To travel to the UK as a tourist, you need a Standard visitor visa. It allows you to visit the UK for tourism purposes and meet your family.
A Standard visitor visa allows you to visit and stay in the UK for upto 6 months.
Table of Contents
What is the eligibility?
Any overseas national looking for a visa must necessarily check eligibility before applying.
- Your visit to the UK is a short term visit
- Your visit is agenda-specific, for example, meeting family, friends, medical attention, brief study course, music performance, etc.
- You will immediately leave the UK after your work finishes and your purpose fulfilled
- You have enough money to sustain yourself and your dependents during the stay.
- You will not be taking jobs or raising funds in the UK
- You can buy a return ticket from the UK and ensure no violation or criminal offence to commit.
The individual must apply at least 3 months before the visit to the UK.
Suppose you’re passing through the United Kingdom, you would possibly get to apply for a transit visa on the way to a different country. To get one, you would like to prove that you’re getting to another country and you’ve got enough money to try to do so.
How do I apply for a visa?
While making the application, it is also mandatory for you to book an appointment at a visa application centre.
Your biometric information will be processed, that is, your photograph and fingerprints will be taken.
If your visa application centre is in another country then you must allow time to attend your appointment. The visa application centre may ask to keep your passport and other documents to process your application.
After making an online application, submitting documents and biometrics, it generally takes up to 3 weeks to get a decision on your visa.
Document checklist
There is an non-exhaustive list of standard visitor visa UK documents required for a visitor visa. You must possess all of the following:
- A valid passport with blank pages, else you would have to apply for a fresh passport.
- the dates of your travel to the UK
- Any certified translations of documents that are not in English or Welsh.
- Approximate cost of your trip
- details of your accommodation during your visit to the UK
- Details of your annual income or any other source of income
- your current home address and how long you have been living there
- Details of your parents’ such as names and date of birth (if known)
- Record of any criminal, civil or immigration offences you may have committed in past
Some additional documents that can be asked
- details of any travel history in the past 10 years
- The employer’s address and telephone number if you are on a visit visa, in case of a visit visa
- Your dependent’s name, date of birth, and passport number, in case of a tourist visa
- The name and address of anyone sponsoring your trip, common for both tourist and visit visa.
- The name, address and passport details of any family members you have in the UK, in case of tourist visa
Take legal support?
To avoid any rejection, it is recommended that you seek assistance from the best immigration lawyers in London. A Y & J Solicitors have been industry experts in UK visa and immigration for 10 years now. They provide bespoke advice and have a high success rate for UK visa applications.
