ILR 10-Year Route: Long Residence Explained (2026)

What is the ILR 10-year route?

The Long Residence route, commonly known as the 10-year route, allows anyone who has lived in the UK continuously for 10 years on any combination of valid visas to apply for indefinite leave to remain. Unlike route-specific paths such as the Skilled Worker or Spouse route, the 10-year route is not tied to any particular visa type. You do not need to have spent all 10 years on the same visa or with the same employer.

Indefinite leave to remain through the 10-year route is granted under Paragraph 276B of the Immigration Rules. It is formally called the Long Residence route, but the terms "10-year route", "10-year ILR", and "long residence ILR" are all used interchangeably. The application is made using the SET(LR) form, which stands for Settlement Long Residence.

This route is particularly valuable for people who have spent many years in the UK across multiple visa types and cannot qualify for indefinite leave to remain through a single route-specific path. For a broader overview of how the Long Residence route works, see our Long Residence route guide.

Who qualifies for the 10-year ILR route?

To qualify for indefinite leave to remain through the 10-year route, you must meet the following core requirements:

10 continuous years of lawful residence

You must have been in the UK continuously for 10 years, with no gaps in your lawful leave. This means that at every point during the 10-year period, you must have had valid leave to remain in the UK. Any gap in leave, even a short one, can break the continuity of your qualifying period and require you to start again.

The 10-year qualifying period can be made up of any combination of valid leave types. You could have spent 4 years on a Student visa, 3 years on a Skilled Worker visa, and 3 years on a Spouse visa, and this would count toward the 10-year route to indefinite leave to remain.

What does NOT count

The following periods do not count toward the 10-year qualifying period:

• Time on a visitor visa: Visitor visas are not intended for continuous residence and do not contribute to the 10-year route.
• Time without leave: Any period when you were in the UK without valid leave, including periods of overstaying, breaks the qualifying period entirely.
• Immigration bail: Time spent on immigration bail does not count as lawful leave for the purposes of long residence indefinite leave to remain.
• Temporary admission: Periods of temporary admission are also excluded from the qualifying period.
• Unlawful residence: Any period of unlawful residence breaks the continuity requirement and can affect the good character assessment too.

Who this route is ideal for

The 10-year route to indefinite leave to remain is particularly useful for people who:

• Came to the UK as international students and then transitioned to work visas, without accumulating 5 years on any single work route.
• Changed visa categories multiple times (for example, from a Spouse visa to a Student visa to a Skilled Worker visa) and do not meet the qualifying period for any single route.
• Have simply been in the UK for a long time across various visa types and now want to secure their indefinite leave to remain without needing to meet the specific requirements of a 5-year route.

In addition to the 10-year residence requirement, you must also meet the standard indefinite leave to remain requirements: English language at B1 level or above, a passed Life in the UK test, and good character.

What visas count toward the 10 years?

Most types of valid UK leave count toward the 10-year long residence qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain. The following table summarises the most common visa types and whether they count.

The key principle is that any leave granted for purposes other than a temporary visit generally counts. If you are unsure whether a particular period of leave counts toward your 10-year qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain, check the Home Office guidance or consult an immigration adviser.

The absence rules for the 10-year route

The absence rules for the 10-year long residence route to indefinite leave to remain are more complex than for 5-year routes because two different sets of rules apply depending on when your absences occurred.

Absences before 11 April 2024

For any absences that occurred before 11 April 2024, the old long residence absence rules apply:

• No single absence can exceed 184 days. If you left the UK for more than 184 days in one trip, that trip may break your continuous residence.
• Total absences must not exceed 548 days (approximately 18.25 months) across the entire 10-year qualifying period.

These older rules are significantly more generous than the standard 180-day rolling window that applies to most other indefinite leave to remain routes. If most of your 10 years occurred before April 2024, you have more flexibility in how many days you spent outside the UK.

Absences on or after 11 April 2024

For any absences that occurred on or after 11 April 2024, the standard absence rule now applies: you must not have been absent for more than 180 days in any rolling 12-month period. This is the same rule that applies to most 5-year routes for indefinite leave to remain.

This means that if your qualifying period spans both periods, you need to apply two different sets of rules to your travel history. Absences before April 2024 are counted against the 548-day total cap, while absences from April 2024 are assessed against rolling 12-month windows.

Checking your absence status

Working out whether you meet the absence rules for the 10-year route is complex, especially with two different rule sets to apply. Our ILR Absence Calculator handles both the old long residence rules and the new rolling window rules, so you can see at a glance whether your travel history is within the limits for indefinite leave to remain.

The SET(LR) application form

To apply for indefinite leave to remain through the 10-year long residence route, you must use the SET(LR) form. This is different from the forms used for other indefinite leave to remain routes:

• SET(LR): Long Residence route (this is the form you need for the 10-year route to indefinite leave to remain)
• SET(O): Work routes, including Skilled Worker, Global Talent, and Tier 1
• SET(M): Spouse, partner, and family routes

The SET(LR) application is submitted online via your UKVI account. The process is the same as for other indefinite leave to remain applications:

1. Complete the online form via the UKVI application portal
2. Pay the application fee of \u00A32,885
3. Book a biometrics appointment at a UKVCAS centre
4. Upload your supporting documents through the online portal
5. Attend your biometrics appointment
6. Wait for a decision

Processing times

Standard processing for indefinite leave to remain takes around 6 to 8 weeks from the date of your biometrics appointment. Priority processing (approximately 5 working days) and super priority processing (next working day) are available for an additional fee, if you need a faster decision. For more detail on the full application process, see our guide to the ILR application process.

