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ILR Readiness Calculator
Changelog

Rule and content updates

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v1.7 — Armed Forces route + Phase 1 COMPLETE

All planned consumer routes are now live. Armed Forces is the eighth and final calculator: 4 years' service (waived for medical discharge), application window 18 weeks before to 2 years after discharge. Two new evaluators handle service length and discharge timing.

  • armedForcesService (A1) — service-length check with medical-discharge waiver and Gurkha/Hong Kong veterans flag (separate rules, out of scope MVP).
  • armedForcesDischargeStatus (A4) — application window check: still-serving-far-out (amber), within-18-weeks (green), discharged-within-2-years (green), discharged-over-2-years (hard-fail).
  • Section B retains only the no-travel-during-processing reminder — overseas service for current members counts as in-UK time, so the standard 180-day rule doesn't apply the same way.
  • Fee section flags the waiver: free for 6+ years' service or medical discharge.
  • Same English / LITUK / criminality / debts as other routes.
  • Phase 1 of the commercial roadmap is COMPLETE — 8 calculators (Skilled Worker, HCW, Long Residence, Spouse/Partner, Global Talent, Innovator Founder, Refugee, Armed Forces) plus the UK days calculator.

v1.6 — Refugee / Humanitarian Protection route (Settlement Protection)

Humanitarian route. Distinct from work and family routes — no English language requirement, no Life in the UK Test, no salary or sponsor. 5 years on refugee leave or HP, plus a check that protection status hasn't been put under cessation review.

  • Sections E (English) and F (LITUK) intentionally omitted from the rules JSON — exempt for refugees and HP per Appendix Settlement Protection.
  • refugeeStatusReview (A4) — new evaluator: cessation under consideration is red; confirmed protection or no review is green; Discretionary Leave is amber (case-by-case path).
  • qualifyingResidence reused with minimumMonths: 60 (5 years).
  • Documents include Convention travel document and original grant letter.
  • Fee section flags fee waiver process (refugees facing financial hardship can apply for waiver before submitting ILR).
  • Privacy preserved: country of origin never asked, persecution details never asked. Protection type is categorical only (refugee / HP / Discretionary / Section 67).

v1.5 — Innovator Founder route

Endorsed business founders route. 3 years to ILR, plus an ILR-specific endorsement letter from the endorsing body confirming the business meets at least 2 of 7 ILR criteria. Two new evaluators handle endorsement state and the 7-criteria check.

  • innovatorFounderEndorsement (A4) — both initial endorsement (current vs withdrawn) AND the separate ILR endorsement letter must be in place.
  • innovatorFounderILRCriteria (D1) — multi-select from the 7 criteria: £50k+ external investment / customers doubled / R&D + IP / £1m revenue / £500k revenue with £100k exports / 10 jobs at £25k+ / 5 jobs held 12mo at £25k+. Must meet at least 2.
  • Reuses qualifyingResidence (A1) with minimumMonths: 36 (3 years).
  • qualifyingRouteHistory accepts pre-2023 'innovator-legacy' visa as qualifying (people who switched from Innovator to Innovator Founder).
  • Same English / LITUK / criminality / debts / 180-day rule.
  • Documents include both the initial endorsement letter and the ILR endorsement letter.

v1.4 — Global Talent route

Endorsement-based route. No sponsor, no salary. Time to ILR is 3 years for sciences endorsements / Award winners / 'Exceptional Talent' tracks; 5 years for 'Exceptional Promise' tracks. Two new evaluators handle the endorsement-aware residence calculation.

  • globalTalentResidence (A1) — minimumMonths varies by endorsement: 36 for sciences (Royal Society / British Academy / RAE / UKRI), 36 for Arts Council Exceptional Talent, 36 for Tech Nation Exceptional Talent (legacy), 36 for Award winners, 60 for either Exceptional Promise track.
  • globalTalentEndorsement (A4) — verifies the endorsement is current. Withdrawal is hard-fail.
  • Tech Nation closed Aug 2023; legacy endorsements still count for ILR — calculator handles them as 'tech-nation-talent' / 'tech-nation-promise' options.
  • Same English / LITUK / criminality / debts / 180-day rule as other routes.
  • Documents include endorsement letter and evidence of continued activity in the field.

v1.3 — Spouse / Partner route (Appendix FM)

ILR via your relationship with a British or settled partner. Handles all three sub-routes (5-year, 2-year, 10-year) in one calculator — the first question asks which route you're on, and the rest of the flow adapts. Three new evaluators added; everything else reused from the engine.

