Home Office asked for evidence of your first-year ILR absences?
If the Home Office has emailed you after a priority or super priority Skilled Worker ILR application asking for evidence about your absences in the first 12-month period, take a breath: this is usually a routine verification, not a refusal. A caseworker is checking your travel dates against the continuous residence rules before they decide. The most important thing you can do is respond promptly, clearly and with evidence — a tidy absence table, the reasons, and supporting documents — alongside a short covering letter explaining your qualifying dates.
- The rule: no more than 180 days outside the UK in any rolling 12-month period across the qualifying period.
- An evidence request is usually routine, not a decision or refusal.
- Priority timelines usually pause while the Home Office waits for your reply.
- Respond with a dated absence breakdown, reasons, and evidence (boarding passes, payslips).
- This is general information, not legal advice.
What the 180-day rule actually means
For Skilled Worker settlement, Appendix Continuous Residence requires that you have not been outside the UK for more than 180 days in any 12-month period during the qualifying period. The word that catches people out is rolling. The Home Office does not just look at calendar years or at the periods ending on your visa anniversary — a caseworker can examine every possible 12-month window. So they might check 1 June 2021 to 31 May 2022, then 2 June 2021 to 1 June 2022, and so on across your whole qualifying period.
If you were outside the UK for more than 180 days in the 12 months ending on any particular date, your continuous residence can break from the date the limit was first exceeded, unless one of the listed exceptions applies (for example certain humanitarian, compassionate, or travel-disruption reasons). This is exactly the kind of thing a caseworker confirms before deciding.
Why a caseworker queries early-period absences
This is the part that connects to your situation. If your heavy absences fell in the first year, one common and lawful approach is to apply for ILR later so the five-year qualifying period rolls forward — past the windows where you exceeded 180 days. People often bridge that gap with a visa extension, which is why an extension and a slightly later ILR date frequently go together.
From the caseworker's side, early absences over 180 days are a natural flag. They are not assuming you fail; they are asking you to confirm the qualifying dates so they can see that the excess-absence windows sit outside the period being assessed. Your 5 June email explaining the qualifying dates is precisely the right instinct.
How to respond well
Make the caseworker's job easy. A strong reply usually includes:
- A clear absence table: departure date, return date, number of days, destination, and reason for each trip.
- Evidence for the trips: boarding passes, e-tickets, passport stamps, and where relevant payslips or an employer letter showing continuous UK employment.
- A short covering letter setting out your qualifying period dates, why you applied when you did, and how the visa extension fits — i.e. that the excess first-year absences fall before the qualifying period now being assessed.
Reply by the deadline in the email, and keep it complete the first time. Vague or partial responses invite follow-up questions and more delay. Send a single, well-organised absence table with dates and evidence, plus a brief explanation of your qualifying dates.
What happens to your priority timeline
Priority service aims for a decision within 5 working days, and super priority by the end of the next working day after you give your biometrics. In practice, when the Home Office asks for further information, the clock usually pauses until you respond, then resumes. So an evidence request typically delays the fast turnaround rather than removing it. The faster and more completely you reply, the sooner you get back on track — many applicants in this position go on to a grant once the dates are confirmed.
If your case is genuinely borderline, or the exceptions to the absence limit might be in play, it is worth getting tailored advice from a regulated immigration adviser before you reply.
While you wait on your ILR, it is a good moment to start preparing for the next step toward citizenship — you can practise the Life in the UK test free at britpass.app.
For more on how the limits work, see our guides to absence limits explained and what to do if super priority is taking longer than expected.