Indefinite Leave To Remain – Work Permit Holders & Overseas Assignments

Earlier this month, the Home Office issued guidance on how to calculate a period of continuous residence in the UK when making an application for Indefinite Leave to Remain in a working category.

The requirement in the Immigration Rules is that in order to qualify for settlement in a working category, an individual must have spent a continuous period of five years' lawful residence in the UK.

The guidance has been brought in following a decision in the Upper Tribunal of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber in the case BD (work permit – "continuous period") Nigeria [2010].

The case concerned a Nigerian national whose application for settlement on the basis of five years' residence as a work permit holder was refused on the basis that he had not had continuous leave of five years as more than half of his period in the UK under the work permit was spent posted abroad with his UK based employer.