Days

Your trips abroad, counted the way the Home Office, IRCC, USCIS and the Schengen rules count them.

One week in Paris, counted two ways

Monday to Monday in Paris is 8 days in the Schengen area, because the Schengen rules count the day you arrive and the day you leave. For the UK, Canada and the US the same week is 6 days away: all three count a travel day as a day at home. Count the two travel days as days away and every trip gains two; ten trips a year for five years is 100 days the rule never counts.

Rolling periods

The Schengen limit and the UK settlement limit do not reset in January. Schengen looks back 180 days from every day of a stay. The UK looks at every 12 months of the qualifying period, so two trips six months apart can fall in the same 12 months. Days finds the heaviest 12 months and marks them on the sheet.

What Days does not decide

Days counts days by the rules quoted on each slip. An application also depends on other requirements, on the reasons for your absences and on the caseworker's discretion, and the rules have exceptions for illness, Crown service and other cases. Check the official page before you apply, and keep your boarding passes and the stamps in your passport.

Where the rules come from

Days counts; it does not give legal advice. The rules and dates were read on the official pages above on 14 October 2026.