🇬🇧 Settlement after 10 years in the UK - Long Residence

This post is about a popular category of applying for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) after living in the UK for 10 years. It is a settlement category, called Long Residence. It is often used by people who come to the UK as students (especially child students), then remain for work and eventually, qualify for ILR sooner in 10 years than waiting for 5 years as a worker or partner. 

 
Main points:
 
1. Most visa categories can be counted (“combined”), but there is a limited number of exclusions, such as Visitor visas. 
 
2. Can only be legal residency, either on a valid visa or waiting for a visa after applying on-time. Waiting can be inside or outside the UK, subject to applying on time (in U.K.) or coming back to the UK within 180 days. Also, while waiting for in-country appeal of a refused application that had been submitted on time. 
 
3.  The visas don’t need to be one after another without breaks. You can leave on one Student visa and return on a new Student visa. Or return in a Work/Partner visa. The break between visas would be OK, as long as you return within 180 days. 
 
Changes from 11 April 2024: 
 
4. There is no longer total limit of 548 days of absences in the whole 10 years. Instead, there is a more generous limit of 180 days in any 12 months. Unless longer absences were for a good reason, such as family emergency. 

 

5. For ILR, there is a required to have held the current visa for at least 12 months, unless the current visa was issued before 11 April 2024. But there is no such rule for extension on the basis of 10 years, which is also a visa to remain to the UK but for 2 years. 


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1st 4Immigration is one of the most experienced UK immigration law companies, OISC – accredited at the highest Level 3. We have been in business for over 15 years, our OISC reference is 200800152, in which 2008 stands for the year accreditation. Office: Tower 42, 25 Old Broad Street, London, EC2N 1HN. Website 1st4immigration.com

 

 
 
 
 
 
 

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