I was always aware of the question on the UK ILR application to list all periods outside of the UK. In my wife's case that would be a lot of visit, at least 2 a year over a 5 year period.

A friend sent her a web page that now has me worried. It says:

245AAA General requirements for indefinite leave to remain. 

a "continuous period of 5 years lawfully in the UK" means residence in the UK for an unbroken period with valid leave, and for these purposes a period shall not be considered to have been broken where:

(i) the applicant has been absent from the UK for a period of 180 days or less in any of the five consecutive 12 months periods preceding the date of the application for leave to remain. 

I was aware of some sort of clause for settlement but not for the ILR. Am I misreading or misunderstanding this?

Re-reading this are they saying that if the applicant is outside of the UK for "more than" a period of 180 days then they would not be considered resident. If they are outside the UK for less than 180 days in any consecutive 5 year period then it is ok. ie as long as my wife does not exceed 6 months out of the UK in any year that she is ok. So say 2 periods of 2 months each each year is ok?

9 hours ago, trevor1908 said:

A friend sent her a web page that now has me worried. It says:

245AAA General requirements for indefinite leave to remain...…...

This comes from Immigration Rules part 6A: the points-based system Points-based system (paragraphs 245AAA to 245ZZE).

 

It does not apply to your wife as she, I assume, did not enter under the points based system as a worker or student but entered as your partner under the family rules: Immigration Rules Appendix FM: family members Family members. See "Section R-ILRP: Requirements for indefinite leave to remain (settlement) as a partner." You will see that no specific maximum time out of the UK is mentioned in the rules; although if an applicant has spent more time out of the UK than in they may have to explain why this is so and satisfy the decision maker that they are, in fact, a UK resident and have been for the entire qualifying period.