ILR - Correspondence, 2 years or 2 and a half years ?

I'm just about to submit my application for ILR.

However, I've just now noticed that it does specifically state in the document requirements that I need to provide:

"6 letters and/or other documents addressed to you and your partner at the same address to show that you have been living together during the past 2.5 years"

I previously thought this was just for the past 2 years prior to submission of the application, and have only provided correspondence as far back as the beginning of 2023, the earliest being from February 2023. My 2 and half year extension was granted on 30 August 2022 and I have not provided any correspondence between then and February 2023.

The wording on my last application in August 2022 was in fact different, as it said:

"Items of correspondence at the same address as evidence you have been living together since your last grant of leave in this category, or from the date you first started living together, covering the last 2 years. You must provide at least 6 items of correspondence, addressed to you and your partner jointly or in both your names. The dates of the items of correspondence should be spread evenly over the whole 2 years"

So it does look they have changed the requirements, at least by how they have worded that section now.

I do still have plenty of correspondence documents covering the 6 months between August 2022 and February 2023.

Should I therefore re-do the correspondence to include these as well, so that they cover the whole 2 and half years since my last grant of leave as opposed to just the past 2 years ?

I've pretty much answered my own question and added 2 extra pieces of correspondence, one addressed to me and one addressed to my partner, from September and October 2022.

I now have 14 pieces of correspondence in total covering the full 2 and a half years from my last grant of leave in August 2022.

So for anyone in the same position as me, who is either applying for their 1st extension on the 5 year route or for ILR it would appear that the Home Office guidance has now changed and they do want correspondence covering the last 2 and a half years and not just the last 2.

You still only need 6 pieces of correspondence each (6 addressed to you, 6 addressed to your partner) so instead of having 1 piece of correspondence for every 4 months over a 2 year period, it would now be 1 piece for every 5 months over a 2 and a half year period . . . (or just do 7 pieces each, 1 for every 4 months, like I just did.) 

It's actually always been 2.5 years of evidence for ILR (or at least it has been since 2012, when the qualification period for ILR increased from 2 years to 5 years, and FLR(M) visas were issued for 2.5 years instead of 2 years).

So the correspondence evidence required for each visa is:

- FLR(M) = 2 years (1 item in each name every 4 months)

- ILR = 2.5 years/since last FLR(M) was granted (1 item in each name every 5 months)