by Callum Ingram-Taylor, Trainee Solicitor at Latitude Legislation
Who can go to the UK?
Anybody – topic to assembly good character necessities – can go to the UK, however from April 2025 everybody will want some type of prior permission, within the type of an Digital Journey Authorisation (ETA) or a customer visa, earlier than travelling.
A customer visa is required by a visa nationwide who’s wishing to go to the UK; a listing of visa nationwide nations might be present in paragraph VN1.1 of the Immigration Guidelines.
UK customer visas are usually legitimate for six months and allow a number of entries into the nation. It could be attainable to use for a go to visa for an extended time frame, similar to as much as 2 years, 5 years or 10 years. However keep in mind, every go to should not be longer than six months from the date of entry.
In contrast, a non-visa nationwide, similar to an EU or US nationwide, can arrive within the UK with no visa for now; however from April 2025, they might want to get hold of an ETA.
Digital Journey Authorisation
The ETA scheme has been rolled out by the UK over the previous couple of years. It’s a pre-screening course of designed to boost UK border safety by evaluating travellers earlier than they arrive within the UK. The scheme primarily applies to specified non-visa nationals who intend to go to the UK for tourism, enterprise conferences, or brief research. As of January 2025, many nationalities together with US and Australian residents should maintain an ETA. From April 2025, EU nationals can even be required to use. The complete record of nations and when to use might be discovered right here: Apply for an digital journey authorisation (ETA) – GOV.UK.
Failure to acquire an authorised ETA can result in denial of boarding or entry into the UK. You will need to word that the ETA doesn’t exchange a visa. Travellers who’re required to acquire a visa for his or her go to to the UK should nonetheless undergo the standard visa software course of.
The ETA software is fast and fully on-line; the associated fee is £10 for a 2-year authorisation, or till your present passport expires. It’s a requirement that any legal convictions are disclosed; if you’re ineligible for an ETA on these grounds, you’ll have to apply for a customer visa as a substitute.
What are the necessities for a customer visa?
In contemplating a customer visa software, an Entry Clearance Officer on behalf of the Dwelling Workplace will assess the applying in opposition to the next necessities:
- Whether or not the applicant is appropriate for a grant of entry clearance – criminality or a poor immigration historical past could cause issues right here
- Whether or not the applicant (or their sponsor) has enough funds to keep up and accommodate themselves in the course of the journey with out working. This may embody:
- the price of the return or onward journey
- any prices regarding their dependants
- the price of any deliberate actions e.g., personal medical remedy.
- Whether or not the applicant is a ‘real customer’. The Entry Clearance Officer should be happy that:
- They may go away the UK on the finish of their go to
- They don’t plan reside within the UK for prolonged durations by frequent or successive visits, or make the UK their principal house
- They’re genuinely in search of entry or keep for a goal that’s permitted underneath the customer route
What actions are you able to do within the UK?
The Dwelling Workplace limits what actions each visa and non-visa nationals can do while they’re within the UK. The kind of actions that people on a go to visa are permitted to undertake rely on the kind of visa granted:
| Commonplace Customer | Candidates can perform all permitted actions in Appendix Customer: Permitted Actions, mentioned beneath. |
| Marriage/Civil Partnership Customer | Candidates can marry or enter right into a civil partnership, or give discover of marriage or civil partnership, and do all permitted actions in Appendix Customer: Permitted Actions, apart from examine and perform permitted paid engagements, mentioned beneath. |
| Transit Customer | Candidates can solely transit the UK as described in PA 18. |
Permitted Actions
The exhaustive record of actions might be discovered right here in Immigration Guidelines Appendix Customer: Permitted Actions. Typically, it’s anticipated that individuals will solely perform vacationer and leisure actions or go to household and mates while within the UK. Nevertheless, some exceptions embody volunteering for as much as 30 days with a UK-registered charity, receiving personal medical remedy or partaking generally enterprise actions – for instance, attending a gathering or interview.
In case you are an worker of an abroad enterprise visiting the UK, you must seek advice from the ‘Intra-corporate actions’, ‘Manufacture and provide of products’, ‘Shoppers of UK export corporations’ and ‘People employed outdoors the UK’ paragraphs in Appendix Permitted Actions to make sure any work or coaching you need undertake or present within the UK might be permitted.
Permitted Paid Engagements
It’s attainable to hold out ‘permitted paid engagements’ throughout your go to to the UK. This might be a paid public efficiency or giving a lecture at a seminar or convention. Non-visa nationals should not have to make any form of extra software to hold out these actions, however ought to convey with them a duplicate of their invitation to any such engagement. Visa nationals should declare this on their customer visa software and might be required to offer documentary proof of this.
Practicalities of customer visa functions
To make sure one of the best likelihood of success in a go to visa software, it’s important that robust proof of the applicant’s circumstances of their house nation is offered to show they’re a ‘real customer’. Candidates have to make it clear why they are going to be returning to their house nation as soon as they’ve completed their go to. On this regard, candidates should submit proof of their employment, property, and household overseas. A canopy letter may also be very useful to attract the choice maker’s consideration to the proof offered and the way this meets the related immigration guidelines.
