Immigration Rules Appendix Continuous Residence

This Appendix sets out how the continuous residence requirement is met.

This Appendix applies only to applications under Appendix HM Armed Forces (only settlement as a Partner or Child), Appendix Skilled Worker, Appendix Representative of an Overseas Business, Appendix Global Talent, Appendix Innovator Founder, Appendix T2 Minister of Religion, Appendix International Sportsperson, Appendix UK Ancestry, Appendix Domestic Worker in a Private Household, Appendix Temporary Work - International Agreement, Appendix Scale-up, Appendix Settlement Family Life, Appendix Private Life (settlement only, apart from where the applicant is applying to settle as a child born in the UK), Appendix Hong Kong National (Overseas), Appendix Long Residence and Appendix ECAA Settlement.

How the continuous residence requirement is met

CR 1.1. The continuous residence requirement is met if the applicant has spent the qualifying unbroken continuous residence period required by their route lawfully in the UK.

Absence from the UK

CR 2.1. To meet the continuous residence requirement the applicant must not have been outside the UK for more than 180 days in any 12-month period (unless CR 2.2., CR 2.2A., CR 3.1. or CR 3.2. applies, and subject to CR 2.3.).

CR 2.2. For any absence from the UK with permission granted under the rules in place before 11 January 2018, the applicant must not have been outside the UK for more than 180 days during any consecutive 12-month period, ending on the same date of their current application unless CR2.2A applies, and subject to CR 2.3.

  1. CR 2.2A. Subject to CR 2.3, where the application is under Appendix Long Residence, the applicant must not have:
    1. (a) spent a total of more than 548 days outside the UK during their qualifying period, where that 548-day total was reached before 11 April 2024; and
    2. (b) been outside the UK for more than 184 days at any one time during their qualifying period, where that absence started before 11 April 2024.
  1. CR 2.3. When calculating the period of absence in CR 2.1., CR 2.2. or CR 2.2A., any period spent outside the UK will not count towards the period of absence where the absence was for any of the following reasons:
    1. (a) the applicant was assisting with a national or international humanitarian or environmental crisis overseas, providing, if on a sponsored route, their sponsor agreed to the absence for that purpose; or
    2. (b) travel disruption due to natural disaster, military conflict or pandemic; or
    3. (c) compelling and compassionate personal circumstances, such as the life-threatening illness of the applicant, or the life-threatening illness or death of a close family member; or
    4. (d) research activity undertaken by a Skilled Worker which was approved by their sponsor and where the applicant was sponsored for a job in one of the following SOC 2020 occupation codes:
      1. • 2111 Chemical scientists
      2. • 2112 Biological scientists
      3. • 2113 Biochemists and biomedical scientists
      4. • 2114 Physical scientists
      5. • 2115 Social and humanities scientists
      6. • 2119 Natural and social science professionals not elsewhere classified
      7. • 2161 Research and development (R&D) managers
      8. • 2162 Other researchers, unspecified discipline
      9. • 2311 Higher education teaching professionals; or
    5. (e) research activity undertaken by a person on the Global Talent route who was endorsed by:
      1. (i) The Royal Society; or
      2. (ii) The British Academy; or
      3. (iii) The Royal Academy of Engineering; or
      4. (iv) UKRI; or
    6. (f) research activity undertaken by a person on the Global Talent route who qualified on the basis of a prize listed in table 6 of Appendix Global Talent: Prestigious Prizes; or
    7. (g) for an applicant under Appendix Settlement Family Life, absences for work, study or supporting family overseas, so long as the family have throughout the period of absence maintained a family life in the UK and the UK remained their place of permanent residence; or
    8. (h) where the applicant’s partner is absent from the UK on Crown service as:
      1. (i) a regular member of HM Armed Forces (the Royal Navy, the Royal Marines, the Army (including the Brigade of Gurkhas) and the Royal Air Force); or
      2. (ii) an employee of the UK Government, a Northern Ireland department, the Scottish Administration or the Welsh Government; or
      3. (iii) a permanent member of the British Council,
    9. and the applicant accompanies them overseas.

CR 2.4. Unless applying under Appendix Long Residence, any time the applicant spent lawfully in the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man is treated for the purpose of this Appendix as time spent in the UK provided that the applicant’s most recent grant of permission was in the UK.

CR 2.5 Absence from the UK before 20 June 2022 will not be counted when calculating the continuous residence period for settlement applications under Appendix Settlement Family Life if the applicant was subsequently granted permission as a partner or parent under Appendix FM or under paragraph 276ADE or 276BE(2), following those absences.

CR 2.6. Absence from the UK which began before 8 October 2024 will not be counted when calculating the continuous residence period for settlement applications under Appendix HM Armed Forces.

Continuous residence for dependants

CR 3.1. Where the applicant is applying as a partner or child, and the person on whom they are dependent, was absent from the UK for a reason in CR 2.3., that period of absence will not count towards the 180-day absence limit in CR 2.1. or CR 2.2. when calculating the applicant’s continuous residence period.

