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 residence timeline from the first legal entry until the submission date, 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 clearly states the starting point for assessment: 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 ten-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 be emptied. Submitting an extension before the old permit expires, and maintaining legal status during the months of waiting for a decision, relies on 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 evidence that can be proven is the original confirmation email of submission and the payment receipt. For people who have changed visas two or three times in ten years, such emails are usually long gone into the trash. Now, going through the email is much easier than being asked to supplement documents after submission.

哪本护照该扫、扫到哪一页

覆盖十年的全部护照，一本都不能少，每一页都要扫，包括空白页和封面内页。签证贴纸（entry clearance vignette）贴在哪本上，那本就是许可证据的本体，不是"旧的可以不管"。换发新护照时旧本被作废、打孔或剪角，照样要扫；作废的是旅行功能，不是里面的移民记录。

The invalidated BRP card is the same, keep the scan.

BRP After fully switching to eVisa, there is a saying in the circle: the visa history is all in the UKVI account, and there is no need to prepare the old passport and old card anymore. This statement is not valid. 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 August 2026 guidance assessment for long-term residency still starts with the passport plus immigration records. eVisa proves the present, while ten-year residency needs to prove the past.

Lost old passport, SAR only gives you the last five years.

Filing a subject access request (SAR) to Home Office can indeed retrieve your immigration records, it's free, and usually responds 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 judgment: For those whose gap falls between the 6th to 10th year, it's not advisable to first submit SAR and then wait for a month. The official travel record for that period is not given in the first place; what arrives is only a document that does not cover the gap, which just pushes back the submission date unnecessarily. The scenarios where submitting SAR is worthwhile are two: when the missing records are within the last five years of entry and exit, or when it is necessary to retrieve a decision letter and file records from a previous application.

Only third-party records can fill the gap of more than six years. There are more available materials 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; 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 is one discipline to keep: any third-party records that do not match your own timeline should first be explained before deciding whether to submit them, otherwise it's equivalent to preparing evidence to refute yourself for the case reviewer. If your passport is lost or stolen, attach an additional explanation, and if possible, include a police report receipt or a certificate of reissue from the embassy or consulate.

UK Permanent Resident Departure Days: Two sets of rulers before and after April 11, 2024

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 in parallel within the same table. For example: a person who entered in 2017 and completed ten years in 2027, the period from 2017 to April 2024 is assessed according to 548/184, and after April 2024, each rolling 12-month window is individually assessed for 180 days. The fact that the first segment does not exceed the limit does not mean the later segments are 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 segment of your trip, which can directly calculate the days according to the segmented method.

The period of 3C is the most common source of dispute in the ten-year application. If unsure, it's safer to pay £5 on justiscript.com for a written confirmation from a UK-qualified lawyer than to guess the expiry date yourself.

The application fee for SET(LR) is £3,226 per person starting from April 8, 2026, and it is non-refundable. Any period without documentation on the ten-year timeline will require at least a week to remedy — finding an application confirmation email from 2019 in your inbox may take only ten minutes, but getting a proof of employment from your previous employer's HR may take two or three weeks. Do these things before submitting your application.

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

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

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