ILR Calculator UK: Check Your Indefinite Leave to Remain Eligibility

Researched and maintained by the ILR Calculator UK editorial team · Reviewed for accuracy against the Immigration Rules in force on 24 June 2026 · This page is general information about UK settlement, not regulated immigration advice. For advice on your own case, use an adviser regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority (IAA) or a solicitor.

An ILR calculator UK is a free tool that works out the exact date you can apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain — the UK’s permanent settlement status — based on your visa route, start date and time spent outside the UK. For most routes you qualify after a continuous 5-year period (10 years on the Long Residence route), you can apply up to 28 days early, and you must not exceed 180 days’ absence in any rolling 12-month period. The application fee is £3,226 per person from 8 April 2026.

What Is Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR)?

Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) — also known as UK settlement, permanent residence, settled status or simply a permanent residence / PR status — is the immigration status that frees you from time-limited visas. Once granted by UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI), ILR lets you live, work, study and access public funds in the United Kingdom without restriction. It is the final step before applying for British citizenship by naturalisation under the British Nationality Act 1981. This page works as a permanent residence calculator and settlement calculator: it processes your visa history against the Home Office continuous residence requirements to check your qualifying period, absence limits and earliest application date.

The qualifying period for ILR depends on your visa category. Skilled Worker, Health and Care Worker, Spouse, Partner, UK Ancestry, Hong Kong BN(O), Global Talent and most family routes lead to settlement after a continuous 5-year qualifying period. Long Residence applicants qualify after 10 years of continuous lawful residence, while certain accelerated routes such as the Innovator Founder visa or the Tier 1 Investor visa (under transitional arrangements) can deliver settlement in 3 years.

How the ILR Calculator UK Computes Your Target Dates

Each tool on this site is built directly from the Immigration Rules published by the UK Home Office and the official GOV.UK caseworker guidance on calculating the continuous period, and is reviewed for accuracy on each update. Whether you need to confirm your ILR eligibility, calculate your earliest application date, check the 28-day early-application window, track your days absent from the UK, review continuous residence, or measure your qualifying period, our ILR calculator UK gives you a fast, free, mobile-friendly answer. Every calculator runs entirely in your browser — no data is stored on any server.

Which UK Visas Lead to ILR?

The most common settlement routes are the Skilled Worker visa (formerly Tier 2 General), the Health and Care Worker visa, the Spouse or Partner visa under Appendix FM, the UK Ancestry visa, the Hong Kong BN(O) visa, the Global Talent visa, the Innovator Founder visa and the 10-year Long Residence route under paragraph 276B of the Immigration Rules. Refugees and individuals with humanitarian protection also qualify after 5 years. Our ILR calculator UK supports all of these categories and assesses both your qualifying period and your absences in a single workflow.

ILR Qualifying Periods and Absence Limits by Visa Route

Different visa routes lead to settlement under different sections of the Immigration Rules, and each carries its own qualifying period, absence allowance and continuous residence test. The table below shows how these differ across the main routes — use our ILR calculator to check your specific situation.

Source: UK Home Office Immigration Rules — Appendix Settlement, Appendix FM, Appendix Continuous Residence, Appendix Global Talent, Appendix Innovator Founder, Appendix Hong Kong British National (Overseas) and paragraph 276B (HC 395), in force June 2026. Compiled by ILR Calculator UK.

Understanding ILR Continuous Residence Requirements

To qualify for Indefinite Leave to Remain, most applicants must demonstrate a specific period of lawful residence, typically 5 or 10 years. Continuous residence sits at the heart of every ILR application. UKVI requires that, throughout your qualifying period, you held lawful immigration status without any unauthorised gaps. Even short overstays — a single day between visa expiry and the grant of new leave — can break continuity unless one of the limited paragraph 39E exceptions applies (overstays of 14 days or less where the applicant had reasons beyond their control). Our continuous residence calculator helps you confirm that your timeline is unbroken and identifies the precise dates that make up your qualifying period.

The 180-Day Absence Rule

You must not have spent more than 180 days outside the UK in any 12-month rolling period. Our ILR calculator UK simplifies this by aggregating your travel history against the Home Office “rolling” calculation method.

