When can I apply for ILR?

For many five-year ILR routes, an application can usually be made up to 28 days before the end of the qualifying period. The correct start date is route-specific: it is often the date your qualifying permission began, but a late entry, a route change or earlier qualifying leave can alter the answer.

Your visa grant date and the date you first entered the UK are not interchangeable. A route may count qualifying permission from its start date, while absence calculations and evidence of residence may make the actual arrival date important. If you entered later than expected, record both dates and check the route guidance before submitting.

1. Select the settlement route you are relying on.
2. Enter every relevant grant period rather than assuming all immigration history combines.
3. Check absences, continuous residence, tests and route-specific requirements before treating the date as usable.

For example, a Skilled Worker normally needs five qualifying years, a sponsor confirmation and salary evidence. A partner on a family route has relationship and financial requirements instead. Long Residence has a separate ten-year framework.

• Counting time on a route that cannot be combined with the chosen route.
• Using the decision date rather than the date the online application is submitted.
• Ignoring a gap in permission or an absence that breaks continuous residence.
• Assuming a spouse or partner route is subject to the work-route 180-day rule.

Start with a simple chronology: every grant start and end date, the date you entered after each grant, each application submitted and decided, and every route change. Put the document reference beside each event. The calculator gives a useful first date, but this timeline tells you whether the period can actually be relied on. It also makes it much easier to answer the online form consistently.

• All passports held during the qualifying period, plus eVisa or grant records.
• A chronology cross-checked against UKVI emails, decision notices and application confirmations.
• A travel ledger supported by booking confirmations, employer records or passport stamps.
• Route evidence: sponsor letter and pay records for work routes; relationship and financial evidence for partner routes.
• Life in the UK and English evidence, where the route requires them and no exemption applies.

Scan readable copies before the application window opens. If a document is missing, explain why and gather contemporaneous alternatives rather than silently leaving a gap in the story.

1. Save the estimated date and subtract enough time to request documents and resolve discrepancies.
2. Read the settlement page for the exact route and the continuous residence guidance.
3. Run a separate absence audit; do not use a rough holiday total.
4. Apply online before current leave expires, but only once the qualifying requirements are met.
5. Do not travel after applying unless the official guidance confirms the consequences for your application.

A date estimate is most valuable when it becomes a preparation timetable. If there is a disputed gap, an unusual route combination or a prior refusal, obtain regulated immigration advice before choosing the form.

Does a biometric appointment set the application date? No: the relevant act is normally submitting the online application. Can I wait until my visa expires? Do not wait if you already qualify; but never let permission expire while deciding. Can a decision arrive after my leave ends? An in-time valid application can have important consequences for status, but it does not cure an application made too early. Keep the submission confirmation.

Build in time for a replacement passport, sponsor letter, bank statement cycle or Life in the UK booking. A calculator’s earliest date is not a recommended submission date if crucial evidence will arrive later. Conversely, leave enough time to extend permission where the route has not yet matured. Review the chronology again on the day you submit: dates copied from a draft can become stale after travel or a new grant.

Check the GOV.UK ILR guidance and the route-specific Immigration Rules before applying. Last reviewed: 17 August 2026. This page is general information, not legal advice.

Five-year work route: if qualifying permission began on 1 October 2021, five years completes on 1 October 2026. Planning from the usual 28-day window gives 3 September 2026, subject to all other requirements. Late arrival: if a visa began on 1 October but you entered on 1 December, do not assume either date is decisive without reading the relevant route guidance. Keep the visa, travel and residence evidence together.

Route change: time on one work route may combine only where the Rules allow. A partner moving from a ten-year family route to a five-year route should not treat the earliest family permission as automatically qualifying five-year-route time.

• Is this the correct route, and does every period relied on count?
• Have all rolling absence windows or route-specific residence questions been checked?
• Are English and Life in the UK requirements met or is an exemption evidenced?
• Have the sponsor, salary, relationship, financial or current-permission conditions been checked for the exact route?
• Does the online application date, rather than a future biometric appointment, fall within the permissible window?

Can I submit before the 28-day window? Do not assume so: applying too early can cause refusal. Does five years mean 60 calendar months? It means the qualifying period under the applicable route and Rules. Can a calculator predict a decision? No; it helps you organise dates and prompts for evidence.