What documents are required for 10-year 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 edition of the "Long Residence" guidance clearly states the starting point of assessment: the applicant's passport and immigration records. If there is a period in the ten years that cannot be proven, 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 by yourself before submitting it.

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

The middle row is the easiest to empty. Submitting an extension before the old permit expires and relying on section 3C to maintain legal status during the months of waiting for a decision, this period has no documents to prove it — the date on BRP has already expired, and the new card hasn't arrived yet. The only proof that can be provided 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, and now searching 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

All passports covering a ten-year period, not a single one can be 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 as the original document, not "the old ones can be ignored". When replacing with a new passport, the old one is canceled, punched or corner-cut, it still needs to be scanned; cancellation refers to the travel function, not the immigration records inside.

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, so 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, but it will not issue a list of "which permits I have held in the past ten years"; the starting point for assessing long-term residency in the August 2026 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, 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:出入境 travel records are only provided for the past five years, and you need 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 a SAR and then wait for a month. The official travel records during that period are not given to you in the first place; what you get is only a document that does not cover the gap, which only pushes back the submission date. The scenarios where submitting a SAR is worthwhile are two: when the missing information is the entry and exit records of the past five years, or when you need to retrieve the decision letter and file records of a previous application.

The gap of more than six years can only be filled by third parties on an annual basis. There is more available than imagined: HMRC's personal tax account allows you to download employment history, with one employer record per year; school-issued enrollment or attendance letters usually have clearly written date ranges; GP medical records can prove that you were locally present; rental agreements combined with council tax bills and bank statements showing local UK consumption can also fill in a particular year. When looking for these materials, there is one discipline to keep: whenever third-party records do not 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 reviewer. If the passport is lost or stolen, attach an additional explanation, and if possible, include the police report or the embassy's replacement certificate.

UK Permanent Resident Departure Days: April 11, 2024,前后 two sets of rulers

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 should 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 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 segments are safe. Days are counted as full days, with both the departure day and return day to the UK 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 approach.

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 to get a written confirmation from a UK practicing lawyer, rather than calculating the expiry date based on your own guess.

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 rectify — finding an email confirmation from 2019 in your inbox may take only ten minutes, but getting a proof of employment from your previous employer may take two or three weeks. Do all 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 3 August 2026): assets.publishing.service.gov.uk; GOV.UK "Request copies of your personal immigration and borders information"; GOV.UK Visa fees (effective 8 April 2026)

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