UKVI counts part-days as full days for absence purposes — a departure at 23:59 and a return at 00:01 the following day counts as two days absent. Our absence calculator models this rolling rule trip-by-trip so that you can spot risk before you submit.

For Long Residence applicants under paragraph 276B, the test is different: a maximum of 540 days across the entire 10-year period and no single absence over 184 days. Any single trip exceeding 184 days is likely to break continuous residence unless there were compelling or compassionate circumstances — such as serious illness of the applicant, a family emergency, or a natural disaster.

Which Absences Do Not Count Towards the 180-Day Limit?

Not every day outside the UK counts against you. Under Appendix Continuous Residence and the Home Office continuous-period guidance, several categories of absence can be disregarded or treated as permitted — provided you supply evidence. These exceptions are a common reason an application that looks borderline still succeeds, and they are applied strictly.

Source: GOV.UK — “Indefinite leave to remain: calculating continuous period in the UK” caseworker guidance, and Appendix Continuous Residence. Categories summarised by ILR Calculator UK; eligibility is assessed individually by the Home Office. Confirm your situation on GOV.UK before relying on an exception.

The 28-Day Early Application Window

For most routes, under paragraph CR 1.2(a) of Appendix Continuous Residence, you can submit your ILR application up to 28 calendar days before your qualifying period completes. This includes weekends and bank holidays. The window protects against gaps in lawful status while UKVI processes your application and triggers section 3C leave under the Immigration Act 1971, which extends your lawful status while a decision is pending. The concession does not apply to every route, so check the rule for your category before relying on it.

Other ILR Requirements You Must Meet

The time-based rules covered by our ILR calculator UK are necessary but not sufficient for ILR. Applicants aged 18 to 64 must also satisfy the requirements below. Failure on any of these will lead to refusal regardless of your qualifying period and absences.

ILR Application Fees and Processing Times

As of 8 April 2026, the standard Home Office fee for a SET form ILR application is £3,226 per applicant (it was £3,029 from 9 April 2025). There is also a mandatory £19.20 biometric enrolment fee. The Immigration Health Surcharge does not apply to settlement applications (£0). The fee is non-refundable if the application is refused, so always confirm the current figure on GOV.UK before you apply.

Optional priority services are available for in-country applications: the priority service adds £500 and targets a decision within 5 working days, and the super-priority service adds £1,000 and aims for the next working day. Standard processing takes up to six months but most straightforward decisions are issued within eight weeks. Biometric enrolment at a UKVCAS centre is mandatory for all in-country applications. Since October 2024, all ILR applications must be submitted online via GOV.UK — the old paper SET(O) form is no longer accepted.

ILR Application Fee History (2024–2026)

The Home Office reviews settlement fees roughly once a year through the Immigration and Nationality (Fees) Regulations. The table below tracks the standard per-applicant ILR fee so you can budget and time your application — the fee multiplies for every family member applying.

Source: UK Home Office, Immigration and Nationality (Fees) Regulations / GOV.UK visa fees. Figures verified to June 2026; a £19.20 biometric enrolment fee applies on top. Compiled by ILR Calculator UK — always confirm the live fee on GOV.UK.

From ILR to British Citizenship

Once you hold ILR you may apply for British citizenship by naturalisation after a further 12 months of residence — or immediately if you are married to or in a civil partnership with a British citizen. ILR also supports applications for a British passport for any children born or registered in the UK while you are settled. The ILR-to-citizenship pathway is a major reason settlement is so highly valued: it converts a time-limited migrant into a permanent member of British society with full civic rights.

Why Use ILR Calculator UK?

Each of our calculators is purpose-built around a single decision point in the ILR journey, then connected to the others so you can move from “Am I eligible?” to “When can I apply?” to “Have I had too many absences?” without leaving the site. The tools run instantly in your browser — no data is collected and nothing is stored on our servers. We update every calculator within days of any Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules.

We also explain the procedural details that decide real cases: how UKVI counts part-days for absences, how the 28-day early application window interacts with biometric appointments, when paragraph 39E exceptions for overstayers apply, how the continuous residence clock pauses (or breaks) on visa changes, and what to do if you have switched between routes such as Tier 2 to Skilled Worker, or Spouse to Global Talent. This depth of coverage — grounded in the actual Appendix text, not summaries — turns a simple ILR calculator UK into a genuine settlement planning tool.