Applying for British citizenship after indefinite leave to remain
With indefinite leave to remain held for 12 months and 5 years in the UK, you can usually apply to naturalise. Absences must stay within 450 days over the period and 90 in the last year. Enter your dates to find your first possible day.
Earliest date to apply for citizenship
Earliest citizenship application
15 September 2028
No 12-month window holds more than 180 days: your 5-year period is unbroken.
| 5 years completed | 13 October 2027 |
| Apply from (28 days early) | 15 September 2027 |
| Worst 12-month window | 30 days |
| Allowance left today | 180 days |
| Days abroad on the trips listed | 30 days |
| Citizenship, at the earliest | 15 September 2028 |
On that date: 30 days abroad in 5 years (limit 450), 0 in the last 12 months (limit 90); set by 12 months after indefinite leave.
Whole days only: the day you leave and the day you come back are not counted. Citizenship assumes ILR granted on the first application date; enter the real date when you have it.
Calculated in your browser: nothing you type is sent anywhere. Not legal advice; not affiliated with the Home Office.
Published by Radif Partners · How we calculate · Home Office fees of 8 October 2026, rules checked 13 October 2026
Naturalisation is the application an adult with settled status makes to become a British citizen. On the usual route you need 5 years living in the UK before the application and 12 months holding indefinite leave to remain, settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme or indefinite leave to enter (the 12-month wait does not apply if you are married to a British citizen). You should not have spent more than 450 days outside the UK in the 5 years, or more than 90 in the last 12 months, and you must have been physically in the UK exactly 5 years before the day the Home Office receives the form. You also need to be over 18, prove English, have passed the Life in the UK test, be of good character and intend to keep living here. The fee is £1,709 plus £130 for the ceremony, £1,839 in all, and a decision usually takes 6 months. The calculator finds your earliest date from your trips.
Who naturalises this way
This page covers the main route: an adult who came on a visa, settled, and now wants a British passport. GOV.UK lists other ways in, such as having a British parent, being born in the UK without automatically being British, being stateless, or the Windrush scheme for Commonwealth citizens who arrived before 1973; each has its own conditions. Married to a British citizen? The spouse route has a shorter period and no wait after settlement. EU, EEA and Swiss citizens with settled status follow the same rules as ILR holders, and some with pre-settled status can apply too.
You need permission to stay until you have attended the citizenship ceremony. ILR and settled status count as that permission, but ILR can lapse after 2 years in a row outside the UK, so a long period abroad after settling can take naturalisation off the table until you return with a Returning Resident visa.
Finding your first possible day
Four dates compete, and the latest wins: 5 years after you began living in the UK, 12 months after your ILR, the first day on which your absences in the previous 5 years and 12 months fit the limits, and a day on which you were in the UK exactly 5 years earlier.
The last test catches people out, and GOV.UK gives an example. An application received on 20 June 2022 fails if you were abroad from 10 to 25 June 2017, because on 20 June 2017 you were not in the UK. The answer is to wait until 24 June 2022. The calculator reproduces it: with ILR held 12 months on 20 June 2022 and that trip entered, the earliest date it returns is 24 June 2022. The Home Office can consider special circumstances, such as health reasons or travel restrictions that kept you away at the start of the period.
A more typical file: someone who arrived on 3 February 2020, settled on 10 January 2025 and made two trips totalling 34 days in the window. Neither the absence limits nor the first-day rule bites, so the date is set by the 12-month wait: 10 January 2026. "Received" means the day the Home Office gets the form: the same day online, later by post.
What the application asks you to show
- Language. Proof of your knowledge of English, Welsh or Scottish Gaelic.
- Life in the UK. If you passed it for settlement, the same pass counts; you do not sit it again. Otherwise, £50 per attempt.
- Good character. Assessed under the Home Office naturalisation guidance, which the citizenship page tells you to read before applying. If anything in your past worries you, take advice first.
- Immigration compliance. You should not have broken immigration laws in the period, although GOV.UK says that once you hold ILR the Home Office will not usually look at breaches before it.
- Future intention. You must intend to keep living in the UK.
The form asks for every absence in the period. GOV.UK suggests using your own records, emails and boarding passes, and says the Home Office will check its own data and correct any gaps. A careful list avoids questions later. The requirements page goes through each condition, including what happens above the absence limits.
Fee, decision, ceremony
You pay £1,709 for the application and £130 for the ceremony when you apply, £1,839 in all; biometrics at the UKVCAS appointment are free. A decision usually comes within 6 months, and you will be told before then if yours will take longer. Some applicants are invited to an interview, held without an interpreter. Tell UKVI if your situation changes in the meantime: a move, a marriage, an arrest.
Once approved, you attend a citizenship ceremony, the step that completes the process; your permission to stay must last until then. Within 5 working days of receiving your certificate you must return your biometric residence permit, cut into four pieces with a covering note, or you can be fined. You then apply for a British passport. The citizenship cost page adds children's registration and the full bill from settlement onward.