ILR 28 Days Calculator: Check Your Early Application Window

Researched and maintained by the ILR Calculator UK editorial team · Reviewed against the Immigration Rules in force on 24 June 2026 · General information about UK settlement, not regulated immigration advice. For advice on your own case, use an adviser regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority (IAA) or a solicitor.

You can apply for ILR up to 28 calendar days before your qualifying period completes. This is the 28-day early application concession at paragraph CR 1.2(a) of Appendix Continuous Residence. To find your earliest valid date, take the date your qualifying period (3, 5 or 10 years) completes and subtract 28 calendar days, including weekends and bank holidays. Applying 29 or more days early is refused as premature, and the £3,226 fee is not refunded, so the date is worth getting exactly right.

The 28-day early application window explained

The 28-day early application window lets applicants for Indefinite Leave to Remain submit their settlement application up to 28 calendar days before they complete their required period of continuous lawful residence. Codified at paragraph CR 1.2(a) of Appendix Continuous Residence, this concession protects applicants from gaps in status while UKVI processes their application and is one of the most practically important provisions in the settlement rules.

28-day window: worked examples

The earliest valid application date is simply your qualifying-period completion date minus 28 calendar days. The table below shows how that works out across the three route lengths.

Source: paragraph CR 1.2(a), Immigration Rules Appendix Continuous Residence. Earliest date = qualifying-period completion date minus 28 calendar days.

Qualifying period completion vs visa expiry date

Your qualifying period completion date is the exact anniversary of the date your qualifying leave began — for example, exactly 5 years (or 3, or 10 years) after your first grant of leave on a qualifying route. Your visa expiry date is the date shown on your e-visa. In practice these dates often differ, because Home Office grants of leave may not align exactly with the qualifying timeline. The 28-day window is calculated from the qualifying period date, not the expiry date. Use our qualifying period calculator to confirm which date applies to you.

Section 3C leave protection within the window

Under section 3C of the Immigration Act 1971, if you submit an ILR application before your current leave expires, your leave is automatically extended while the application is pending. Applying within the 28-day window (or any time before your visa expires) therefore protects your lawful status. If you apply after your visa has expired, section 3C does not apply and you may be treated as an overstayer, which can break continuous residence. Timing your application correctly is vital.

Missing the ILR 28-day window

If your qualifying period completes and you have not yet applied, and your current visa is about to expire, you must still submit before expiry to preserve continuity via section 3C. If your visa has already expired, paragraph 39E of the Immigration Rules may, in limited circumstances, disregard a short period of overstay, but this is a narrow concession and not guaranteed. Advice from a regulated adviser is strongly recommended if you are in this position.

Why the 28-day concession exists

The 28-day concession has been a feature of the Immigration Rules for many years and was carried forward into the consolidated Appendix Continuous Residence framework. It recognises that Home Office decisions can take time — standard ILR decisions can take up to 6 months — and that applicants need a buffer to maintain continuous lawful status. By permitting submission up to 28 days before the qualifying period completes, UKVI ensures applicants are not penalised for processing delays.

Calendar days, not working days

A persistent misunderstanding is that the 28 days means working days. Paragraph CR 1.2(a) specifies a straight subtraction of 28 calendar days from the qualifying period completion date — weekends and UK bank holidays are included. For example, if your 5-year qualifying period completes on 15 December 2026, your earliest valid application date is 17 November 2026, exactly 28 calendar days earlier.

Applying too early and the financial risk

If you submit your ILR application even one day before the 28-day window opens — that is, 29 or more days before your qualifying period completes — the Home Office will refuse it as premature. From 8 April 2026, the ILR application fee is £3,226 per person (up from £3,029 in 2025/26), plus a £19.20 biometric enrolment fee. The Immigration Health Surcharge does not apply to settlement applications. A premature refusal means losing the £3,226 fee with no refund, so you must wait and apply within the correct window.

Strategic planning around absences

Many applicants apply on the earliest valid date so that ILR is granted as soon as possible. That only makes sense if your absences are within the permitted limits on that date. If you are close to the 180-day cap in any rolling 12-month period on a 5-year route, deferring submission by a few weeks may shift the rolling window so that an earlier long trip drops out of the assessment period. Use our absence calculator to model both scenarios before deciding when to submit.

Online submission is mandatory

Since October 2024, the Home Office requires all ILR applications to be submitted online via GOV.UK. The paper form SET(O) is no longer accepted except in narrow exceptional cases. The 28-day rule applies identically whether the application is submitted on the first or last day of the window — the submission timestamp recorded by the online system determines validity.