ILR Calculator — check your UK absences in seconds
The Home Office doesn't offer an absence calculator. Enter your trips below and this free tool checks every rolling 12-month window against the 180-day rule and shows your earliest ILR application date.
Your details
Trips outside the UK
The day you leave and the day you return don't count as absences — the calculator handles that for you.
Not legal advice. This tool applies the standard 180-days-in-any-rolling-12-months rule used on most 5-year settlement routes. Some routes and periods (for example time before certain 2018 rule changes, Global Talent, or exceptional-circumstance absences) are assessed differently — always confirm against the official Home Office guidance before applying.
How the 180-day rule actually works
To qualify for Indefinite Leave to Remain on most work and family routes, you must show continuous residence in the UK — normally 5 years — without excessive absences. The rule that trips people up: you must not be outside the UK for more than 180 days in any rolling 12-month period. It's not a calendar-year allowance, and it doesn't reset each January. Every possible 12-month window across your whole qualifying period is checked.
Example: 100 days away in autumn, then 100 more the following spring, can break the rule even though neither calendar year exceeds 180 — because a single 12-month window spanning both trips contains 200 absence days.
What counts as an absence?
Whole days spent outside the UK count. The day you depart and the day you return do not count as absences.
Reason for travel generally doesn't matter for the count — but absences for serious or compelling reasons (illness, natural disaster) may be discounted at the Home Office's discretion if evidenced.
Absences between visas (while awaiting a decision) can affect continuity — take advice if that applies to you.
When can you apply?
You can submit your ILR application up to 28 days before the date you complete your qualifying period. This calculator shows that earliest date once your absences check out. After ILR, most people can apply for British citizenship after a further 12 months — and you'll need to pass the Life in the UK test for that, so it's worth starting practice early.
Frequently asked questions
Is there an official Home Office ILR calculator?
No — the Home Office publishes the rules as written guidance only. That's exactly why this tool exists. It applies the published 180-day rolling rule to the trips you enter, instantly and free.
Do the 180 days reset every year?
No. The rule looks at any rolling 12-month period, not calendar years. Two medium-length trips less than a year apart can breach the rule together.
Do travel days count as absences?
No — the day you leave the UK and the day you arrive back both count as days in the UK. Only the whole days in between count as absences. This calculator already accounts for that.
What happens after ILR?
After 12 months with ILR (or immediately, if married to a British citizen) you can usually apply for naturalisation as a British citizen — which requires passing the Life in the UK test and meeting its own absence limits (no more than 450 days abroad in 5 years, 90 in the final year).