  1. CR 3.2. Where the applicant is applying as a partner or child and the person on whom they are dependent was absent from the UK during a period of permission granted before 11 January 2018, that period of absence will not count towards the 180 day absence in CR 2.1. or CR 2.2. when calculating the applicant’s continuous residence period if the person on whom they were dependent was on one of the following routes:
    1. (a) Tier 1; or
    2. (b) Tier 2; or
    3. (c) Tier 5 (Temporary Worker); or
    4. (d) Global Talent; or
    5. (e) Start Up; or
    6. (f) Innovator Founder; or
    7. (g) ECAA worker or ECAA business person.

Breaking continuous residence

  1. CR 4.1. An applicant’s continuous residence period will be broken if any of the following apply:
    1. (a) the applicant is convicted of an offence and sentenced to a period of imprisonment (unless it is a suspended sentence) or directed to be detained in an institution other than a prison, unless the applicant is applying for settlement under Appendix Settlement Family Life or Appendix Private Life (in which case CR 4.4. applies); or
    2. (b) the applicant is subject to a deportation order, exclusion order or exclusion direction; or
    3. (c) the applicant is subject to removal directions, or in the case of an application under Appendix Long Residence, is removed from the UK, under section 10 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999; or
    4. (d) the applicant does not currently have, or did not have, permission, unless:
      1. (i) the applicant was granted permission following a successful application where paragraph 39E of these rules applied; or
      2. (ii) (except for applications under Appendix Long Residence), the applicant had permission when they left the UK, applied for entry clearance before that permission expired, or within 14 days of that permission expiring, and that application for entry clearance was successful; or
      3. (iii) the application is under Appendix Long Residence, and the applicant had permission when they left the UK and returned to the UK with a valid permission (on the same or another route), provided they do not exceed the absence limit in CR 2.1., CR 2.2. or CR 2.2A.; or
      4. (iv) for any period without permission before 24 November 2016, the applicant made a successful application for entry clearance or permission (either in or outside the UK) within 28 days of the date their previous permission expired; or
      5. (v) the dates on which the applicant was in the UK without permission were in the period from 1 to 31 August 2020 and the applicant had permission immediately before then; or
    5. (e) the applicant is absent from the UK for longer than the periods permitted under CR 2.1., CR 2.2., and CR 2.2A., and none of the exceptions in CR 2.3., CR 2.5., CR 3.1. and CR 3.2. apply; or
    6. (f) the applicant is removed or deported from the UK; or
    7. (g) the applicant leaves the UK voluntarily having been refused permission to enter, permission to stay or settlement, and any permission held at the time of that voluntary departure has expired, unless CR 4.1(d)(iv) applies.

CR 4.2. DELETED

CR 4.3. Where CR 4.1(d)(i) to (iv) applies, any period of time where the applicant did not have permission will be disregarded when calculating the continuous residence period in CR 6.1.

CR 4.3A. Where CR 4.1.(d)(v) applies, that period of time without permission will be treated as continuous residence.

  1. CR 4.4. Where a person applying for settlement under Appendix Settlement Family Life or Appendix Private Life has been:
    1. (a) convicted of an offence and sentenced to imprisonment in the UK for 12 months or less; or
    2. (b) directed to be detained in an institution other than a prison for 12 months or less,
  2. that period of imprisonment or detention will not break the applicant’s continuous residence during the 10-year qualifying period for the purposes of SETF 2.3, SETF 11.3, PL 12.3., or PL 27.3, but the time spent in prison or detained in an institution other than a prison will not count towards continuous residence.

Lawful presence

  1. CR 5.1. The applicant will not be regarded as lawfully present in the UK under CR 1.1. (and these periods will not count towards the qualifying period for continuous residence):
    1. (a) during any period of imprisonment or detention under CR 4.1.(a) or CR 4.4.; and
    2. (b) during any period, the applicant is subject to a deportation order, exclusion order, or exclusion direction; and
    3. (c) during any period the applicant is subject to removal directions under section 10 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 (except where the application is under Appendix Long Residence); and
    4. (d) during any period where the applicant required permission and did not have it unless:
      1. (i) the applicant was in the UK without permission in the period from 1 to 31 August 2020; and
      2. (ii) the applicant had permission immediately before that period,
  2. in which case the applicant will be treated as lawfully present between 1 and 31 August 2020.

CR 5.2. DELETED.

Calculating the continuous residence period

  1. CR 6.1. The continuous residence periods in CR 2.1., CR 2.2. and CR 2.2A. will be calculated by counting back from whichever of the following dates is the most beneficial to the applicant:
    1. (a) the date of application; or
    2. (b) any date up to 28 days after the date of application; or
    3. (c) the date of decision; or
    4. (d) for a person applying for settlement on the UK Ancestry route, the date of their last grant of permission.