ILR eligibility calculator

It maps your answers to common settlement routes, including Skilled Worker, Hong Kong BN(O), family partner and Long Residence. It highlights qualifying time, residence, absence and route-specific checks such as sponsorship, relationship, English language and Life in the UK.

In particular, family routes are not assessed with one universal 180-day absence test. Long Residence also requires its own historic-rule analysis.

1. Check every grant and expiry date against your UKVI records.
2. Add every overseas trip, including day trips and travel either side of midnight.
3. Read the route page and official source linked in your result.
4. Seek regulated immigration advice where your history is unusual or uncertain.

An apparent match means “investigate this route”, not “submit now”. First confirm the qualifying period. Then test continuous residence and absences under that route’s rules. Finally examine the conditions which only apply on the application date: for example, an employer’s confirmation for a Skilled Worker, a continuing relationship and correct financial category for a partner, or a complete lawful-residence chronology for Long Residence.

If the calculator returns no clear route, that can still be useful. It may mean you need an extension, a different settlement path, or more accurate information about historic leave. Never select an answer merely because it gives the earliest result.

• Use the permission dates shown in grant notices, not the date you started a job or signed a tenancy.
• Enter trips individually. Do not replace multiple journeys with an annual estimate.
• Separate the main applicant from each dependant: grants, absences and tests can differ.
• Record refused, withdrawn, late or pending applications. Their effect cannot be assumed away.
• Check whether a partner route is five, two or ten years; those labels are not interchangeable.

Keep identity and immigration records in one folder, travel evidence in another, and route-specific evidence in a third. Work-route evidence commonly includes sponsor confirmation, payslips and matching bank statements. Partner-route evidence should explain the relationship, cohabitation and finances. Long Residence needs decision notices and proof that every period of leave was lawful. English and Life in the UK evidence should be matched to the person who needs it, not treated as a household document.

1. Open the official route page named in the result and read the eligibility section in full.
2. Use the qualifying-date and absence calculators to stress-test the dates.
3. Make a short list of missing evidence and request employer or bank documents early.
4. Check the current form, fee and service availability close to submission.
5. Take advice if the result depends on a gap, a route switch, criminality or an unexplained absence.

The calculator is an organiser, not a substitute for the Immigration Rules. Requirements can change and the official form asks route-specific questions. Check GOV.UK ILR guidance immediately before submission, save a copy of your answers, and ensure every claimed date is supported by a document.

Sam has five years in the UK but spent the first eighteen months as a student, then changed to Skilled Worker permission. The calculator should not treat five years of presence as a guaranteed Skilled Worker settlement period. It should prompt Sam to identify which leave can combine, check the current work-route conditions and compare any alternative long-residence timeline. The useful result is a list of questions to prove, not the earliest-looking date.

A short, dated explanation can be more useful than dozens of screenshots. Link each key assertion in the calculator result to a document: the start of leave to a grant notice, travel to a ledger, work to sponsor evidence, and family life to the right household and financial records. This makes a later form review quicker and exposes any missing period before submission.

Start with GOV.UK: Indefinite leave to remain. Last reviewed: 17 August 2026. General information only; not legal advice.

The tool asks first about the route you intend to rely on because five years of residence alone is not a universal entitlement. A Skilled Worker result prompts for eligible work history, sponsorship and salary; a BN(O) result prompts for five years' continuous residence; a partner result focuses on the correct family route, relationship and financial evidence; Long Residence requires a lawful ten-year timeline and historic absence analysis.

If your answer produces more than one possible route, treat that as a comparison task. Compare the dates, documentary burden and risks for each route before choosing an application form.

Example one: a Skilled Worker with four years and ten months of qualifying permission is not yet ready merely because their passport shows five years in the UK. The result should show the timing and sponsor/salary checks still outstanding. Example two: a spouse on the family route should not be marked ineligible merely because a work-route 180-day test was exceeded; the family-route facts must be assessed separately.

Can I use this for a dependant? Yes, as a planning aid, but each dependant's grants and absences need separate input. What if I had a visa gap? Record it rather than omitting it; section 3C and validity are fact-specific. Is GOV.UK's outcome guaranteed? Only the Home Office decides an application under the rules and evidence submitted.