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Hello,

I have lived in the UK since 13th September 2014 under a series of visas, including few Tier 4 student visas until 1st August 2021 and Skilled Worker visas from 10th February 2022 onwards. During the COVID period, I was granted two periods of Exceptional Assurance from 1st September 2021 to 15th November 2021 and then from 15th November 2021 to 10th February 2022.

I am now considering applying for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) under the 10-year LONG RESIDENCE route. I have been in the UK for 11 years and 8 months, which is over 11 years 2 months excluding the COVID based extension phase.

There is guidance suggesting I is eligible for 10 year long residence ILR, but there are also articles suggesting I may not be eligible because the 5.5 months spent under Exceptional Assurance are treated as ‘continuous’ but not ‘lawful’ residence.

The confusion is whether the period simply 'does not count' towards long residence OR breaks long residence? So, am I eligible for the long residence ILR, provided everything else if fine? Please let me know.

Many thanks.

Time spent under exceptional assurance does NOT break continuous residence however such periods will be excluded from the 10 years.

The long residence rules changed in 2024 to ensure that people who had periods without any valid leave in the UK (e.g. exceptional assurance or when protections like the old paragraph 39E applied) do not end up with broken continuous residence. However, such periods spent in the UK are no longer viewed as lawful residence in the UK, and so they are excluded from the calculation.

Make sure to read --> Long Residence settlement route (effective 11 April 2024)

Hi Zimba,

Thank you so much for the response. I have clarity on that now. Please help me with two more questions related to my ILR application.

My old passport expired on 17 May 2023. There was a delay from my side in applying for passport renewal due to a tight schedule. My new passport is valid from 16th August 2023. I was in the UK during those three months. Do I need to provide additional documents (a cover letter explaining the gap, bank statements / payslips covering those three months, a letter from the employer etc.)? If so, which ones would be more relevant in my case?

Another question has to do with periods between the expiry of an old visa and the grant of a new visa (every single time I applied for new visa/permit before the expiry of the old one). For example, my second COVID based extension (Exceptional Assurance) ended on 15th Jan 2022, but I had applied for an Skilled worker visa on 14th Jan 2022, which was granted on 10th Feb 2022 (Sorry, I got the end date mixed up regarding my second Exceptional Assurance in my earlier message.) There are perhaps two more such periods, totalling to about 40 days in total. Do I need to provide additional information (such as a cover letter to explain that)?

Many thanks.

Kind regards,
Shubh

zimba wrote: ↑

Sun Jun 14, 2026 1:46 am

Time spent under exceptional assurance does NOT break continuous residence however such periods will be excluded from the 10 years.

The long residence rules changed in 2024 to ensure that people who had periods without any valid leave in the UK (e.g. exceptional assurance or when protections like the old paragraph 39E applied) do not end up with broken continuous residence. However, such periods spent in the UK are no longer viewed as lawful residence in the UK, and so they are excluded from the calculation.

Make sure to read --> Long Residence settlement route (effective 11 April 2024)

The passport renewal has no effect on you and you do not need to do anything. There is no requirement that your passport must always be valid while holding UK residence.

Any time spent without valid leave or section 3C is not lawful residence and it is excluded from your 10 years. Exceptional assurance was NOT a type of leave and so it did not grant lawful residence to anyone. That period was NOT an extension at all.

You should treat all that period as unlawful residence. As exceptional assurance was NOT granting any form of leave, so it did not matter that you applied before the end of your exceptional assurance or not. You were considered unlawful resident anyway. It is just that it prevented people's residence to be considered broken.

You simply must exclude any period without a valid visa from your 10-years, unless such a period was spent under section 3C. Exceptional assurance did not lead to section 3C protections and so such a periods are unlawful stay and will be excluded.

Exceptional assurance was introduced on 1 September 2020 as a response to ongoing international travel disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. It followed the Coronavirus Extension Concession and the grace period which had come to an end.
Exceptional assurance offered individuals a short-term protection against any adverse action or consequences after their permission had expired, where they were unable to leave the UK due to COVID-19.
It was an assurance given upon successful request to the Home Office. Individuals were required to email the Home Office’s Coronavirus Immigration Team (CIT) providing details including their full name, date of birth, and the reason(s) for requesting an exceptional assurance. Exceptional assurance did not grant any form of immigration permission to individuals but instead prevented current or future adverse consequences from overstaying during the period of assurance given.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... accessible

So in a nutshell, there was big difference between an exceptional assurance and a normal in-time extension. The former did not grant any leave or lawful residence whereas the latter does and it engages section 3C protection (so you keep accumulating lawful residence)

Make sure to read on Section 3C here --> All you need to know about applying early, the application date, 28-day concession and more

Hi Zimba,

Thank you so much. I have two further queries regarding the ILR long residence application form. Could you please help me with these too? Thank you.


The first one has to do with the question 'How long have you lived in the UK?' I believe I am meant to exclude the Exceptional Assurance Period but what else needs to be excluded and what is to be counted is confusion. Kindly help me with this using my visa timeline given below.

First Arrival in UK: 16th Sep 2014

Application Date Valid From Valid Until Route/Visa
15/08/2014 09/09/2014 30/01/2016 TIER 4 (General) Student
20/11/2015 07/01/2016 31/01/2020 TIER 4 (General) Student
14/01/2020 17/01/2020 30/08/2020 TIER 4 (General) Student
28/08/2020 09/10/2020 01/09/2021 Doctorate Extension Scheme
27/08/2021 02/09/2021 11/11/2021 Exceptional Assurance
11/11/2021 12/11/2021 15/01/2022 Exceptional Assurance
14/01/2022 10/02/2022 27/01/2023 Skilled Worker
23/12/2022 28/12/2022 17/01/2025 Skilled Worker
31/12/2024 05/01/2025 15/01/2027 Skilled Worker



The second question is about the job start date with my Skilled Worker employer under the Employment section. They have sponsored two back to back visas under the Skilled worker route. What start date should I put? Would it be based on the first visa or the second? Please use the information below for the same.

Visa Start Date as per COS Visa Grant Date Route
1st visa 03/01/2023 28/12/2022 Skilled Worker
2nd visa 02/01/2025 05/01/2025 Skilled Worker

Thank you so much.

Kind regards,
Shubh

None of those questions really matter at all, as they have NO effect on ILR decision-making under the 10-year route. These are also not trick questions. It seems you have lived here for nearly 12 years, so answer that. The start date of your employment is the first day of your job, visa periods are irrelevant.