Question 1

What is an ILR calculator and why do I need one?

Accepted Answer

An ILR (Indefinite Leave to Remain) calculator tracks your eligibility for UK settlement against the Home Office rules: no more than 180 days outside the UK in any rolling 12-month period during your qualifying years, plus the route-specific requirements for your visa type. ILR Tracker automates this tracking and the trip-by-trip math that's hard to get right in a spreadsheet — so you apply at the earliest valid date and avoid the absence-rule mistakes that cause refusals.

Question 2

Will my tracking still work if the Home Office changes ILR from 5 to 10 years?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The calculator already supports both timelines. If the rule changes, your data carries forward automatically and you'll see both the 5-year and 10-year projections side-by-side so you can see which applies to you. Our Earned Settlement Calculator can also tell you today whether you'd be affected.

Question 3

I've already been here 4 years. Is it too late to start tracking?

Accepted Answer

Not at all. Most users start tracking when they're already partway through. Smart Import lets you paste your travel history from a spreadsheet, Google Calendar export, or notes — backfilling 5 years takes about 60 seconds. The earlier the better, but year 4 is normal and fine.

Question 4

How is this different from a spreadsheet?

Accepted Answer

A spreadsheet doesn't know the rules. ILR Tracker applies the 180-day rolling rule, the 450-day naturalisation cap, COVID Exceptional Assurance concessions, and the route-specific calculations for SET(O), SET(M), SET(LR) and SET(PL) automatically. It also simulates future trips against your existing data, generates the Home-Office-formatted PDF, and pulls real community-reported processing times. Spreadsheets can't do any of that.

Question 5

Is this a substitute for a solicitor?

Accepted Answer

No. ILR Tracker is a calculator and tracker — we don't give legal advice and we're not authorised to. For complex cases (refusals, dependants, specialist routes) you should work with an OISC- or SRA-regulated immigration adviser. We're built to do the data-tracking part so when you speak to a solicitor, you arrive with everything organised.

Question 6

Can my solicitor use the PDF I generate?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The travel history PDF is formatted exactly as the Home Office expects — date in, date out, country, days absent, rolling totals. Solicitors can use it directly as supporting documentation.

Question 7

Is my data secure?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Your data is encrypted in transit (HTTPS) and at rest in our EU-region Supabase database, accessed only via your Google login. We don't sell or share it with third parties. Deleting your account permanently removes all your data within 30 days.

Question 8

What if I'm on a visa type you don't list?

Accepted Answer

We currently support Skilled Worker, Spouse/Partner, Health & Care Worker, ECAA (Turkish Businessperson), Global Talent, Investor, EU Settlement Scheme, and Private Life — plus the 10-year Long Residence route. If you're on a different route (e.g. Graduate, Ancestry, Visitor), the absence calculator can still help, but the route-specific calculations won't match.

Don't let one missed absence day cost you £3,226 and another year of waiting.

From your first absence to your British passport

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