How to apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain: the 5-year route checklist

Indefinite Leave to Remain is the point at which the Home Office stops being a recurring feature of your life. No more expiry dates, no more surcharge payments, no more conditions on work or study. It is also the application people most often try to do themselves — and the one where a small error is most expensive, because a refusal at year five can mean starting a qualifying period again.

This is a checklist for the five-year route, written for people about to apply.

First: are you actually on a five-year route?

Not every visa leads to settlement, and not every settlement route takes five years. The main five-year qualifying routes are:

• Skilled Worker and Health and Care Worker
• Partner of a British citizen or settled person under Appendix FM
• Global Talent, Innovator Founder and Scale-up
• Representative of an Overseas Business and certain legacy categories

Routes that do not lead to settlement include the Graduate visa, Student visa, visitor routes and most Temporary Worker categories. Time spent on them does not count, however long you were here.

If you have been in the UK lawfully for a long period on a mixture of routes, the 10-year long residence route may be the better fit. It has different rules — and for some people it is the only realistic path.

An important warning about the rules changing

The Government’s earned settlement consultation ran from 20 November 2025 to 12 February 2026 and drew more than 200,000 responses. The proposals under consideration include:

• Raising the baseline qualifying period for settlement to ten years.
• A longer period, up to 15 years, for Skilled Workers in roles below RQF Level 6.
• A No Recourse to Public Funds condition at settlement.
• Shorter routes — five years for some frontline public service workers, and a fast track of as little as three years for high earners and entrepreneurs.

At the time of writing the Government is still considering responses and none of this has been enacted. But the direction is clear, and the first delivery moment has already landed: the English requirement (below) has been raised. If you are eligible to apply now, there is a strong argument for applying now rather than waiting. Take advice on your own timing before making a decision either way.

The checklist

1. Continuous residence

You must have completed the qualifying period in the UK with lawful permission throughout, and without excessive absences.

For work routes — Skilled Worker, Global Talent, Innovator Founder and similar — the rule is that you must not have spent more than 180 days outside the UK in any rolling 12-month period across the five years. The Home Office counts whole days of absence, and it counts every rolling window, not calendar years. This catches people who took a long trip that straddled two years.

For the partner route under Appendix FM, absences are not measured by the same 180-day rule. What matters is that the relationship is genuine and subsisting and that you intend to live together permanently in the UK. Long or repeated absences still need explaining, but they are assessed differently.

Action: build an absence log now, from passport stamps, boarding passes and travel records, before you complete the form. Reconstructing five years of travel under time pressure is where errors creep in.

2. Your permission must be unbroken

Any gap in lawful leave — an application filed a day late, a period of overstaying, a curtailment you did not notice — can break continuous residence. Short gaps are sometimes forgiven under specific provisions, but the exercise of discretion is not something to assume. If you know there is a gap, get advice before you apply rather than hoping it passes unremarked.

3. The Life in the UK test

You must pass the Life in the UK test: 24 questions, 45 minutes, 75% to pass. It costs £50 and can be retaken as often as needed, with a seven-day wait between attempts. Book early — availability at some centres is limited.

You are exempt if you are under 18 or over 65 at the date of application, or where a long-term physical or mental condition prevents you from taking it, evidenced by a medical professional.

4. English language — and the change coming in March 2027

Currently you must demonstrate English at CEFR level B1 in speaking and listening, unless you are exempt or you hold a degree taught in English.

From March 2027, the standard for settlement rises to B2 — an A-level equivalent. The Home Office announced this in March 2026, deliberately giving a full year’s notice, and estimates around 200 hours of learning to move from one level to the next. Work visa applicants have already been held to B2 since January 2026.

The practical consequence is simple. If you will apply for settlement after March 2027 and you currently hold only a B1 certificate, you need to plan an exam into your timetable now. Two hundred hours is not something to discover three weeks before your visa expires.

5. The route-specific requirements

These vary, and they are tested afresh at the settlement stage:

• Skilled Worker: your sponsor must still hold a valid licence, still employ you, and confirm they intend to continue doing so. Your salary must meet the settlement threshold that applies to you. A sponsor who loses their licence shortly before your application is a serious problem.
• Partner route: the relationship must be genuine and subsisting, you must intend to live together permanently, and the financial requirement must be met again — see our guide to the spouse visa financial requirement.
• Innovator Founder: you must meet the contribution criteria and hold an endorsement confirming it.

6. Suitability

Criminal convictions, deception in a previous application, unpaid NHS debts of £500 or more, and litigation debt to the Home Office can all lead to refusal. Unspent convictions are generally fatal to an ILR application; spent convictions and non-custodial matters are assessed against published thresholds. Declare everything — undeclared history discovered later is treated far more seriously than the underlying matter usually would be.

7. Fees and processing

Item	Amount
Indefinite Leave to Remain	£3,226
Life in the UK test	£50
Super priority service (optional)	Additional fee, typically next working day

Standard processing is up to six months, though many decisions come sooner. Priority and super priority services are available for most in-country applications.

No Immigration Health Surcharge is payable on an ILR application — one of the more immediate financial benefits of settling.

After ILR: British citizenship

Settlement is not citizenship. Once you hold ILR you can normally apply to naturalise after a further 12 months, unless you are married to a British citizen, in which case you can apply as soon as you hold ILR — provided the residence requirements are met.

Naturalisation has its own residence test: normally five years’ residence, no more than 450 days’ absence across that period, and no more than 90 days’ absence in the final 12 months. The absence limits are different from the ILR ones, which trips people up.

Item	Amount
Naturalisation as a British citizen (adult)	£1,709
Registration of a child as British	£1,000

See our Naturalisation and British Citizenship pages for the detail.

Documents to assemble

• Current passport and all previous passports covering the qualifying period.
• Biometric residence permit or eVisa access.
• Life in the UK test pass notification.
• English language evidence (test certificate or degree with UK NARIC / Ecctis confirmation).
• Absence log with supporting travel evidence.
• Route-specific evidence: employer letter and payslips, or relationship and financial evidence.
• Evidence of address history.

Frequently asked questions

Can I apply before my five years are complete? You can apply up to 28 days before completing the qualifying period. Apply earlier than that and the application will be refused, and the fee is not refunded.

What if I have been outside the UK for more than 180 days in one 12-month period? On a work route this normally breaks continuous residence, though there are limited exceptions — including serious illness, conflict, natural disaster and, in some cases, absences that were consistent with your sponsored employment. These are evidence-heavy arguments. Take advice before applying.

Does time on a Graduate visa count? No. The Graduate route is not a settlement route.

What happens to my ILR if I leave the UK? Indefinite Leave to Remain lapses if you are outside the UK for a continuous period of two years or more. A Returning Resident visa may be possible, but it is discretionary. If you are planning an extended period abroad, plan around this — or consider naturalising first, since British citizenship does not lapse.

Can my family apply at the same time? Dependants apply in their own right and must meet their own requirements. Partners on the five-year route must have completed their own qualifying period; children are usually granted alongside a settling parent.

Where we can help

The five-year route is a long investment, and the settlement application is the point where any weakness in the preceding five years surfaces at once — a gap in leave, an absence miscounted, a sponsor who has changed, an English certificate at the wrong level.

We review the whole history, not just the form. If you would like a solicitor to check your position before you commit the fee, see our Indefinite Leave to Remain (5 Year Route) page or book a free 30-minute consultation.

Disclaimer: This article provides general information about the law of England and Wales as at August 2026. Settlement policy is under active review and the Immigration Rules, thresholds and fees change frequently. It is not legal advice and must not be relied on as though it were.