How to Use the UK ILR 180-Day Absence Calculator

Add a row for every trip you took (or plan to take) outside the UK — entry the date you departed and the date you returned.
Set the reference date — the date you plan to apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR), or leave it as today.
Click Calculate. The tool doesn't just check the 12 months ending on your reference date — it scans every rolling 12-month window across your whole trip history to find your worst one, exactly like a Home Office caseworker would.
Read the counting-convention note above the result: it explains exactly which days count as "absent."

Everything runs as plain JavaScript in your browser tab — nothing you enter is uploaded or stored.

The 180-Day Rule, Explained

For most settlement routes (Skilled Worker, Global Talent, and most others), current Home Office guidance requires that you have not spent more than 180 days outside the UK in any rolling 12-month period during your qualifying residence, for absences that started on or after 11 April 2024. This is not the same as "180 days per calendar year" — every single date in your qualifying period is treated as the potential end-point of a 12-month look-back, so a cluster of trips that looks fine on 1 January might already have broken the limit for the 12 months ending in October.

This is exactly why this calculator's core job is finding the worst window in your history, not just checking today's trailing 12 months. Two large trips a year apart can each look individually fine while still breaching the rule in the window that straddles both of them.

Counting Convention: What Counts as an "Absent" Day

The Home Office's own guidance states that the day you leave the UK and the day you return both count as days in the UK — you were there for at least part of that calendar day. Only the full calendar days strictly between departure and return count as absence.

Worked example: You depart on 1 June and return on 10 June. You are absent for 8 days — the 2nd through the 9th. The 1st (departure) and the 10th (return) both count as UK presence days, matching the Home Office's own published worked example.

What Breaks Continuous Residence

Exceeding 180 days of absence in any rolling 12-month period within your qualifying residence — not just the 12 months right before you apply.
Trips that individually look small but overlap into the same 12-month window as other trips, pushing the cumulative total over the limit.
Note: absences that started before 11 April 2024 may instead count toward the older long-residence limits (no more than 184 days in a single absence, and no more than 548 days total for that portion of your qualifying period) — if your history spans the rule change, treat this calculator's 180/12-month figure as applying only to the post-11-April-2024 portion, and check the transitional guidance for the rest.
Some absences are exempt (Crown/government or armed-forces postings, and certain COVID-19-related disregarded periods) and should be excluded from what you enter here — this tool has no way to know which of your trips might qualify.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this check every visa route? No — the 180-day rolling rule applies to most (but not all) settlement routes. Always confirm your specific route's guidance on gov.uk before relying on this tool.

What if one of my trips was for an exempt reason? Leave that trip out of the calculator, or check with an immigration adviser — exemptions are not modeled here.

Why does the result show a window that doesn't end today? Because the rule is "any rolling 12-month period," not "the last 12 months" — if your worst window was earlier in your history, that's the one that matters for whether your continuous residence has already broken.

Is this official Home Office advice? No. This is an independent, browser-only estimate built from published gov.uk guidance. Always cross-check your specific case against the current "Continuous residence" guidance and, ideally, an immigration adviser before applying.

Is my data stored anywhere? No. The check runs entirely in your browser; nothing is transmitted to a server.