.

Appendix Long Residence asks for 10 years of lawful residence, in which immigration bail does not count. The last 12 months must be on the current route, unless permission was granted before 11 April 2024. Paragraph CR 3.3 splits the absences at that day. Those that began earlier are judged against the old limits, 548 days in total and 184 days in one absence; later ones against the rolling test.

The 5-year partner route sits in Appendix FM instead. It needs 60 months with leave as the partner of a British citizen or settled person, with the same partner and with fiancé(e) leave ignored. Appendix Continuous Residence does not cover it, so the Rules give it no 180-day limit and no early window. The calculator shows its absences without judging them and dates the application on the day the months are complete.

Earned settlement is a proposal, not law. The Home Office consulted on it from 20 November 2025 to 12 February 2026. Under it, 10 years would become the standard qualifying period for anyone not yet holding ILR, with shorter and longer periods for some groups. When the rules were last checked, on 29 October 2026, the consultation page said the feedback was being analysed, and no outcome or start date had been published.

The Statements of Changes laid in 2026 up to that check altered no qualifying period. The calculator therefore counts the Rules in force and says in a row that the proposal is not law. The EU Settlement Scheme falls outside the proposal, and the consultation notes that changing citizenship itself would need primary legislation.

Naturalisation under section 6(1) allows at most 450 days outside the UK in the 5 years ending with the application date, and 90 days in the final 12 months. Schedule 1 of the 1981 Act sets four conditions that must hold together.

• Presence in the UK on the first day of the 5 years.
• No more than 450 days abroad over the period, and no more than 90 days in its final 12 months.
• Free from immigration time restrictions throughout those final 12 months, which ILR, settled status or indefinite leave to enter gives.
• No breach of the immigration laws at any time in the 5 years.

The period ends with the application and begins the day after the same date 5 years earlier. The Home Office's naturalisation guidance gives the example of an application on 1 September 2022, which needs the applicant to be in the country on 2 September 2017. Days count as whole days, as they do for settlement.

That first day can decide more than the totals do. GOV.UK's own example is someone abroad from 10 June 2017 to 25 June 2017 whose application was received on 20 June 2022. It does not qualify, and the date to wait for is 24 June 2022, when the period starts on the day of return.

The final 12 months carry a limit of their own. With ILR from 1 March 2025 and a trip from 1 June 2025 to 15 September 2025, 105 days abroad, the year with ILR first allows 28 February 2026. That year still holds the whole trip, so the earliest date that meets the 90-day limit is 16 June 2026.

Days before the first day entered count as days abroad, unless "I lived in the UK before that day" is set to yes. That matters on the 3-year routes. Global Talent permission from 10 May 2023 gives ILR from 11 April 2026. Citizenship then follows on 9 May 2028 without earlier UK residence, and on 10 April 2027 with it.

As soon as ILR is granted, and not before. The spouse visa leads to ILR after 60 months on the 5-year partner route. Section 6(2) then lets the spouse or civil partner of a British citizen apply with no 12-month wait.

Schedule 1, paragraph 3, sets the residence for this route at 3 years instead of 5. Those years must start on a day spent in the UK and may hold no more than 270 days abroad, and at most 90 in the final 12 months. Being free from immigration time restrictions is required on the application date only.

On the 5-year partner route from 1 February 2022, with the opening example's two holidays, the 60 months are complete on 31 January 2027. With ILR assumed granted that day, it is also the earliest citizenship date for a British citizen's husband, wife or civil partner. Without the marriage, section 6(1) would add the year with ILR and give 30 January 2028.

GOV.UK's spouse example follows the same first-day rule. Someone abroad from 10 June 2019 to 25 June 2019, with an application received on 20 June 2022, has to wait until 24 June 2022.

Section 6(2) turns on the marriage or civil partnership, not on the visa. Someone who settled through Skilled Worker and is married to a British citizen applies under it too. The calculator's spouse switch applies the shorter rules whatever the route to settlement was.

Settled status works like ILR for citizenship. It removes the time limit on stay, so the final 12 months free of restrictions can be held with it. Pre-settled status is the scheme's time-limited grant, and the settled grant follows once the qualifying period is complete.