  • 5-year route: combined annual income test (£18,600 with kid uplifts pre-April-2024, or £29,000 flat post-April-2024). Adequate-maintenance fallback when partner gets disability/carer's benefits.
  • 2-year route + 10-year route: adequate-maintenance test (no fixed threshold; verified by caseworker against housing costs).
  • Relationship checks: married / civil partnership / unmarried 2+ years; lived together; intent to continue; partner is British or settled.
  • Pre-settled status partners: red — partner needs to upgrade to settled first.
  • Engaged: red — must marry or wait for 2+ year cohabitation before applying.
  • Three new evaluators: partnerQualifyingResidence (sub-route aware), partnerRelationshipCheck, partnerFinancialRequirement. All other evaluators reused from the engine.

v1.2 — 10-year Long Residence route

First non-Skilled-Worker route. Substantially different rules: no sponsor, no salary, 10 years instead of 5, different qualifying-route list (Student counts toward residence, Standard Visitor doesn't). Proves the engine handles routes that don't inherit from Skilled Worker.

  • 16 rules covering Sections A (residence — 10 years), B (absences), E (English), F (LITUK), G (criminality), H (logistics). Sections C (sponsor) and D (salary) are intentionally omitted — Long Residence has neither.
  • qualifyingRouteHistory evaluator refactored to take qualifying / nonQualifying lists as params. SW + HCW use the original Skilled Worker lists; Long Residence passes a different list where Student / Graduate / Tier 4 / Tier 5 / Spouse / Dependant all count.
  • qualifyingResidence (A1) reused with minimumMonths: 120 for the 10-year requirement (was 60 for SW).
  • All other evaluators reused unchanged — engine is fully route-agnostic. Adding routes #4-#8 will mostly be rules JSON + question flow.
  • Same 180-day rolling-window absence rule (Long Residence aligned with SW post-11 April 2024).
  • Documents checklist updated: Long Residence requires ALL passports held during the 10 years, not just current.

v1.1 — Health and Care Worker route + UK days calculator

Two new arrivals: the Health and Care Worker route (a separate calculator at /calculator/health-care-worker that shares the engine with Skilled Worker) and a standalone UK days calculator at /tools/uk-days-calculator. Plus the Q3 follow-up for non-qualifying months is now in place — A1's qualifying-residence calculation accepts user-reported months on Student / Graduate / Visitor routes and subtracts them.

  • Health and Care Worker calculator — same legal framework as Skilled Worker (Appendix Skilled Worker SW 24), with route-specific copy on Q1/Q9/Q10/Q14. ILR fee, salary thresholds, and rules all match the published rules for the Skilled Worker family.
  • Calculator app refactored into a reusable component — both Skilled Worker and Health and Care Worker pages are thin wrappers passing route config. Sets up the architecture for adding 10-year Long Residence, Spouse, Global Talent, Innovator Founder.
  • UK days calculator — standalone tool for tracking absences. Add trips by date range; see total days outside the UK and worst rolling 12-month window. CSV export. All client-side, no data leaves the browser.
  • Q3 follow-up: when the user reports time on non-qualifying routes (Student, Graduate, Visitor, Youth Mobility, Dependant-only), they now answer how many months total. A1 subtracts this from the qualifying period — fixes the previous slight overcounting (resolves L2).

v1.0 — public launch

The calculator is now publicly indexable. Removed the noindex meta tag, added Open Graph metadata, favicon, robots.txt, sitemap.xml, and a skip-to-content link for keyboard navigation. No analytics scripts added — visitor counts will come from Vercel's built-in server-side request logs.

  • Open Graph + Twitter Card meta tags so links shared on social platforms show clean previews.
  • Favicon at /icon.svg (small SVG-based 'ILR' wordmark).
  • robots.ts allows everything except /calculator/sandbox (developer playground) and /api routes.
  • sitemap.xml lists all 5 user-facing pages with priorities.
  • Skip-to-content link visible on keyboard focus.

Rules engine v1.0 — Skilled Worker route complete

29 rules covering all 8 spec sections (residence, absences, sponsor & employment, salary, English language, Life in the UK Test, criminality and conduct, application logistics) shipped and tested.

  • 5 ILR salary thresholds verified live against Appendix Skilled Worker SW 24.3 — standard £41,700, Immigration Salary List £33,400, pre-April-2024 CoS £31,300, PhD relevant £28,200, healthcare/education £25,000.
  • ILR application fee verified at £3,226 per person, with priority service +£500 and super priority +£1,000.
  • 180-day rolling-window absence check (Appendix Continuous Residence) — hard-fail unless excludable reasons cited.
  • Custodial sentence rehabilitation periods encoded — 4+ years ever, 12mo-4yr within 15 years, under 12mo within 7 years.
  • Deception in prior immigration applications encoded as mandatory hard-fail.
  • NHS debt and Home Office debt as Red-but-fixable (settle the debt, the bar lifts immediately).

For technical readers: full git history on GitHub shows every commit, including small ones not worth a changelog entry.

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