If you're not sure if you have indefinite leave to remain. With indefinite leave to remain, you can only live outside the UK for 2 years. Normally, where a person with leave, whether limited or indefinite, travels outside the UK, that person can re-enter the UK as long as the leave has not expired. You can live outside the UK for 5 years without losing your settled status. Immigration Rules part 1: leave to enter or stay in the UK General provisions regarding entry clearance, leave to enter or remain in the United Kingdom (paragraphs 7 to 39E). How to qualify for Indefinite Leave to Remain. The Ancestry visa allows commonwealth citizens, with at least one grandparent born in the UK, to enter the UK in order to work. One can obtain Indefinite Leave to Remain in a number of ways. Indefinite Leave to Remain is the stepping stone to British Citizenship. Tier 2 General visa holders need to have lived in the UK for a qualifying period of 5 years and fulfil several requirements such as minimum annual salary threshold and at the appropriate rate among others. Leave is granted for up to five years after which time applicants can either extend their leave or apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR). Version 22.0 To be eligible for indefinite leave to remain, applicants must have resided in the UK for a qualifying period of time. You will be eligible to naturalise as a British citizen after you have held ILR for 12 months & spent 5 years in the UK. Individuals on Tier 2 General visa can apply for indefinite leave to remain (ILR) to settle in the UK.. Calculating Absences from the UK in your Indefinite Leave to Remain (Long Residence) Application. The law covering this type of re-entry is the Immigration (Leave to Enter and Remain) Order 2000 ( SI 2000/1161 ). The UK Government when granting leave to remain (visa) where a person does not meet the Immigration rules and is relying on private or family life, or Art 8 (European Convention on Human Rights), or is a failed asylum seeker, often grants “discretionary leave to remain”, also known as leave outside of the rules. Indefinite leave to remain: calculating continuous period in UK . This will depend on an applicant’s existing immigration category and ability to meet all other relevant rules in place. Indefinite Leave to Remain or Permanent Residence is granted on the basis that a person is settled in the UK. If you are married to or in a civil partnership with a British citizen then you will be eligible to naturalise as a British citizen as soon as you have been granted indefinite leave to remain and spent 3 years in the UK. 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