continuous residence for ILR interpretation

[rkc]

The following text is from Appendix A of case worker guiidelines for settlement via Tier1(General) route found at : http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitec ... iew=Binary

In assessing whether or not an applicant has fulfilled the requirement to have spent
five years in continuous residence in the UK, short absences abroad, for example for
holidays (consistent with annual paid leave) or business trips (consistent with
maintaining employment or self-employment in the United Kingdom), may be
disregarded, provided the applicant has clearly continued to be based here.

Discretion in cases where continuous residence has been broken

In addition, time spent here may exceptionally be aggregated, and continuity not
insisted upon, in cases where:
• there have been no absences abroad (apart from those described in the
paragraph above) and authorised employment or business here has not
been broken by any interruptions of more than three months or amounting to
more than six months in total;
or
• there have been longer absences abroad, provided the absences were for
compelling grounds either of a compassionate nature or for reasons related to
the applicant's employment or business in the United Kingdom. None of the
absences abroad should be of more than three months duration, and they
must not amount to more than six months in total for the whole five year
period..
NB: Decisions in such cases must be taken at HEO level or above.


Looking at several successful ILR cases where total absences were greater than six months but each absence <= 3 months, I would interpret the above as:
Absences consistent with company paid annual leave are completely disregarded and not counted in the 6 month period criteria (could be backed by employer letters). Same also holds for shorter business trips backed by employer letters.
It valid to have longer business related absences/other personal reasons related absences from UK up to 3 months in one go provided the same is backed by employer letter. The longer absences should not be greater than 6 months in total.

Hard to be accurate but eager to hear thoughts from people. I originally started this related thread at http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=72695

[rkc]

154 views at this point but no one wants to comment ?

[maximux79]

If you are out of UK on more than one occasion for 3 months, in my opinion its difficult to convince the case worker, about your intention of making UK as the main home. All the visa category and ILR rests on the fact that one would make UK as the main residence. You may be within the rules/regulations on ILR policies. This would involve providing convincing proofs and a clear write-up to explain your case. Consulting a solicitor is not a bad option.

Cheers

The following text is from Appendix A of case worker guiidelines for settlement via Tier1(General) route found at : http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitec ... iew=Binary

In assessing whether or not an applicant has fulfilled the requirement to have spent
five years in continuous residence in the UK, short absences abroad, for example for
holidays (consistent with annual paid leave) or business trips (consistent with
maintaining employment or self-employment in the United Kingdom), may be
disregarded, provided the applicant has clearly continued to be based here.

Discretion in cases where continuous residence has been broken

In addition, time spent here may exceptionally be aggregated, and continuity not
insisted upon, in cases where:
• there have been no absences abroad (apart from those described in the
paragraph above) and authorised employment or business here has not
been broken by any interruptions of more than three months or amounting to
more than six months in total;
or
• there have been longer absences abroad, provided the absences were for
compelling grounds either of a compassionate nature or for reasons related to
the applicant's employment or business in the United Kingdom. None of the
absences abroad should be of more than three months duration, and they
must not amount to more than six months in total for the whole five year
period..
NB: Decisions in such cases must be taken at HEO level or above.


Looking at several successful ILR cases where total absences were greater than six months but each absence <= 3 months, I would interpret the above as:
Absences consistent with company paid annual leave are completely disregarded and not counted in the 6 month period criteria (could be backed by employer letters). Same also holds for shorter business trips backed by employer letters.
It valid to have longer business related absences/other personal reasons related absences from UK up to 3 months in one go provided the same is backed by employer letter. The longer absences should not be greater than 6 months in total.

Hard to be accurate but eager to hear thoughts from people. I originally started this related thread at http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=72695