Visit Visas. Simplified.

You can visit the UK as a Standard Visitor for tourism, business, study (courses up to 6 months) and other permitted activities.

Whether you are eligible depends on the purpose of your trip. The main requirement is that you are a “genuine” visitor, meaning that you

• will leave the UK at the end of the visit
• will not live in the UK for extended periods through frequent or successive visits, or make the UK your main home
• are genuinely seeking entry or stay for a purpose that is permitted under the Visitor route
• will not undertake any of the prohibited activities set out in the rules (e.g. working)
• have sufficient funds to cover all reasonable costs in relation to your visit

You can usually stay in the UK for up to 6 months. You might be able to apply to stay for longer in certain circumstances, for example to get medical treatment.

You need to apply online, and then provide your supporting documents.

A Standard Visitor visa costs £100 for up to 6 months. The earliest you can apply is 3 months before you travel.

For the visit visa application form, you will need to provide the following information:

Address

• Your current address and how long you have lived there

Nationality

• Details about any additional nationalities you hold (or ever held)

Employment

• Details about your employment status

Financial

• Information about additional sources of income or savings you may have (in GBP)
• Details about the amount of money you are personally planning to spend on your visit to the UK
• Information about the total amount of money you spend each month
• Information about anyone who will be paying towards the cost of your visit (including how much they will be contributing and why they are assisting you)

Arrival

• The date you plan to arrive in the UK
• The date you plan to leave the UK

Language

• You will need to specify which language you prefer to use (for application purposes)

Reason for Visit

• Details of the main purpose of your visit and anything else you plan to do on your trip.

Family

• If you have a partner or children you will need to provide their names, date of birth, address and nationality
• You will need to provide details about any persons who rely on you for finanical support
• You will need to provide details about your parents
• If you have family in the UK you will need to provide details about them

How you are travelling to the UK

• You will need to confirm whether you will be travelling to the UK as part of an organised group
• You will need to confirm whether you be travelling to the UK with someone who is not your partner, spouse or dependant
• You will need to provide details about where you are going to stay in the UK

Immigration History

• Information about any visits you have made to the UK in the past 10 years (including how many times you have visited and details about the trips)
• Information about any visits you have made to the EEA, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, USA and Switzerland in the past 10 years (including how many times you have visited and details about the trips)
• Information about any visits you have made to any other countries in the past 10 years (including how many times you have visited and details about the trips)

You will need to confirm (and provide details) whether you have ever been

• • Refused a visa
  • Refused entry at the border
  • Refused permission to stay or remain
  • Refused asylum
  • Deported
  • Removed
  • Required to leave
  • Excluded or banned from entry

You must have a passport or travel document to enter the UK. It should be valid for the whole of your stay.

You may need to provide evidence where you show that

• you’ll leave the UK at the end of your visit (for example a return ticket)
• you’re able to support yourself and your dependants during your trip (or have funding from someone else to support you)
• you’re able to pay for your return or onward journey (or have funding from someone else to pay for the journey)
• you’ll not live in the UK for extended periods through frequent or successive visits, or make the UK your main home

We regularly review visit visa applications prior to their submission, which we would usually do via our popular one-off consultation service. If you would be interested in this please do get in touch.

Lots of people make visit visa applications without engaging a lawyer.

However, we have assisted several clients to successfully make applications in the last few years, including individuals who had been refused previously when they applied by themselves, or who have particular issues which they feel may raise issues in their application.

If you are in doubt about whether you think you need a lawyer give us a call for a chat.

Only in limited and exceptional circumstances.

We would always suggest that you seek legal advice before attempting to make an application on this basis.

Visitors are permitted to undertake activities relating to their employment overseas remotely whilst they are in the UK, such as responding to emails or answering phone calls.

However, Home Office caseworkers are encouraged to check whether the visitor’s main purpose of coming to the UK is to undertake a permitted activity (e.g. tourism), rather than specifically to work remotely from the UK. Where an visitor indicates that they intend to spend a large proportion of their time in the UK and will be doing some remote working, caseworkers will aim to ensure that visit visa applicants are genuinely employed overseas and are not seeking to work in the UK.

You will need to have obtained prior permission to visit the UK if you are a visa national.

In general, no.

However, the visit visa rules do allow some exceptions, and confirm that a visitor may

(a) attend meetings, conferences, seminars, interviews

(b) give a one-off or short series of talks and speeches provided these are not organised as commercial events and will not make a profit for the organiser

(c) negotiate and sign deals and contracts

(d) attend trade fairs, for promotional work only, provided the Visitor is not directly selling

(e) carry out site visits and inspections

(f) gather information for their employment overseas

(g) be briefed on the requirements of a UK based customer, provided any work for the customer is done outside of the UK.

In addition, an employee of an overseas based company may come to the UK on a visit visa and undertake the following activities:

1. advise and consult
2. troubleshoot
3. provide training
4. share skills and knowledge

on a specific internal project with UK employees of the same corporate group, provided no work is carried out directly with clients.

Home Office guidance notes that “Intra-corporate activities should be of a short duration, linked to a specific project and not involve the visitor directly working with or for clients”.