Standard Visitor
Permitted to undertake expanded business activities, including remote working (if not the primary reason for visit).
Cannot take up employment in the UK or access public funds.
The rest of the key points ↓↑
- Must prove you can support yourself and will leave at the end of the visit.
The Standard Visitor visa is for visiting the UK for leisure, business, or other private reasons for up to 6 months.
Eligibility Checker
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The Visitor route covers several purposes, and each permits different activities
V 4.2(a) — you must satisfy the decision maker that you will leave
V 4.2(e) — without working or claiming public funds. A third party may fund you
V 4.3 — they must have a genuine relationship with you and be able to support you throughout
V 4.2(c) — frequent or successive visits that amount to living here are not permitted
A visitor must not make the UK their main home
V 4.4–4.6 — this includes self-employment and unpaid work for a UK business
Visitors must not access public funds
Attending meetings and conferences is permitted; filling a role or delivering services is not
V 4.6 — apart from reasonable expenses, prize money, or a permitted paid engagement
Including spent and unspent convictions
11 questions still to answer
- What is the main purpose of your visit?
- Will you leave the UK at the end of your visit?
- Can you cover the cost of your visit and your return journey?
- Is somebody else paying for your trip?
- Have you spent a lot of time in the UK on recent visits?
- Is the UK your main home?
- Do you intend to do any paid or unpaid work while you are here?
- Will you claim any public funds or benefits?
- Will you carry out actual work for a UK business or its clients?
- Will you be paid by a UK source?
- Do you have any criminal convictions?
Standard Visitor Updates & Policy Breakdown
No published updates for this category yet.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Visitors must not work for a UK employer or as a self-employed person, whether paid or unpaid. There is a narrow exception for permitted paid engagements — a small, defined list including lecturing, examining, professional advocacy and certain performances — which must be arranged before you travel and invited by a UK-based organisation.
Attending meetings, interviews, conferences and negotiations is permitted. Doing the job is not. If in doubt, the test is whether you are carrying out work a UK employee would otherwise do.
No. Business visiting is the Standard Visitor route used for the activities listed in Appendix Visitor: Permitted Activities. There is no separate "business visitor visa" to apply for, which is why people sometimes assume a business trip carries different rights. It does not — the same prohibitions on work apply.
No. The rules prevent you living in the UK through frequent or successive visits, or making the UK your main home. There is no fixed number of visits or days that triggers this — a caseworker looks at the overall pattern, your ties to your home country, and how much of the recent period you have spent here.
If your visits are long and close together, expect to be asked to evidence why the UK is not your main home.
You must show that the reasonable costs of your visit and your return journey can be met without working or accessing public funds. A third party may provide that support, provided they have a genuine relationship with you, are complying with immigration laws, and can and will support you for the whole visit.
Where someone else is funding you, expect to evidence both their means and the relationship.
Only within limits. A visitor may undertake a short course at an accredited institution. Longer or formal study needs the Student route. Check the current permitted duration on GOV.UK before booking a course.
No. Marrying or registering a civil partnership requires a Marriage Visitor visa, not a Standard Visitor visa. Attending someone else's wedding as a guest is a permitted activity.