Absence from UK for ILR and citizenship

[canekynana]

Dear Masters

I am currently holding a spouse visa as wife of a British Citizen and will meet the 5 years residence requirement for ILR in 2018.

I am now planning to go back to my home country for a couple of months this year, but would like to check if there is any rules relating to the period absent from the UK that I need to aware of when planning such trips. I am thinking of going away for at least 4 months, so would like to think ahead to avoid issues when applying ILR and British Citizen later.

A rough search suggests that I would be fine for ILR application so long as I am in the UK for more than 180 days each year during the past 5 years, is this correct? Also, is the requirement for British Citizenship application the same, or that would be more strict? Thanks so much in advance.

Regards
Nana

[Casa]

Only any single absence of 180 days or over needs to be declared for ILR.

Absence rules for British citizenship are stricter.
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... r_18_B.pdf

[canekynana]

Thanks a lot. So does that mean there is no implications so long the absence is below 180 days?

[Casa]

Thanks a lot. So does that mean there is no implications so long the absence is below 180 days?

Yes.

[noajthan]

Dear Masters

I am currently holding a spouse visa as wife of a British Citizen and will meet the 5 years residence requirement for ILR in 2018.

...
Also, is the requirement for British Citizenship application the same, or that would be more strict? Thanks so much in advance.

Regards
Nana

BC requirements are different
Check AN guidance.
No more than 90 days out in 12 months before date of application.

[canekynana]

Dear noajthan and Casa

Thank you so much for your prompt reply.

I ringed the UKVI enquiry line today to confirm with them again, but to my surprise, the agent was adamant that my wife should not be away from the UK for more than 90 days in the last year before applying, and confirmed this applies to both ILR and naturalisation.

Now that I read through the "Indefinite leave to remain – calculating continuous period in UK", but the only reference there to the 90 days was to the British Citizenship application, which made me think whether the agent could be wrong.

Is the 90 days rule something recently changed so that the agent got that wrong? Any thought is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[Casa]

As usual the UKVI 'help line' as been no help at all. The 90 day absence in the 12 month period only applies to a BC application.

It's believed that the 'help line' is staff is outsourced to agency staff who appear to have little training in the Immigration/Nationality Rules

[canekynana]

As usual the UKVI 'help line' as been no help at all. The 90 day absence in the 12 month period only applies to a BC application.

It's believed that the 'help line' is staff is outsourced to agency staff who appear to have little training in the Immigration/Nationality Rules

Thanks again Casa.

It's really a shame if the "help line" is giving out incorrect information, especially he was so assertive about the answer... Do you know was there any requirement of 90 days in the last year for ILR applications before? Or that's something I shouldn't worry about given she is not going to apply for naturalisation immediately after ILR? Thanks

[Casa]

No there hasn't been. The 'advisor' was completely off track.

[canekynana]

Just to feed back that I wrote to the public enquiry about this query, and finally got their reply yesterday as below.

For applications submitted after 9th July 2012, please refer to paragraph 8.1.10 from the following link that relates to absences. We are unable to provide further assistance.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... ly-members

It seems the requirement in that section is quite general and there is no mentioning of 180 days.