Does time on a Charity Worker (Temporary Work) visa count toward Skilled Worker ILR?
No — time spent on a Charity Worker (Temporary Work) visa does not count toward the 5 years of continuous residence you need for Skilled Worker settlement. Your qualifying clock starts from the day your Skilled Worker leave was granted, so if you switched in December 2021, you can expect to become eligible for indefinite leave to remain (ILR) around December 2026, subject to the continuous-residence and absence rules.
- 5-year clock: starts from your Skilled Worker grant, not your Charity Worker visa
- Charity Worker visa: a Temporary Work route — not a settlement route, so it does not count
- Your dates: switched December 2021 means eligible around December 2026
- Apply early: you can submit up to 28 days before you hit 5 years
- Keep it continuous: stay within 180 days' absence in any rolling 12 months
Why the Charity Worker visa doesn't count
The Charity Worker visa sits inside the Temporary Work category (formerly Tier 5). GOV.UK is explicit that it is a short-term route: you can stay for up to 12 months, or the length on your certificate of sponsorship plus 14 days, whichever is shorter. Crucially, it is not a route to settlement. There is no path from a Temporary Work visa directly to ILR, and time on it is not blended into the Skilled Worker qualifying period.
This is different from switching between settlement routes. If you had moved from, say, Global Talent to Skilled Worker, that earlier time could count. But Temporary Work routes are designed to be temporary — the whole point is that they don't build toward permanent status. The same applies to the other Temporary Work sub-categories, such as Creative Worker, Religious Worker and the Government Authorised Exchange route: none of them are settlement routes, so none of them feed the Skilled Worker clock. Only lawful time in a recognised settlement route counts.
When your 5-year clock actually starts
For Skilled Worker settlement, GOV.UK requires 5 years' continuous residence in a qualifying route. The routes that count toward this period are the settlement work routes — Skilled Worker, Global Talent, Innovator Founder, T2 Minister of Religion, International Sportsperson, and Representative of an Overseas Business, among others. Your Charity Worker time falls outside all of these.
So your clock started the day your Skilled Worker leave began — in your case, December 2021. Five years of continuous Skilled Worker (and any other qualifying-route) residence takes you to roughly December 2026. That is the earliest point your continuous period is complete.
The 28-day early-application window
You don't have to wait until the exact fifth anniversary. The Home Office lets you apply for ILR up to 28 days before you complete your qualifying period. So if your five years finishes in early December 2026, you could realistically submit from around early November 2026.
Applying earlier than 28 days risks a refusal for not yet meeting the continuous-residence requirement — and you lose the fee. We walk through exactly how the window works in can you apply for ILR early — the 28-day rule.
Watch your absences. Your continuous residence can be broken — and your 5-year clock effectively reset — if you spend more than 180 days outside the UK in any rolling 12-month period. That includes travel during your Skilled Worker years, not just around the application date. Check every 12-month window before you apply.
What about the year you spent on the Charity Worker visa?
It isn't wasted in every sense — it kept you lawfully in the UK and let you switch into a settlement route in-country. But for the purposes of the ILR maths, treat it as pre-clock time. If there was any gap in leave between your Charity Worker visa ending and your Skilled Worker visa starting, that can cause separate problems for continuity, which we cover in gaps in leave and Skilled Worker continuous residence.
Your likely timeline at a glance
- Jan 2021: entered on Charity Worker (Temporary Work) visa — does not count
- Dec 2021: switched to Skilled Worker — 5-year clock starts here
- Nov 2026: earliest you can apply (28-day window opens)
- Dec 2026: 5 years of continuous residence complete
Before you apply, confirm three things: that every rolling 12-month period stayed within the 180-day absence limit, that your salary and job still meet the Skilled Worker requirements at the ILR stage, and that you have your Life in the UK test pass and English language evidence ready. Get those lined up and a December 2021 switch should put ILR comfortably within reach in late 2026.