What documents are required for 10-year permanent residency? Historical visa and entry-exit list

The actual thing that needs to be submitted for the Long Residence (SET(LR)) is a continuous period of residence from the first legal entry until the date of submission, with no gaps in between; passports, stickers, BRP are just supporting documents for this timeline. The Home Office August 3, 2026 version of the "Long Residence" guidance states the evaluation starting point very clearly: the applicant's passport and immigration records. If there is a gap in the ten years, the conclusion will be that the conditions are not met.

The judge is not responsible for making up the pictures for you.

Make a 10-year timeline before submitting it.

This table is not a personal draft, but one that needs to be uploaded together with the application. It divides the past ten years into two types of segments: each period of permission, and each departure. The two types of segments must fit perfectly at the beginning and end, without any gaps such as "I was also in the UK during this half year but had no documents."

The middle line is the easiest to empty. Submitting an extension before the old permit expires, and maintaining legal status during the months of waiting for a decision through section 3C, during this time no documents can prove it — the date on BRP has already expired, and the new card hasn't arrived yet. The only proof is the original confirmation email and payment receipt submitted back then. People who have changed visas two or three times in ten years usually have these emails long since thrown into the trash; now going through the email is much easier than being asked to submit additional documents after the application.

Which passport to scan, and which page to scan

All passports over a ten-year period, not a single one missing, each page must be scanned, including blank pages and the inside covers. The visa sticker (entry clearance vignette) is attached to a particular passport, which is considered the original document, not "the old ones can be ignored." When a new passport is issued, the old one is canceled, hole-punched or corner-cut, it still needs to be scanned; cancellation refers to the travel function, not the immigration records inside.

The expired BRP card is the same, keep the copy.

BRP After fully switching to eVisa, there is a saying in the circle: the visa history is in the UKVI account, so there is no need to prepare the old passport and old card anymore. This statement does not hold. The View and prove service provides your current status and validity period, it will not output a list of "which permits I have held in the past ten years"; the starting point for assessing long residence in the August 2026 edition of guidance is still the passport plus immigration records. eVisa proves the present, while ten-year residency needs to prove the past.

Lost old passport, SAR only provides the last five years

Filing a subject access request (SAR) to Home Office can indeed retrieve your immigration records, which is free, and the response is usually within one month after identity verification. However, on GOV.UK's page "Request copies of your personal immigration and borders information," there is a line that many people don't read carefully: entry and exit travel records are only provided for the past five years, and you are required to submit a passport or travel document covering this period.

📌 My opinion: For those whose gap falls between the 6th and 10th year, you shouldn't first submit a SAR and then wait for a month. The official travel record for that period is not given to you, and what you get is only a document that does not cover the gap, which just pushes back the submission date. The scenarios where submitting a SAR is worth it are two: when the missing information is the entry and exit records of the last five years, or when you need to retrieve the decision letter and file records of a previous application.

Only third-party records can fill the gap of more than six years. There is more available than you might imagine: employment history can be downloaded from your HMRC personal tax account, with one employer record per year; enrollment or attendance letters from schools, which usually clearly state the date range; GP medical records can prove that you were in the country locally; rental agreements combined with council tax bills and bank statements showing local UK spending can also fill in a particular year. When looking for these documents, there's one discipline to keep: if any third-party records don't match your own timeline, first explain the discrepancy before deciding whether to submit them, otherwise it's like preparing evidence to refute yourself for the case reviewer. If your passport is lost or stolen, attach an additional statement, and if possible, include a police report receipt or a replacement certificate from the embassy or consulate.

UK Settlement Exit Days: XX0YY, XX12YY

The calculation for long-term residence abroad is divided on April 11, 2024. For the period before this day, it is based on the total and single instance: the total does not exceed 548 days, and any single departure starting before this day does not exceed 184 days. For the period after this day, it is changed to a rolling basis: no more than 180 days within any 12-month period.

The ten-year period across different categories needs to be calculated in segments, with two sets of criteria running parallel in the same table. Take a specific example: someone who entered in 2017 and completed ten years in 2027, the period from 2017 to April 2024 should be assessed according to 548/184, and after April 2024, each rolling 12-month window should be assessed separately for 180 days. The fact that the first segment does not exceed the limit does not mean the later segment is safe. Days are counted as full days, and both the departure day and the return day to the UK are counted as being in the UK. Manual counting is prone to errors in cross-year trips; use 永居计算器 APP to enter each trip segment, which can directly calculate the days according to the segmented criteria.

Whether that period counts or not, and until which day, is the most common source of dispute in the ten-year application. If unsure, it's safer to pay £5 on justiscript.com to get a written confirmation from a UK-qualified lawyer than to calculate the expiry date based on guesses.

The application fee for SET(LR) is £3,226 per person starting from April 8, 2026, and it is non-refundable. If any segment of the ten-year timeline lacks supporting documents, the fastest remedy will take weeks—finding a submission confirmation email from 2019 in the mailbox may only take ten minutes, but obtaining a proof of employment period from the previous employer may take two or three weeks. Do all these tasks before submitting.

This article is for reference only. For specific issues, please consult a licensed attorney.

[Data source] Home Office "Long residence" caseworker guidance (version dated 3 August 2026): assets.publishing.service.gov.uk; GOV.UK "Request copies of your personal immigration and borders information"; GOV.UK Visa fees (effective from 8 April 2026)

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