As of 13 August 2026, AI can only partly count your absences for a UK indefinite leave to remain application.

What to actually do

1. Hand it to a person

   The route this page recommends

   Someone with a licence or accountable authority has to sign this before it counts.

2. Use a tool built for this

   Second choice

3. Do it yourself

   The distant third

   A chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 30 minutes until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Open the relevant current ILR absence guidance on GOV.UK and paste the applicable text into the prompt under the official guidance heading.
   2. Gather every passport stamp, flight or train booking, boarding record and travel-history entry that shows when you left and returned to the UK.
   3. Create a plain list of each journey with the departure date, return date and the document supporting each date, marking any date that is missing or uncertain.
   4. Paste the guidance and the complete travel list into the chatbot using the supplied prompt, then ask it to show each calculation rather than only giving a total.
   5. Compare every drafted date and counted day with the original passport or travel record, and correct duplicated, overlapping or unsupported journeys in the source list.
   6. Take the corrected total and every flagged uncertainty to an immigration solicitor before using it in an ILR application.

   Prompt

   I need help counting my absences from the UK for an indefinite leave to remain application. This is not professional advice and I will check the result against current GOV.UK guidance.
   
   Use only the travel records and the official guidance text I provide. Do not invent dates, fill gaps, decide that an undocumented journey happened, or give a final view on whether I qualify.
   
   First, identify the relevant qualifying period and the absence rule stated in the GOV.UK text. If the guidance does not clearly establish either point, say what is missing instead of assuming.
   
   Then create a table with these columns: trip number, date left the UK, date returned to the UK, source of each date, days counted as absent under the supplied rule, and any uncertainty. State explicitly how you treat the day of departure, the day of return, same-day travel, overlapping trips and trips with missing dates. Keep separate any trips that need a human decision.
   
   Calculate the total counted absence and show the arithmetic. Do not count a trip unless both dates are supported or I have clearly marked an estimate. Flag conflicting dates, gaps in the records, duplicate journeys and any absence that may fall under an exception in the guidance. Give me a separate list of questions to ask an immigration solicitor before relying on the calculation.
   
   Official GOV.UK guidance:
   [PASTE THE RELEVANT CURRENT GOV.UK GUIDANCE HERE]
   
   My travel records:
   [PASTE A TABLE OR LIST OF ALL UK DEPARTURES AND RETURNS HERE]
   
   My supporting evidence and notes:
   [PASTE PASSPORT STAMPS, FLIGHT RECORDS, HMRC OR EMPLOYMENT RECORDS, AND ANY UNCERTAINTIES HERE]

   Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.