Editorial Standards
How we research, write, check and correct everything on this site — and why you can verify all of it yourself.
Last updated: June 2026
We are an independent editorial publisher, not a law firm — so our credibility rests entirely on method rather than credentials. That means working only from primary sources, citing them at the point we rely on them, dating every page, labelling proposals as proposals, and correcting mistakes in public. This page sets out exactly how we do that, so you can judge our work rather than take it on trust.
Primary sources first
We work from the Immigration Rules, Home Office guidance and GOV.UK — never from other websites’ summaries.
Show the source
Key figures sit in tables with a link to the official page they came from, so you can check them.
Date everything
Every page shows the date its content was last checked against the rules in force.
Correct in public
When we get something wrong, we fix it, re-date the page, and say so if it was material.
Contents
Who writes this site
ILR Calculator UK is produced by a small editorial team of researchers and writers who specialise in reading and explaining UK immigration policy. Our work is research and plain-English explanation: we read the rules, track how they change, and turn them into tools and guides that ordinary applicants can use.
We are not solicitors, barristers or regulated immigration advisers, and we do not claim to be. You will not find a page on this site describing us as regulated, qualified or “specialist” advisers, because we are not. Where a question needs regulated advice, we say so and send you to the official registers.
The sources we use
Everything on this site traces back to a published, official source. These are the ones we rely on, in order of authority:
| Source | What we use it for |
|---|---|
| The Immigration Rules and appendices | Qualifying periods, absence limits, route requirements, English language and settlement criteria |
| Statements of Changes to the Immigration Rules | Tracking what is changing, when it takes effect, and which applications it applies to |
| Home Office caseworker guidance | How the Home Office actually applies a rule, including discretion and good character |
| GOV.UK fee tables and service pages | Application fees, biometric costs, processing times and how to apply |
| Primary legislation | Underlying law, such as the British Nationality Act 1981 for citizenship |
| Official consultations and White Papers | Understanding proposed changes — always labelled as proposals, not law |
Where we reproduce UK Government material, it is used under the terms of the Open Government Licence and remains Crown copyright.
What we don’t use
Being clear about what we exclude matters as much as what we include:
- Other websites’ summaries. We do not build content from competitor pages, law firm blogs or content aggregators. Second-hand summaries propagate errors and go stale quietly.
- Forum posts and anecdotes. Individual experiences are not evidence of what the rules say, and outcomes vary on facts we cannot see.
- Unverified figures. If we cannot find a figure in an official source, it does not go on the site — we would rather omit a number than publish one we cannot stand behind.
- Predictions dressed as facts. We do not tell you what the Home Office is “likely” to decide in your case.
Law, proposals and the difference between them
UK immigration policy generates a lot of noise — announcements, consultations, White Papers and press briefings that may or may not become law, and may change substantially before they do. Conflating a proposal with a rule in force is one of the most damaging errors an immigration site can make, because people plan expensive, time-sensitive applications around it.
Our review cycle
Immigration rules change several times a year, so “written once, correct forever” does not exist here. We review content on these triggers:
| Trigger | What we do |
|---|---|
| A Statement of Changes is laid | Read it in full and update every affected calculator and guide before the changes take effect |
| An annual fee uplift | Update all fee figures, move the previous fee into the historical table, and re-date the pages |
| Home Office guidance is revised | Check affected pages against the new version and note the guidance date |
| A reader reports an error | Verify against the current rules and correct within days if the report is right |
| Routine review | Periodic re-checks of high-traffic pages even where nothing has changed |
How our calculators are built
Our tools are not black boxes. Each one encodes a specific published rule — the 180-day rolling absence limit, the 28-day early application window, the 450-day and 90-day naturalisation limits — and the guide alongside it explains the rule the tool applies, so you can follow the logic and check it yourself.
- They run entirely in your browser. Nothing you enter is sent to us, stored, or shared. See our privacy policy.
- They are tested against worked examples — including edge cases like leap years, same-day departures and returns, and trips spanning a qualifying period boundary.
- They produce estimates, not decisions. A calculator cannot see your evidence or account for discretion, so we present results as a planning aid and say so plainly.
- They are updated when the underlying rule changes, on the same triggers as our written guides.
Corrections policy
We would rather be corrected than be wrong. On a subject where a mistake can cost someone thousands of pounds in non-refundable fees, defensiveness is not a virtue.
- You report it — through our contact page, ideally with the page address and a link to the official source you are relying on.
- We check it against the rules and guidance in force, not against what we published previously.
- We correct it if you are right, and update the review date on the page.
- We note material changes where a correction changes the substance of the advice, rather than quietly editing it away.
- We tell you what we found and what we changed, if you gave us a way to reply.
Advertising and editorial independence
This site is free to use, and advertising helps cover its running costs. That creates an obvious question about influence, so here is our position in plain terms:
- Advertisers have no input into our content. No advertiser sees, reviews, commissions or approves anything we publish.
- We do not accept payment for recommendations. We take no referral fees, no sponsored placements and no paid links from advisers, law firms or lead-generation companies.
- We do not sell your data. Nothing you enter into a calculator is collected, and we never pass enquiry details to advertisers.
- Adverts are not endorsements. Adverts are served by third parties, including Google. An advert from a law firm on one of our pages is not a recommendation from us.
- When we point you to professional help, we send you to the free official registers — the GOV.UK register of immigration advisers and the Law Society — precisely because they are impartial and we gain nothing from them.
The limits of what we do
Good standards include being honest about what we cannot offer:
- We do not give immigration advice, and using this site does not create any professional relationship.
- We cannot tell you whether your application will be granted. Only the Home Office decides that, on evidence we cannot see.
- We cannot review your documents, act for you, or contact the Home Office on your behalf.
- Our content is general information. Complex cases — excess absences, refusals, good character concerns, combined histories — need regulated advice.
Tell us we’re wrong
If something on this site looks inaccurate, unclear or out of date, we want to hear about it. Reader corrections are one of the main ways errors get caught, and we treat them seriously.
To report a correction, email:
Or use our contact page and choose “Report a correction”. Please include the page address and, if you can, a link to the GOV.UK page you are relying on.