Visas

A visa is a document usually stamped or pasted into a passport, giving permission to enter a country. Visas are required for entry into the UK for nationals of most African, Asian, and South American states. The list is prescribed by law and changes from time to time. Certain Eastern European countries, including Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan nationals, also require a visa.

Five principal types of visas are:

• Visit visa
• Employment visa
• Student visa
• Business visa
• Settlement visa

Generally, an applicant for a visa must have a passport with at least six months of unexpired validity. British consuls and embassies administer visa applications and charge fixed fees.

Visit Visas

A visit visa permits the holder to enter and leave the UK any number of times during its validity. They may not stay for longer than six months on each visit. Visit visas can be issued for periods of six months, two years, five years, or 10 years. Longer visits would be issued for regular travellers only with a previous history of visiting.

An applicant for a visit visa must show that they wish to visit the UK for not more than six months and that they intend to leave in that period. They must show they have enough means to support and accommodate themselves without working or requiring public assistance. They must be able to meet the cost of the inward and outward journey.

They must not be in transit for a third country. They must not intend to engage in any of the certain listed activities. They must not intend to marry, form a civil partnership, or give notice. They must not intend to receive public or private medical treatment fees for a longer-term visa. An applicant for a visit visa who has not previously travelled may be required to attend a personal interview at the relevant embassy or consulate. Evidence of the relevant means, etc., must be furnished.

There is a separate category of visa for visiting the UK for medical treatment, subject to conditions. Evidence is required that a person can afford to pay for the consultation, treatment, and procedures.

Compulsory TB screening applies to visitors from certain countries who apply for a visit of more than six months. A medical certificate must be furnished showing freedom from the disease.

Employment Visas

There are six broad categories of employment visas required by reference to various tiers. Three are based on points and are applicable to certain skilled workers who have been offered employment sponsored by an employer, high-value migrants including investors, entrepreneurs, and exceptionally talented persons who may enter without a job offer, and temporary workers with a UK sponsoring employer participating in the youth mobility scheme.

Non-points based categories are applicable to certain other categories, including Commonwealth citizens with UK ancestry (at least one grandparent born in the UK), employees and business owners from Turkey wishing to establish a business or already employed in the UK, certain other categories, including representatives of overseas firms and businesses, domestic workers, and others.

Tier 1 settlement visas are terminated if the immigration rules applied to persons seeking to enter are mainly for settlement in the UK. There are different forms of applications for various categories of persons.

Persons who have resided in the UK for a period and have formed ties may apply for settlement subject to conditions. Residence may be granted if the person has spent 10 continuous years in lawful residence under the following conditions:

• Granting leave is not against the public interest.
• Capacity, language, and life requirement test not within other grounds of refusal.
• Not in the UK in breach of immigration laws except for a period of overstaying of 28 days or less.
• Have not been absent from the UK for more than 180 days or spent a total of 540 days outside the UK during the 10-year period.
• Do not have broken permission to remain in the UK.
• Do not have unspent convictions.

The fourteen-year rule was abolished in 2012. Persons who were granted extensions of leave prior to that date may be considered for a settlement visa under the earlier rules.