Indefinite leave to remain after five years on a spouse visa
You can apply 28 days before completing 5 years with partner permission. The fee is £3,226 per person, and the income test is applied again with savings counted pound for pound.
ILR date after a spouse visa: five-year count and trips
Earliest date to apply for ILR
15 September 2027
The 5-year partner route sets no fixed absence limit: you must have lived together in the UK, and long or frequent absences need a good reason. The 180-day figure below is shown as a guide only.
| 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
Settlement as a partner is governed by paragraph E-ILRP of Appendix FM. You need 5 years (60 months) of continuous residence in the UK with entry clearance or permission as a partner, with the same partner throughout; months spent as a fiancé, a visitor or on a work or study visa do not count. The earliest application date is 28 days before the five years end. You must still meet the financial requirement in force for you, £29,000 or the transitional level, but savings above £16,000 now count at their face value instead of being divided by 2.5. Applicants aged 18 to 64 need the Life in the UK test and English at B1 in speaking and listening, rising to B2 for applications made from 26 March 2027. The fee is £3,226 for each person, with no health surcharge, and the standard decision time is 6 months. The calculator above dates your application from the day your first spouse visa began and your trips abroad.
Counting the five years
The count runs from the day you entered the UK on your first spouse visa, or the day an in-country partner grant began if you switched. Paragraph E-ILRP.1.3(2) removes any period as a fiancé or proposed civil partner, and E-ILRP.1.4 counts only time with the same partner as on your last grant. Leave granted under the exceptions in paragraph EX.1 (described in decision letters as the 10-year route) does not count either: it leads to settlement after 10 years under Appendix Settlement Family Life.
Take a couple whose first visa started on 2 November 2026. Their five years end on 2 November 2031, so the earliest day to apply is 5 October 2031. GOV.UK warns that an application made earlier may be refused, so a few days' margin is sensible. Your second partner grant of 30 months normally runs past this point; if it would end before you qualify, extend first.
Time abroad on the five-year partner route
Absences are where the partner route differs from work routes, and the rules are worded differently from the Skilled Worker 180-day test. For the five-year route, Appendix FM requires continuous residence in the UK and, through paragraph E-LTRP.1.10, evidence that the two of you have lived together in the UK since your last grant, or a good reason for any time apart consistent with a continuing intention to live together here. A partner posted overseas on Crown service is covered separately by paragraph 26A of Appendix FM-SE.
The formal 180-day limit in any rolling 12 months comes from Appendix Continuous Residence, which applies to the 10-year route under Appendix Settlement Family Life. Even there, paragraph CR 3.4(g) says that absences for work, study or supporting family overseas do not count against the limit, as long as the family kept up its family life in the UK and the UK stayed its permanent home. The Home Office caseworker guidance adds that family and private life application forms ask you to list absences only if you were away 150 days or more in any 12-month period.
The calculator above applies the 180-day rolling test as a cautious yardstick. In the example, the couple spends 135 whole days abroad between 1 June 2028 and 15 October 2028: within the yardstick, and the dates above stand. A trip that takes any 12-month window past 180 days is flagged. Appendix FM sets no day count for the five-year route, so treat a flag as a signal to gather evidence that your home and family life stayed in the UK and, for long absences, to take advice before applying.
Money, English and the Life in the UK test
Paragraph E-ILRP.1.3(1A) applies the partner financial requirement again, with one change: in the savings formula the words "2.5 times" are disregarded. A couple earning £26,000 is £3,000 short of £29,000; at entry they would have needed £23,500 in savings, at settlement £19,000 is enough. With no income at all, £45,000 of savings held for six months meets the test. Couples first granted before 11 April 2024 keep the transitional level of £18,600 plus any children.
English must be at B1 in speaking and listening, through an approved test or a degree taught in English; a B1 result used earlier can be reused if the provider has not withdrawn it. Statement of Changes HC 1691 raises the level to B2 for settlement applications made on or after 26 March 2027, including people already on the route. The Life in the UK test costs £50. If either test is missing, D-ILRP.1.2 grants a further 30 months instead of refusing, and you apply again later.
Each person applying pays £3,226; children under 18 who hold permission as your dependants can be included. You must not leave the UK, Ireland, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man until the decision, or the application is withdrawn. Where offered, priority (£500) and super priority (£1,000) services shorten the 6-month wait. Married to a British citizen, you can then apply for citizenship without waiting a further year. The Home Office consulted in November 2025 on longer qualifying periods (earned settlement); those are proposals, and the five-year partner route was unchanged on 13 October 2026.