When your qualifying period starts

How the Period Is Counted

Paragraph CR 1.1 of Appendix Continuous Residence sets the method: the qualifying period “will be calculated by counting back from whichever of the following dates is the most beneficial to the applicant, taking periods of absence into account” — the date of application, any date up to 28 days after the date of application, the date of decision, or, on the UK Ancestry route in certain cases, the date the most recent UK Ancestry permission expired.

Two things follow. First, there is no single fixed start date: the period is a window whose end the applicant partly chooses. Second, the 28-day early application window is the same rule seen from the other end. Our guide to the 28-day early application window covers that.

Skilled Worker Route

Paragraph SW 21.1 requires a continuous period of 5 years in the UK, and SW 21.2 says which permissions that period can consist of, held in the applicant’s own right rather than as a dependant. On the Skilled Worker route:

• The permissions that count: Skilled Worker, Global Talent, Innovator Founder, T2 Minister of Religion, International Sportsperson, Representative of an Overseas Business, Tier 1 other than Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur), and Scale-up. Any combination of them counts.
• Tier 2 (General): the Skilled Worker route replaced Tier 2 (General), and GOV.UK confirms that time on a Tier 2 visa can still be used.
• Student permission does not count. Where someone switched into the Skilled Worker route from a Student visa, the period runs from the start of the qualifying permission.
• One pandemic-era exception: permission on any other route counts for the time an applicant was waiting for a decision on a Skilled Worker application for permission to stay made between 24 January 2020 and 30 June 2021, if that application was supported by a certificate of sponsorship and was granted.

Check the GOV.UK page on settlement for Skilled Worker and Health and Care Worker visas for the official guidance.

Spouse or Partner Route

On the spouse visa route, the qualifying period starts when your first spouse or partner visa began:

• The first grant of permission as a partner starts the period. Settlement is reached after 5 years on the 5-year route, which is normally an initial grant followed by one extension.
• Fiance visa time does not count: If you entered on a fiance visa and then switched to a spouse visa after marriage, only the spouse visa period counts.
• Extensions run on: where the extension was applied for before the first grant expired, the two periods are continuous, and any time on section 3C leave in between counts.
• Absences are treated differently on this route. Paragraph CR 3.4(g) does not count absences for work, study or supporting family overseas under Appendix Settlement Family Life, provided family life was maintained in the UK throughout and the UK remained the place of permanent residence.

Long Residence Route

The long residence route is different because it counts all time on any lawful visa:

• 10 years lawfully in the UK. Paragraph LR 3.1 requires the applicant to have spent a qualifying period of 10 years lawfully in the UK, counted back under CR 1.1 in the same way as any other route.
• Almost any permission counts. LR 3.1 counts any period with permission, time exempt from immigration control, time as an EEA national or family member exercising a right to reside before 11pm on 31 December 2020, and time as a British citizen except where citizenship was later deprived.
• Four kinds of permission are excluded: permission under Appendix Ukraine Scheme, and permission as a Visitor, Short-term Student (English language) or Seasonal Worker, or their predecessor routes.
• LR 3.2 excludes further periods: time on immigration bail, temporary admission or temporary release, and periods of overstaying between grants of permission, even where the overstaying exceptions in Part Suitability apply to them.
• Different absence limits apply to older absences. Paragraph CR 3.3 sets a total of 548 days across the qualifying period, and 184 days at any one time, where those thresholds were reached or those absences began before 11 April 2024.

Parent Route

On the parent route, the qualifying period starts when your first grant of leave on the parent route began:

• 5-year route: Starts from the date your first parent route leave was granted. Settlement follows after 5 years.
• 10-year route: Same start date, but settlement requires 10 years of continuous leave.

Section 3C Leave and the Qualifying Period

Where an application is made before the existing permission expires, section 3C of the Immigration Act 1971 continues that permission until the application is decided. The Home Office continuous residence guidance states that this time “counts as time in the UK with permission on the relevant route for the purpose of calculating continuous residence”, whether pending a decision on an application on that route or after an appeal or administrative review.

The guidance adds a limit: where an application is made while section 3C is extending permission pending an appeal, time after the applicant’s appeal rights are exhausted is not lawful presence.

Points Where the Dates Are Commonly Misread

• The 28-day window is real, but it is only 28 days. GOV.UK says an application may be refused if it is made earlier than that.
• Permission, not presence. The period is measured by qualifying permission held, which is why the lists in SW 21.2 and LR 3.1 matter more than the date of arrival.
• Gaps without permission. Paragraph CR 4.1(d) breaks continuous residence for any period where the applicant did not have permission, subject to the exceptions listed there, which include a successful entry clearance application made before the permission expired or within 14 days of it expiring.
• Time in the Crown Dependencies. Paragraph CR 3.5 treats time spent lawfully in the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man on an equivalent route as time in the UK, provided the most recent grant of permission was in the UK.

Our settlement documents checklist sets out the records that carry these dates, and our comparison of using a solicitor and applying alone covers who can advise on an individual case.

Questions and answers