The 240-day rule is easy to state and surprisingly easy to misapply. It must be met in each of the five 12-month periods immediately before the proposed application date.
Example 1: 239 days
Suppose Period 1 contains 239 eligible days, while the other four periods contain 365 days each. The five-year total is 1,699 days, comfortably above 1,350. The person still fails the standard test because Period 1 is one day below 240.
Example 2: exactly 240 days
If moving the application date forward by one day causes Period 1 to contain 240 eligible days and the total remains above 1,350, the numerical presence test is met under the calculator's assumptions. Other citizenship requirements still apply.
Example 3: 241 days
At 241 days, the period is one day above the minimum. That is a small buffer, not a guarantee. A corrected movement date or an incorrectly entered resident start date could still change the result.
Example 4: every period passes but the total fails
Five periods could contain 270 days each. Every period exceeds 240, and the total is exactly 1,350. If one of those periods loses one eligible day, the total becomes 1,349 even though all five periods remain above 240. The total test then fails.
Example 5: the periods move with the application date
If the proposed application date is 10 September 2027, the first period runs from 10 September 2022 through 9 September 2023. If the proposed date changes to 11 September, every period shifts forward one day. This movement is why the answer is not always the fifth anniversary of the Resident Visa.
Use the timeline, not mental arithmetic
The result timeline marks days before resident status, overseas days and eligible days. The “date-setting period” shows which period prevented an earlier estimated date. Verify the result against official records before applying.
Try your dates
See the five-year look-back
Use the calculator to estimate the first date that appears to meet the standard numerical presence test.