Elated. Had 184 days outside the UK in a rolling period. Received ILR 2 working days after biometrics (Priority service). Submitted ample evidence but was quite concerned as there weren't many similar cases online, and saw warnings that it is a very high bar and usually classed as complex long case
Posting this to help someone else who might be in a similar situation, as I would have really benefited from the same. I was especially concerned because I saw several posts saying cases involving exceeding 180 days UK absence are often classified as a complex case which could take 6 months or more, and delay the entire family's ILR decision.
Background: I had to take an unexpected trip to my home country for my dad's surgery, as I needed to be there for him as well as a carer for his post-surgical care and rehab.
As a result, I was out of the UK for 184 days in one of the rolling periods, and thus asked that the trip be waived on compassionate grounds in my ILR application, which is allowed on the UK website.
I wrote a detailed cover letter explaining the circumstances, which addressed the points on the website (that it was unexpected, efforts to reduce UK absence, why it had to be me etc). I also sent the following evidence (in a combined pdf):
- A letter from the neurosurgeon, which highlighted my role as his carer,
- Referral to the neurosurgeon from his doctor.
- Ticket showing I already had a separate return ticket for a much later date (i.e., to show it was unexpected)
- Ticket showing I arrived in my home country the day before the surgery to keep UK absence to a minimum
- Several post-surgical pictures [showing the open wounds and healing progression], I was advised beforehand on Reddit against including this evidence, but I figured better too much than too little evidence, though I put this at the end of the evidence document.
- A detailed table showing a breakdown of all my trips in the last 5 years and highlighting exactly which trip was the cause, etc.
- Subject access request document showing their records largely matched mine (and I attached flight tickets at the end of the passport pages document for all missing records and unstamped passport pages)
Some things to note, which possibly might have played a part:
- I applied with my spouse (the main applicant) and our kids. My being a dependent and applying together with my family might have made a prompt decision easier
- I only had 4 days excess, which might have played a part
- I tried to preempt any questions and documents they might ask for as part of their general investigations. Also, I made various documents easy to view/find (e.g. at the end of the passport pages PDF, I attached all flight tickets for unstamped UK entries in the passport pages..and put a message on the first page of the passport document letting them know).
- I similarly named files in an easy-to-understand way, while grouping relevant files together in one file where possible, to make it easy for the caseworker.
Having said all this, I might have just been lucky with the caseworker I got, so maybe it wasn't even because of my detailed efforts.
Anyways, I am just so relieved and wish anyone who might have a similar issue, as well as those hoping to apply for ILR, the very best of luck