Visa Information

Quick links to information on visa categories and other helpful information can be found below. These links will take you to information on the UK Border Agency website, but you will need to return to this site for details about applying for a visa in your country. You may also want to read the Immigration Rules as your visa application will need to meet these requirements.

Visitors

• Tourism or visiting friends
  
• Visitors in transit (known as Direct Airside transit)
• Crew members - seafarers

Visitors for Business

• Business (general)
  
• Academic visitors
  
• Doctors coming for Professional & Linguistic Assessment Board Test (PLAB)
  
• Doctors undertaking clinical attachments
  
• Dentists undertaking clinical observer posts
  
• Professors accompanying students undertaking study abroad programmes
  
• Religious workers
  
• Sports visitor
  
• Entertainer visitor

Special visitors

• Private medical treatment
  
• Visitors coming to get married
  
• Parents of children at school in the UK
  
• Student visitor (As a student visitor you may take a short course of study during your visit to the UK, provided your college is recognised. Under this category you will be regarded as a visitor and not a student and for this reason you cannot work or extend your stay. A student visitor would, for example, come here on holiday and may do an English language course, as well)
  
• Prospective students
  
• Visitors in transit (known as Direct Airside transit)

Long term visit visas

You should give careful consideration before applying for a long term visit visa valid for 1, 2, 5 or 10 years as there is the possibility that the visa may be refused, or issued for a shorter period than you have applied for. If the application is refused or the visa is issued for a shorter period, you will not be refunded your visa application fee. For more information on long term visit visas please see the UK Border Agency website.

Sponsoring a visitor

• Sponsoring a visitor

Students

• Student visitor (As a student visitor you may take a short course of study during your visit to the UK, provided your college is recognised. Under this category you will be regarded as a visitor and not a student and for this reason you cannot work or extend your stay. A student visitor would, for example, come here on holiday and may do an English language course, as well.
  
• Points-based system Tier 4 General students and Tier 4 child student (Applications under made Tier 4 gives you full student status rather than visitor status. Under Tier 4 you are entitled to work part-time and extend your stay)
  
• Points-based system self assessment calculator
  
• Tier 4 policy guidance
  
• Tier 4 sponsor register
• Adult students - Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS)
  
• Child students - Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS)

Workers

• Work permit visas
  
• Permit free workers
  • Sole representative of an overseas firm in the UK
    
  • Representatives of overseas newspapers, news agencies and broadcasting organizations
• Overseas domestic workers
  
• Tier 1 (General skilled worker) migrant
  
• Tier 1 Investor
  
• Tier 1 Entrepreneur
  
• Tier 1 Post-study work
  
• Tier 2 General skill worker (for people coming to the United Kingdom with a job offer to fill a gap that cannot be filled from within the resident labour force. This category is also for applicants coming to fill shortage occupations)
  
• Tier 2 Intra company transfer (for employees of multi-national companies who are being transferred by an overseas employer to a skilled job in a United Kingdom based branch of the company)
  
• Tier 2 Sportsperson (for elite sportspeople and coaches whose employment will make a significant contribution to the development of their sport at the highest level).
  
• Tier 2 Minister of religion (for those people coming to fill a vacancy as a Minister of Religion, Missionary, or Member of a Religious Order)
  
• Tier 5 Creative and sporting (for people coming to the United Kingdom to work or perform as sportspeople, entertainers or creative artists for up to 12 months)
  
• Tier 5 Charity worker (for people coming to the United Kingdom to do voluntary, unpaid work for a charity.
  
• Tier 5 Religious worker (for people coming to the United Kingdom to work as religious workers. Duties may include preaching, pastoral and non-pastoral work)
  
• Tier 5 Government authorised exchange (for people coming to the United Kingdom through approved schemes that aim to share knowledge, experience and best practice)
  
• Tier 5 International agreement (for people coming to the United Kingdom under contract to provide a service that is covered under international law)
  
• Tier 5 Youth mobility scheme (working holiday makers & au pairs)

Points-based system

• Self assessment calculator

Settlement visas

• Husbands, wives, & partners
  
• Adopted children
  
• Family members
  

Other visa categories

• Returning residents
  
• Right of abode
  
• United Kingdom ancestry

General information

• Supporting document checklists
  
• Visa nationals
  
• European economic area & Swiss nationals
  
• Photograph requirements
  
• Biometric data collection
  
• Biometric data collection exemptions
  
• Health (tuberculosis) screening

Coming to the UK?

• Playing by the Rules
  
• What can you bring into the UK
  
• Arriving in the UK
  
• Extending your stay in the UK
  
• Identity cards
  
• British citizenship
  
• UK Passports