What you can do as a Standard Visitor
The permitted activities are set out in Appendix V and are wider than people assume.
- Tourism and visiting family The obvious ones, and the most common.
- Business activities Meetings, negotiations, conferences, interviews, site visits and fact-finding for an overseas employer.
- Study for up to six months A short course at an accredited provider is permitted on a visit, which surprises people who assume any study needs a Student visa.
- Private medical treatment Permitted, with evidence of the arrangements and the ability to pay. NHS treatment is not free to visitors.
- Remote work incidental to the visit Working remotely for an overseas employer is permitted where it is not the reason for the visit. Coming here in order to work remotely is a different thing and is not.
- Permitted paid engagements A narrow exception allowing invited experts, artists and academics to be paid for specific engagements, normally within a month of arrival.
Building the evidence that answers the real question
Every visitor application is decided on whether you will leave. The evidence should be assembled with that in mind rather than as a general pile of documents.
Ties to your home country do most of the work. Employment with a letter confirming your role and approved leave. A business you run. Property you own or rent. Family who depend on you. Study you are enrolled in. Each is a reason to go back.
Finances need to be credible as well as sufficient. Bank statements covering several months matter more than a single healthy balance, because a large deposit that appeared recently invites the question of where it came from. If someone else is funding the trip, say so, evidence their finances and their relationship to you, and include their letter.
The plan should be coherent and modest. Dates, where you will stay, what you intend to do. An itinerary that does not fit the stated purpose or the money available raises exactly the doubt you are trying to remove.
Travel history helps enormously. Previous visits to the UK, the Schengen area, the US or similar, complied with and returned from, are the single most persuasive evidence that you do what you say you will.
Long-term visit visas
If you visit the UK regularly — family here, ongoing business, a property — a long-term visit visa of 2, 5 or 10 years may make sense. You pay a larger fee once rather than a smaller one repeatedly, and you are not reapplying each year.
Two things people misunderstand.
First, a ten-year visa does not allow you to stay for ten years. Each individual visit is still limited to 6 months, and the same genuine visitor test applies at the border every time.
Second, holding one does not license living in the UK by instalments. Spending most of each year here on successive visits will be treated as residence, and it can lead to refusal of entry and cancellation of the visa. There is no fixed formula for how much is too much — it is judged on the pattern — but somebody spending more time in the UK than in their home country is well into difficulty.
Why visitor applications get refused
The reasons are consistent, and almost all of them are fixable before applying rather than after.
The caseworker is not satisfied you will leave. Thin ties, no employment, no clear reason to return. This is the headline reason and everything else feeds it.
Finances that do not add up. Money that appeared recently with no explanation, statements that do not match the stated income, or funds that plainly belong to someone else without that being disclosed.
An unclear or implausible purpose. A stated reason that does not fit the itinerary, the money or the length of stay.
Undisclosed history. A previous refusal, an overstay, a removal. These are survivable when disclosed and explained. They are very difficult when found.
Sponsor problems. Where someone in the UK is inviting and funding you, their status and finances form part of the picture and need evidencing properly.
There is no right of appeal against most visitor refusals — only administrative review in limited cases, or a fresh application. That is precisely why the first application is worth preparing carefully.