ILR absence calculator

For the common 180-day test, the day you leave the UK and the day you return are normally not counted as days absent. Count the full days in between. A trip leaving late one day and returning after midnight can still contain a full day abroad; use actual dates and retain evidence.

The important number is not simply a calendar-year total. The calculator tests moving 12-month periods and shows the highest result. Correct overlapping trips before relying on it; duplicate date ranges can make a paper record look worse than it is.

• Passports, boarding passes and e-ticket confirmations.
• Employer records and a letter where business travel needs explaining.
• Bank, tenancy, school or medical records showing UK residence where stamps are incomplete.

See the Home Office continuous residence guidance. Last reviewed: 17 August 2026. This is not legal advice.

Suppose you leave on 1 January and return on 12 January. Under the usual full-day method, 2 to 11 January are counted: ten days. If a second trip overlaps those dates because it was entered twice, correct the ledger before interpreting the result. The tool tests the dates inside every moving 12-month period, so a group of summer and winter trips can be more important than the annual total shown by an airline account.

Use one row per trip with consistent ISO dates. Include a destination or note where it helps later reconciliation. Remove tentative bookings that were cancelled, and do not merge separate trips just because they are close together. Export the completed ledger with a copy of the passports and travel records used to create it.

1. List the departure and return date for every journey in the qualifying period.
2. Compare the list with all passports, airline accounts, calendars and employer travel records.
3. Count full days abroad consistently; note overnight journeys separately.
4. Run the route-appropriate rolling-window calculation, then inspect the highest windows manually.
5. Keep the final ledger and supporting evidence with the settlement bundle.

This process catches a frequent error: an applicant remembers holidays but omits business travel, a short trip to Ireland, or travel recorded in an old passport. The Home Office may ask questions where dates conflict, so clarity matters as much as the total.

• Same-day travel: record it even where it adds no full absence days; it helps reconcile the chronology.
• Duplicate bookings: a cancelled or rebooked flight is not necessarily a second absence.
• Overlapping entries: correct the source record before concluding that the limit is exceeded.
• Older Long Residence absences: rules may depend on when the absence began, so use the long-residence guidance rather than this general result.
• Family applications: residence facts can matter, but the work-route 180-day test should not be imported without checking the family rules.

This calculator is designed for planning where a rolling 180-day test applies. It does not decide whether an absence was permitted, whether an exception applies, or whether a route uses a different test. Read the linked Home Office continuous residence guidance alongside your route page. Once the ledger is complete, compare it with the travel history you will declare in the form and obtain advice for any figure near a limit.

Leila takes three trips: 40 full days in February, 70 in July and 80 in December. Although an airline account may label them as three separate calendar-year holidays, a 12-month period spanning February to the following January includes 190 days. On a route subject to the usual 180-day rolling test, that window needs investigation. Moving the February trip into the previous year would not solve the issue: the test follows dates, not the January-to-December reporting view.

• Passport pages and expired passports.
• Airline, rail or ferry confirmations, including changed bookings.
• Employer letters covering business travel and any overseas assignment.
• A ledger explaining discrepancies between sources.
• A copy of the final calculation and the route guidance used.

Where evidence conflicts, record the reason rather than changing dates to force a result. A transparent note is easier to assess than an unexplained mismatch.

Read the absence figure beside the correct route, qualifying period and official rule version. Check that no trip appears twice, no return date precedes departure, and all full overseas days are represented. If a window is close to the limit, preserve the calculation inputs and seek advice before filing. The calculation is only one part of continuous residence; immigration status and other route conditions still matter.

Should I round partial days? Use the full-day method applicable to the route and retain exact travel dates. What about an airport transit? Record the itinerary and check the official guidance if it affected entry or residence. Can I omit a trip that does not change the total? No. A complete ledger is more reliable than a selectively constructed one, and can explain later passport or airline records.

Save a dated copy of the result and source ledger. Re-run it if you travel before applying, because a new absence can change a rolling window. Compare the final travel history with the dates entered in the online form. Where an employer supplied travel dates, ask them to correct any mismatch before you rely on the letter.

Does 180 mean calendar-year days? No: for applicable routes it is a rolling 12-month test. Do business trips count? Usually yes; purpose does not change the arithmetic. What if I am on a spouse route? Do not treat this result as a spouse-route eligibility decision; use the family-route guidance.