ILR - 5 year Skilled Worker route

The eligibility requirements for Skilled Worker visa holders who wish to apply for ILR are outlined below.

Residence in the UK

Eligibility for ILR after five years usually requires you to hold Skilled Worker visas and to live continuously and lawfully in the UK. This is defined as you:

• having continuously held Skilled Worker visas in the UK, which may be across multiple jobs and/or employers, and across any number of Skilled Worker visas; and
• not having overstayed beyond the expiry date of any of these visas.

Gaps between employment/employers do not break continuity of residence.

You cannot combine time spent on a Skilled Worker visas with time spent on dependant visas – you must either hold dependant visas for a full five years or Skilled Worker visas for a full five years. 

Absences from the UK

You must not have had more than 900 days’ absence from the UK in total across the five years (but see ‘Absence exemptions’ below). 

Absence calculation

Absences from the UK are considered on a rolling basis, not per calendar year. You must not have been absent from the UK for more than 180 days in any 12 month period. When calculating absences, this includes all personal and business-related travel. You should only include whole days, not days when you travelled to/from the UK.

Absence exemptions

If you have had more than 180 days’ absence from the UK in a rolling 12 month period and:

• the SOC code on your most recent Certificate of Sponsorship is 2111, 2112, 2113, 2114, 2115, 2119, 2161, 2162 or 2311; and
• the absences over 180 days were due to:
  • "research activity" overseas; and/or
  • “travel disruption due to natural disaster, military conflict or pandemic”; and/or
  • you "assisting with a national or international humanitarian or environmental crisis overseas"; and/or
  • you having “compelling and compassionate personal circumstances, such as the life-threatening illness of the applicant, or the life-threatening illness or death of a close family member”;

these excess absences will be waived by the Home Office. The mandatory employer/sponsor letter should be completed by your department and will need to include the wording indicated in yellow.

If your absences from the UK amounted to 180 days or less in any 12 month period, you do not need to consider requesting a waiver and the highlighted wording can be removed from the sponsor letter.

Income

From 1 December 2020, all ILR applicants who hold a Skilled Worker visa must meet a minimum salary requirement. The occupation (SOC) codes in the table below are most frequently used by the University – please refer to your most recent Certificate of Sponsorship to check the SOC code and, if yours is not listed below, please contact the HR Compliance Team.

* Where originally sponsored under SOC 2010 code 2119.

The above represent the minimum salary that the individual must be receiving at the point of application not throughout employment, based on a 37 hour working week. 

For roles defined by all other SOC Codes, the applicant must be in receipt of salary of at least £29,000 or the ‘going rate’ for their role, whichever is higher. Please contact the HR Compliance Team for the minimum applicable salary rate. 

Life and language requirements

Before applying for ILR, you must have passed the Life in the UK test. The test has no expiry date and can be taken at any time before you apply for ILR.

You do not need to prove that you meet the English language requirement as you have already proven this as part of your initial Skilled Worker visa application.

When can I apply?

You must have held Skilled Worker visas for a continuous period of five years (see Residence in the UK and Absences from the UK above) which starts from the date the very first qualifying visa was issued, not the date you entered the UK for the first time. You can apply for ILR up to 28 days before you reach the end of the five year qualifying period. For example, if your very first Skilled Worker visa was issued on 1 July 2021, you could submit an application for ILR at any time on or after 3 June 2026. You must not apply more than 28 days before you reach the 3 year qualifying period, or your application may be refused. 

Important: once you have applied for ILR, you must not leave the Common Travel Area (the UK, Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man) until you receive a decision on your application. If you do, the Home Office will consider your application withdrawn, which may result in you having no right to re-enter/live in the UK.

How do I apply?

You can only apply online, using immigration form SET(O).

How much does it cost?

Please see gov.uk for the current cost of an ILR application (“Other applications in the UK” > “Indefinite leave to remain – main applicants and dependants”).

There are two service level options:

1. Standard, where the application can take up to 6 months to be decided. However, in practice, it rarely takes more than 2-3 months for a decision.
2. Priority, where a decision can be received within 5 working days of attending an appointment at a UK Visas and immigration service and support centre to submit your biometric information and supporting paperwork. Please see gov.uk for the current cost of the Priority service (“Optional premium services within the UK” > “Expedited processing – Priority service”). Note: if you are required to use the Home Office 'UK Immigration: ID Check' app to submit your biometrics and supporting documents, you will not be eligible for the Priority service.

What documents do I need?

• Your current, valid passport

• Any previous passports you still have (if you no longer have them, this will not be an issue)

• Your current Biometric Residence Permit (BRP) if you have one

• Your most recent payslip at the time you make the application – this can be downloaded from Employee Self Service

• Your most recent bank statement at the time you make the application, which shows the deposit of your last salary payment

• Evidence of meeting the English language requirement – your UK degree certificate, or overseas degree certificate and UK Ecctis certificate, or English language test certificate

• Employer/sponsor letter which should be provided by your department, together with the list of absences from the UK for the period of your employment at Cambridge or the past 5 years, whichever is shorter. If the department/institute requires any guidance on the production of this letter, they should contact the HR Compliance team.

• If you have been employed elsewhere during your 5 year qualifying period, a list of absences from the UK from any previous employers who sponsored you through Skilled Worker.

What will I get?

The Home Office has discontinued production of Biometric Residence Permits (BRPs), so your permission will be granted as an eVisa which you will be able to access online.  

Dependants 

Your family members can apply for ILR in their own right.

• Spouses/unmarried partners/civil partners can only do so after they hold a points-based system (PBS) dependant visa for at least 5 years.

• Conversely, children do not need to hold a dependant visa for a set number of years in order to qualify for ILR. However, before they make an application for ILR, the following must be true:
  • They hold a valid PBS dependant visa (of any length) or were born in the UK; and 
  • Both parents already hold ILR; or
  • Both parents are applying for ILR at the same time as the child; or
  • One parent holds ILR and the other parent is applying for ILR at the same time as the child.

Discretion is provided for parents who have sole responsibility for their child(ren).

Further guidance/reading

Indefinite Leave to Remain: Calculating continuous period in UK   
Knowledge of Life and Language in the UK 
ILR for Skilled Worker visa holders