Days Absent - Multi-country trips

[bigasmoon]

Hi,

I am preparing my British citizenship application online and am currently recording my trips outside of the UK in the last 5 years. The instructions clearly state you have to calculate the days absent excluding the day you left the UK and the day you returned. In other words only a full day out of the UK counts as an absence. This is clear.

However, I have several trips during which I visited more than one country and the online application requires a separate entry for each country. So for example:
- Leave the UK on 10 July to Japan
- Arrive in Japan 11 July
- On 15 July move from Japan to China
- On 20 July leave China to return to the UK
- Arrive in the UK on July 20

Total days absent are 9. However it looks as though I have to enter 2 trips, one for Japan and one for China. So I could enter:
Japan: departure date 10 July - return date 15 July
China: departure date 15 July - return date 20 July

Is it OK to say that the 15 July is a return/departure date, when in actual facts it is just a transfer date and what are the days absent for each trip? Do I assign 4 to one trip and 5 days to the other arbitrarily?

Hopefully you can help. I have not been able to find any information about this.
Thanks

[CR001]

Kindly refrain from tagging onto topics that are more than 3 years old. Your post has been romoved.

Are you completing the paper or online form?

[bigasmoon]

I am sorry I thought it was better to use an open thread.

I am using the online form and that is the problem as it does not allow me to selct more than one country for each trip.

Thanks

[bigasmoon]

Hi,
I tried to call the Home Office too, however unfortunately they said they are not trained to give such advice. Therefore I am still hoping somebody can offer some guidance here.
Many thanks

[qleona]

Hi, were you able to resolve this? I'm completing the form online and I am having a similar issue. I traveled to an EU country, stayed for a week, and then on to the UAE for a couple of days and returned again via the EU country where I stayed for another week. My passport has a stamp from the UAE. If you managed to find an answer to this please share! Thanks!

[jkampane]

Hi Guys,

Anyone got an answer to those use cases?

Thanks!

[trilobite1981]

I am lost here. I had the same situation but I managed to declare my multiple country visits in my onlin application form. Not sure what you are talking about.

you can add one country with the date when you left the UK then add the next one from your destination to next destination until you come back to UK.

Does it make sense?

[double2double5]

The answer: it doesn't matter how many countries you visited. Home Office only wants to know how many days you were away from the UK. I have been in a similar situation and I only include the first country I visited. An example case below:

Example:
Flight out of UK to UAE: 10 July
Arrival in UAE: 11 July (assuming an overnight flight, that covers all scenario)
Depart UAE to France: 15 July
Arrive France: 15 July (randomly assuming a day flight, it is irrelevant)
Depart France to UK: 31 July
Arrival UK: 31 July (no overnight journey etc, unless you take the bus).

In this case (and in all cases), ignore the day you left the UK and the day you arrived back in the UK. i.e., don't count 10 July and 31 July. That leaves you with 20 full days of absence.

In the application, you would say: Purpose: Holiday, From: 10 July, To 31 July, Absence: 20 days, Countries Visited: France

Don't bother splitting it into two trips; because you didn't leave the UK on 15 July. You left on 10 July and you came back on 31 July. I normally put the first country of visit. In this case, UAE, even though you spent more time in France.