Indefinite leave to remain: when you qualify and what it takes
Most work and family routes lead to settlement after 5 years, long residence after 10. You can apply 28 days early if you stayed within 180 days abroad in any 12 months. Enter your start date and trips to get your date.
Your ILR date from your start date and trips abroad
Earliest date to apply for ILR
15 September 2027
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
Indefinite leave to remain (ILR), also called settlement, ends the time limit on your stay: you can live, work and study in the UK for as long as you like and, usually after 12 months, apply to naturalise. The qualifying period depends on the route you are on. Skilled Worker, Health and Care Worker, UK Ancestry and partner routes need 5 continuous years, the Global Talent route 3 or 5, and long residence 10 lawful years on almost any mix of visas. Throughout the period you must not spend more than 180 whole days outside the UK in any rolling 12 months, and you may apply up to 28 days before it ends. Adults aged 18 to 64 pass the Life in the UK test; from 26 March 2027 most routes also require English at B2. Skilled Workers still need a sponsor and a salary at the settlement threshold. The fee is £3,226 for each person, with a standard decision in about 6 months.
Your route decides the length of the wait
Settlement is not one application but a family of them, each written into the appendix of the route you hold. The table gives the usual qualifying period; the rules for each route add their own conditions on top. Time only counts on routes that lead to settlement: a Skilled Worker cannot add years spent as a Student or on the Graduate route, and cannot count time as someone else's dependant. The long residence route is the exception that takes almost any lawful permission, which is why people who studied, then worked, then switched visas often end up there.
| Route | Qualifying period | Condition on top |
|---|---|---|
| Skilled Worker, Health and Care Worker | 5 years | sponsor still licensed, salary at the settlement threshold |
| Global Talent | 3 or 5 years | money earned in your field; 5 years for exceptional promise |
| UK Ancestry | 5 years | still able to work and intending to, without public funds |
| Partner of a British or settled person | 5 years | family rules met again (see the spouse ILR page) |
| Long residence | 10 years | lawful stay throughout; current permission held 12 months if granted on or after 11 April 2024 |
Skilled Worker time can be combined with Global Talent, Innovator Founder, Scale-up, T2 Minister of Religion, International Sportsperson, Representative of an Overseas Business and most Tier 1 permissions (SW 21.2), so a worker who moved between those routes keeps the clock running. The long residence page covers the ten-year route, and the requirements checklist lists the evidence route by route.
Counting to your application date
Under Appendix Continuous Residence (CR 1.1) the Home Office counts your period back from the date most favourable to you, including any date up to 28 days after you apply. In practice you can submit 28 days before the anniversary; any earlier and the application may be refused. Absences are counted in whole days and tested in every 12-month window, not by calendar year.
Take a Skilled Worker who arrived on 14 March 2022 and spent three spells abroad of 66 days in all. No 12-month window holds more than 45 days, so nothing breaks. The five years end on 14 March 2027 and the earliest application date is 14 February 2027. That date falls before 26 March 2027, so under SW 22A.1 the new B2 English requirement would not yet apply to that application. Had one trip pushed a window past 180 days, the period would have restarted: the absence calculator shows where the limit bites and how many days you have left.
The tests on the day you apply
Life in the UK. Applicants aged 18 to 64 need a pass: 24 questions in 45 minutes, 75% to pass, £50 each attempt, booked at least three days ahead. The unique reference number goes on the form. A pass counts again later for citizenship.
English. Skilled Workers proved English when they got the visa and, for applications made before 26 March 2027, prove nothing more at settlement. The Statement of Changes HC 1691 raises the settlement requirement to B2 from 26 March 2027 on most routes (Skilled Worker, Global Talent, UK Ancestry, long residence and family life among them), and it applies to people already on the path. Routes that ask for B1 today move to B2 on that date.
Salary, for Skilled Workers. Your sponsor must still hold its licence, confirm it needs you for the foreseeable future, and pay at least the settlement salary in SW 24.3: £41,700 and the going rate for most people, £33,400 for a job on the Immigration Salary List, £31,300 if your first certificate of sponsorship predates 4 April 2024, and £25,000 with the pay-scale rate for listed health and education jobs. A salary that only met the threshold with allowances will fail here as it would on an extension.
Suitability. Criminal convictions and immigration breaches are assessed under Part Suitability on every route. For a refusal history or a conviction, take advice from a solicitor or an adviser registered with the Immigration Advice Authority.
Fee, decision and keeping the status
The application costs £3,226 for each person, with no health surcharge and no fee for biometrics. A worker settling with a partner and one child pays £9,678. A standard decision usually takes 6 months from the biometrics appointment; £500 buys the priority service (5 working days) and £1,000 super priority (the next working day after a weekday appointment). Until you hear, stay in the UK, Ireland, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man, or the application is withdrawn. The ILR fee page and the processing time page go into both.
Once granted, settlement does not expire, but it lapses if you spend more than 2 years in a row outside the UK; you would then need a Returning Resident visa. Twelve months after the grant most people can apply for British citizenship. The earned settlement page explains the reform the government consulted on; the rules in force on 13 October 2026 still give the periods above.