What documents do you need?

The 10-year route to indefinite leave to remain is one of the most document-intensive indefinite leave to remain applications. Because you need to prove 10 continuous years of lawful residence, the evidence gathering process requires careful planning. Start collecting your documents well in advance of your application date.

Core documents required

• All passports covering the full 10 years: You need every passport you held during the qualifying period, not just your current one. If you renewed your passport during the 10 years, you must provide both old and new passports.
• Evidence of continuous lawful leave: This includes visa vignettes (the physical stamps in old passports), BRP cards for each visa you held, and any Home Office grant letters confirming your leave. Together, these must show unbroken coverage across the full 10 years.
• Travel history covering the full period: Passport stamps, boarding passes, or flight records showing every trip abroad across the 10-year period. If you used eGates and have no stamps, you will need to reconstruct your travel history from flight bookings, bank statements, and calendar records.
• English language evidence: Proof that you meet the B1 English language requirement. If you met this for a previous visa, that certificate may still be valid. If not, you will need to take an approved SELT test.
• Life in the UK test certificate: The pass notification from your Life in the UK test. This must be completed before you submit your indefinite leave to remain application.

The document challenge

Proving 10 years of continuous residence is significantly harder than proving 5 years. Documents go missing over a decade. Passports expire and get discarded. Visa grant letters are misfiled. The Home Office needs a complete, unbroken chain of evidence from the start to the end of your qualifying period. Any gap in the evidence, even if the underlying leave was valid, can create problems for your indefinite leave to remain application.

Use our ILR Document Checklist to track what you have and what you still need to gather. Starting the document audit 6 to 12 months before your application date gives you time to request replacement evidence from the Home Office, your previous employers, or your university.

10-year route vs 5-year route: which should I choose?

If you are eligible for both a route-specific 5-year path and the 10-year long residence route to indefinite leave to remain, you should carefully consider which one to use.

When the 5-year route is better

In most cases, the 5-year route is the simpler option if you qualify. Reasons to prefer the 5-year route include:

• Fewer documents: You only need to prove 5 years of residence on a single visa type, which is far easier than tracking a decade of leave across multiple categories.
• Clearer eligibility rules: Route-specific requirements (salary, sponsor, etc.) are well-defined, and the qualifying period is easier to calculate.
• Faster route to citizenship: ILR granted through a 5-year route gets you to the 12-month waiting period for British citizenship naturalisation sooner.

When the 10-year route is necessary

The 10-year route to indefinite leave to remain is designed for those who cannot use a route-specific path, for example:

• Someone who came to the UK as a student, spent 6 years on Student visas and Graduate visas, then worked on a Skilled Worker visa for 3 years, and changed to a Spouse visa for another year. They have not completed 5 years on any single route, but they have been in the UK lawfully for 10 years and qualify for indefinite leave to remain through the long residence route.
• Someone on a Youth Mobility Scheme visa who then transitioned to various other visa types without completing 5 years on one route.
• Anyone whose visa history spans multiple categories and does not neatly fit into a route-specific indefinite leave to remain path.

The 10-year route is not a consolation prize; it is a legitimate and well-established path to indefinite leave to remain. Many people in the UK have built their lives across multiple visa types and the long residence route exists precisely for them.

How ILR Tracker helps with the 10-year route

Tracking 10 years of visa history, absence days, and documents is genuinely difficult. ILR Tracker was built to make this manageable, whether you are on a standard 5-year route or the long residence route to indefinite leave to remain.

Eligibility calculator with 10-year route support

Our ILR Eligibility Calculator supports the 10-year long residence route. Enter your visa history and start date, and the calculator works out your qualifying period end date, your earliest application date (28 days before you complete 10 years), and flags any gaps in your lawful leave that might affect your indefinite leave to remain eligibility.

Absence calculator with both rule sets

Our ILR Absence Calculator handles both the pre-April 2024 long residence absence rules (184-day single absence limit and 548-day total cap) and the post-April 2024 rolling 180-day window rule. Log your trips once and the calculator applies the correct rule set to each period automatically. You can see at a glance whether your travel history qualifies you for indefinite leave to remain through the 10-year route.

Document checklist for long residence

Use our ILR Document Checklist to track the documents you need for the SET(LR) application. With 10 years of evidence to gather, having a structured checklist means nothing gets overlooked. The checklist is tailored to the long residence route and flags the documents that are specific to proving a decade of continuous lawful leave.

Whether you are just starting to think about the 10-year route to indefinite leave to remain or are weeks away from submitting your SET(LR) application, ILR Tracker gives you the tools to prepare with confidence.