Appendix EU asks for a continuous qualifying period of 5 years. Absences exceeding a total of six months in any 12-month period break it, and the Rules give no number of days. The calculator reads six months as 182 days, so 183 days in any 12 months break the period. No early window was found for the scheme, so the date shown is the day the years are complete.

Annex 1 of Appendix EU excuses a single absence of up to 12 months for an important reason, and absences for compulsory military service, a Crown service posting or COVID-19. Take residence from 1 March 2021 and a trip from 1 January 2022 to 1 August 2022, 211 days abroad. Without a reason it breaks the period on 3 July 2022, and settled status moves to 1 August 2027. With an important reason the date is 28 February 2026.

The calculator excuses only the longest trip, and only when the return came by the same date 12 months after leaving. That trip still counts for naturalisation, whose 5 years must begin on a day in the UK. In the example the earliest citizenship application is 31 July 2027, the last day of the 5 years that begin on the day of return.

Holders of pre-settled status may meet a second test instead. It allows absences of up to 30 months in total in the most recent 60, assessed on the date of the application. The calculator names that test in a row without computing it.

Paragraph 2 of Schedule 1 lets the Secretary of State treat the residence requirements as met in special circumstances. The naturalisation guidance sets out how caseworkers use that discretion, in bands that are policy rather than law and never a right.

• Over 450 days by 30 days or less (over 270 days for a spouse): caseworkers "must exercise discretion" unless there are other grounds to refuse.
• From 480 days to 900 days (300 to 540 for a spouse): only with home, employment, family and finances established in the UK. It also takes a listed reason, such as Crown service or absences a career made unavoidable.
• More than 900 days (540 for a spouse): normally refused.
• In the final 12 months: up to 100 days, discretion is exercised. Up to 180 days, it needs the residence requirement across the period met. Beyond that, the applicant has to show the UK has been made home.

The calculator gives the law's date and, where it differs, the earliest date under policy. Three spring and summer trips from 2016 to 2018 put an applicant with ILR from 1 January 2020 at 457 days abroad on 31 December 2020, inside the 30-day band. That is the date under policy; the law is met only on 31 July 2021, when the period begins on the day the first trip ended.

Citizenship has no early window either. The guidance allows an application to be put on hold when the applicant will meet the requirements within 2 months of the date it is considered. That too is discretion, so the calculator dates the day the law is met.

Residence is one requirement among several. Naturalisation also needs a pass in the Life in the UK test, English at B1 or a degree taught in English, and good character. The Home Office fees in force from 8 April 2026 apply to both steps.

The English language requirement for settlement rises from B1 to B2 for applications made on or after 26 March 2027, under Statement of Changes HC 1691. It covers the routes now at B1, among them Skilled Worker, Global Talent, Innovator Founder and Long Residence, and people already on them. The calculator shows B2 whenever the earliest application falls on or after that day; citizenship stays at B1.

The good character guidance for caseworkers treats some histories as close to decisive. Since 10 February 2025, anyone who entered the UK illegally will normally be refused whatever time has passed. The narrow exceptions are victims of trafficking and refugees with a statutory defence. A custodial sentence of 12 months or more normally means refusal too.

From 8 April 2026, ILR in the UK costs £3,226, up from £3,029. Citizenship costs £1,839: £1,709 for naturalisation plus £130 for the citizenship ceremony. The Life in the UK test costs £50, and the EU Settlement Scheme charges nothing.

Take a Skilled Worker whose permission began on 13 June 2022, with 5 trips abroad. The calculator counts their whole days first.

The busiest 12 months hold 175 days, trips 2 and 3 together, which is 5 days under the limit, so the residence is unbroken. The 5 years run until 12 June 2027, and the ILR application can be made from 15 May 2027. That falls on or after 26 March 2027, so the English requirement shown is B2.

For citizenship the calculator assumes ILR on 15 May 2027, so the 12 months first allow 14 May 2028. By then trip 5, 96 days that winter, sits inside the last year, above the 90-day limit. The earliest application that meets the law is 26 November 2028, when only 90 days of it remain inside the final 12 months.

The excess of 6 days stays within the 100 days for which the guidance says to exercise discretion. The result therefore also shows 14 May 2028 as the earliest date under policy. The days until countdown counts the days left to either date.

Used as an ILR absence calculator alone, the tool needs only the route, the first day and the trips; the citizenship rows follow from the same list. Everything typed stays in the browser and travels only in the page's link.