Congrats to all the new approvals! A little off topic, but did anyone read that guardian post about the academics who were refused ILR bc they had been outside the U.K. for too long. I have looked it up and it seems the language on UKVI is contradictory (shocking!). Can you be out of the country for 180 days total in 5 years or each year of the 5 years before applying for ILR. This is really throwing me for a loop if it with in 5 years, that’s only 5 weeks per year! I am easily out of the country for 5 weeks per year (not for work or illness).
There's a thread about that article here:
http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=93202.0It's 180 days PER year. However, it ONLY applies to people on other visa types, such as Tier 1/Tier 2 work visas.
It does NOT apply to people on settlement (fiance/spousal/partner) visas.
If you are on a spousal/partner visa, there is no limit on days outside the UK for ILR. The requirement for you will be that you have lived WITH your spouse/partner for the entire 5 years, and that the UK has been your primary residence for all of that time.
So, you could actually live outside the UK for part of the 5 years if you needed to, as long as either:
- your spouse came too and you lived together while you were outside the UK
or
- you had a very good reason for having to live apart (such as military deployment or working overseas for a UK company)
