Long Residence (LR) route - Qualifying Period

[jester360]

Dear Team,

I have been following up this forum for various topics and already built up my knowledge to a good extent. However there is one query for my own case, that I couldn't figure out and thought to seek assistance. Following is my situation:

• Continuous legal residence in UK for 9+ years and few months left for 10 year completion

• 5 Years ICT completed and soon after 4 years ongoing on Skilled worker route

• Traveled to many countries on tourist visa in past 9+ years but never stayed more than few days

• Have active temporary residence permit of another country

Essentially, all conditions of 10 year ILR application submission is fulfilled but this active residence permit of a third country (Non UK, and not origin country) is giving me headache:

1) if UK home office will ask me in the ILR application to divulge details of residence permit in other country?
2) if having active residence permit of third country will adversely affect my ILR application in next few months?

Considering these queries were not leaving my head, thought to post it here. Any help or guidance in this regard is appreciated.

Thanks,
User

[zimba]

This has NO relevance to the ILR in the UK. Do not assume random stuff

[jester360]

Dear Team,

Posting a question regarding "Qualifying Period" here, that might have been referred earlier but couldn't find the relevant topic. Kindly take a look whenever it's possible.

Scenario:
10 year continuous residence is going to be completed soon with various visas (Tier 2 ICT ST => Tier 2 ICT LT => Skilled Worker visa), however there was 2 month gap between conversion of ST to LT visa (as it can only be filed from home country, rather than switching here in the UK)

Earlier Reference from the forum
Point number 3 in the following link states - "Note that transitional arrangements preserve the position that if you left the UK with a valid visa and returned within 6 months the lawful residence was always maintained. This position was preserved even after the recent rule changes"

viewtopic.php?t=336067#p2171106

Reference from Appendix Long Residence Guidance

CR 4.2. Where CR 4.1(d)(i) to (iv) applies, any period of time where the applicant did not have permission will not be included in any calculation of the qualifying period in CR 1.1. (And actually CR 4.1(d)(iii) applies here)

Question:
Although continuous residence is maintained when exiting UK (with valid permission) and filing a new visa application from home country and re-entering UK within 2 months, however it might not have been lawful and hence 2 months need to be added towards the end of 10 year (from first UK entry date) to cover this 2 months gap (under long residence route). Is this understanding correct, or something I missed?

Thanks

[zimba]

No. Incorrect

Paragraph CR 4.2 is talking about continuous residence inside the UK. The permission mentioned under paragraph CR 4.2 refers to permission 'while being in the UK'. You are not required to have a valid permission when you were outside the UK and therefore CR 4.2 is not relevant in that context. Instead, that will be relevant under the context of acceptable absence from the UK. Just leaving with a valid permission and returning with a valid permission maintains your continuous residence, as long as your absence from the UK is within the acceptable limits imposed.

The logic is that staying without valid leave in the UK is an unlawful act but having no visa while outside the UK is not an issue (just an absence), so as long the total absences were within the absence limits.