The change to the immigration rules on 11 April 2024 regarding how absences would be calculated in the long residence route initially caused a lot of confusion because the drafting of the new rules was ambiguous, yet the updated guidance seemed to suggest that the 548 day limit no longer applied at all to applications made after April 2024.

The confusion was so widespread that the Home Office had to pause decision making in all cases where someone’s absences exceeded 548 days until their policy team could determine what the rules and guidance that their own department drafted actually meant.

Now, it seems, we finally have some clarity on this issue as the “Long residence” guidance and the “Continuous residence” guidance were both updated on 8 July 2024.

The “Long residence” guidance now states:

These transitional arrangements preserve the position that continuous residence will be broken if an applicant has been absent from the UK for more than 184 days at any one time or for more than a total of 548 days overall, where that absence started before 11 April 2024.

The “Continuous residence” guidance now states:

Later on, the guidance repeats:

If the applicant is applying under Appendix Long Residence, any absences from the UK which started before 11 April 2024 will be considered towards a limit of 184 days in any single absence, and not more than 548 days in total for any part of the qualifying period before 11 April 2024.

Essentially, this means that there is a cap of 548 days on any absences before 11 April 2024 that form part of the 10 year period. Interestingly, this is not done on a pro-rata basis, so whether an applicant is relying on two years or nine years before April 2024 as part of the 10 year qualifying period, their absences allowance for that period remains 548 days.

Although this new guidance seems clear, so did the previous guidance that we now know was not what the Home Office intended, so I would still approach this with a pinch of salt. This is particularly because it is the 10 year long residence route: arguably one of the simplest routes on paper that the Home Office has still managed to overcomplicate to the extent of requiring constant litigation in some of our highest courts. I wouldn’t be surprised if this too formed the basis for a legal challenge in the future.