A privacy-first ILR readiness check.

A broad readiness check, not a precise verdict.

The rules here reflect what gov.uk currently publishes — not draft proposals, consultations, or anything still under review. If a policy is being talked about but hasn't been laid before Parliament and published as a Statement of Changes, it isn't in here.

Read the overall band first — Eligible / Likely with caveats / Significant gaps / Not yet eligible. That's the headline. The per-section detail is for understanding where you stand on each requirement, not for obsessing over a single amber.

This is a self-assessment to help you decide whether you're ready, not a definitive eligibility decision and not a substitute for advice from a regulated immigration adviser if your case is complex.

The calculator runs entirely in your browser. There's no backend handling your answers, no database, no auth. The flow:

1. You answer 15–50 questions (depending on your situation). All answers live in React state on your device.
2. When you finish, a scoring engine evaluates your answers against 29 rules covering the 8 spec sections (residence, absences, sponsor, salary, English, Life in the UK Test, criminality, application logistics).
3. You get a structured result: an overall band (Eligible / Likely with caveats / Significant gaps / Not yet eligible), the worst status per requirement, and a citation link to the gov.uk source for every rule.

Rules as data, not code. Every rule lives in a JSON file alongside its source URL on gov.uk. The scoring engine is a small set of pure TypeScript functions that read the rules and apply them to your answers. Adding new ILR routes is a matter of writing more rule JSON, not changing engine code.

Citation requirement. Every rule must have a source URL on gov.uk. If we can't cite a rule, it doesn't go in the engine. The results page surfaces those citations so you can verify the rules independently — see the Sources panel at the bottom of any result.

No auto-update. We have a script that polls gov.uk and detects when source pages have been updated. It writes a markdown report for human review. Rules JSON is never auto-updated — every change is reviewed and shipped via a git commit. That's why each result shows “Rules verified” with a date.

ILR applications cost £3,226 plus assorted faff. Adding a paywall to a readiness check would gate the people most likely to need it. Anyone applying for ILR can use this — no accounts, no fees, no upgrades.

The whole tool runs in your browser. There's no server cost scaling with usage, no per-user infrastructure to maintain. There literally isn't anything to charge for the readiness check.

What we may charge for later. We may build optional paid features — for example, a designed “Application Pack” PDF that goes beyond what's on screen (an action plan, a document checklist, a sponsor letter template). The readiness check itself will always be free. Any paid feature, if we build one, will run entirely in your browser and will never require an account, an email, or any identifying information.

The calculator covers all eight major ILR routes:

• Skilled Worker
• Health and Care Worker
• 10-year Long Residence
• Spouse / Partner (Appendix FM)
• Global Talent
• Innovator Founder
• Refugee / Humanitarian Protection
• Armed Forces

Plus a standalone UK days calculator at /tools/uk-days-calculator for working out absences against the 180-day rule, useful even outside the full calculator flow.

This calculator is built and operated by MangoStack. We're not immigration lawyers. We built it because the readiness-check tools we could find online were either thin (just a salary calculator) or thick (lead-gen funnels for immigration firms). We wanted something honest in the middle.

The rules JSON is sourced from the published Home Office requirements. If you spot an error in an encoded rule or its citation, please get in touch — feedback from people who use the tool makes it sharper.

This tool helps you self-assess against published Home Office requirements. It is not legal advice, does not guarantee outcomes, and is not a substitute for advice from a regulated immigration adviser. For personalised advice on your specific situation, consult a solicitor or an IAA-registered adviser.