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Hi., I'm due to apply for my ILR in July on the Tier 2 General 5 year route. I have a query on absences. During the past 5 years I have spent a total of 159 days out of UK( inclusive of the days of travel). However in 2016 I have spent a total of 50 days out of UK on three different ocassions accounting to around 35 working days. My allocated time was 29 working days of paid leave but I had some overtime which I could claim back as time which I did. IS this going to be an issue? Please advise and what evidence would I require with my application. Thanks

Can I please request the senior and more experienced members on this forum to share thier views on the above query please. Would a letter from my employer certifying the overtime etc. suffice? If I take out the travel days it is 31 working days in 2016- 2 more than the allocated which I can get evidence form my employer for paid absence. Please advice.
Thanks

You will need a letter from employer that should list all days that you were out of the UK and the reason for those absences. And this includes annual leave. I don't think you should over-complicate things by mentioning about overtime etc. and confuse the caseworker. So if the letter just says something like (x date to y date: reason), it should be fine..
In the reason, it could be "annual leave"/"Work-related whatever". The only part you are worried about is exceeding a certain number. So perhaps you could also have some entries which say "x days without pay"...Others can comment on this, but I don't think unpaid leave is an issue as long as you are not on unpaid leave for more than 4 weeks.
Furthermore, annual leave number should not be HO concern as long as the job is genuine and all other requirements are met. So it is possible that someone might have 50 days or more of annual leave (which means it is paid). So if your employer has deemed the extra days that you took off as paid leave, you can leave it as paid leave without worrying that it exceeds a certain number..The only thing to make sure is that your "unpaid" leave does not exceed more than 4 weeks..my 2 cents

An employer letter explaining this will be enough

Thanks both. I really appreciate it. Just to confirm I don't have any unpaid leaves and the extra days were all paid leaves which were granted by my employer.These were extra 5 days. It makes sense not to complicate matters by mentioning overtime etc. and I'll get a letter from the employer. Can you also share a template of the letter please?
Thanks again for the support.Regards.

Thanks a a lot, much appreciated. Regards