by Callum Ingram-Taylor, Trainee Solicitor at Latitude Regulation
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; an inventory of visa nationwide nations may 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 doable to use for a go to visa for an extended time period, akin 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.
Against this, a non-visa nationwide, akin to an EU or US nationwide, can arrive within the UK and not using a visa for now; however from April 2025, they might want to receive 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 total listing of nations and when to use may be discovered right here: Apply for an digital journey authorisation (ETA) – GOV.UK.
Failure to acquire an accredited ETA can result in denial of boarding or entry into the UK. You will need to notice that the ETA doesn’t change 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 utility course of.
The ETA utility is fast and completely on-line; the price is £10 for a 2-year authorisation, or till your present passport expires. It’s a requirement that any felony 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 utility, an Entry Clearance Officer on behalf of the Residence Workplace will assess the appliance towards the next necessities:
- Whether or not the applicant is appropriate for a grant of entry clearance – criminality or a poor immigration historical past may cause issues right here
- Whether or not the applicant (or their sponsor) has ample funds to keep up and accommodate themselves in the course of the journey with out working. This could embody:
- the price of the return or onward journey
- any prices regarding their dependants
- the price of any deliberate actions e.g., non-public medical remedy.
- Whether or not the applicant is a ‘real customer’. The Entry Clearance Officer have to be happy that:
- They are going to go away the UK on the finish of their go to
- They don’t plan stay within the UK for prolonged durations by means of frequent or successive visits, or make the UK their most important residence
- They’re genuinely looking for entry or keep for a function that’s permitted beneath the customer route
What actions are you able to do within the UK?
The Residence 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 upon the kind of visa granted:
| Customary Customer | Candidates can perform all permitted actions in Appendix Customer: Permitted Actions, mentioned under. |
| 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, aside from research and perform permitted paid engagements, mentioned under. |
| Transit Customer | Candidates can solely transit the UK as described in PA 18. |
Permitted Actions
The exhaustive listing of actions may be discovered right here in Immigration Guidelines Appendix Customer: Permitted Actions. Usually, it’s anticipated that individuals will solely perform vacationer and leisure actions or go to household and associates while within the UK. Nonetheless, some exceptions embody volunteering for as much as 30 days with a UK-registered charity, receiving non-public medical remedy or partaking on the whole enterprise actions – for instance, attending a gathering or interview.
If you’re an worker of an abroad enterprise visiting the UK, it’s best to seek advice from the ‘Intra-corporate actions’, ‘Manufacture and provide of products’, ‘Purchasers of UK export firms’ and ‘People employed exterior the UK’ paragraphs in Appendix Permitted Actions to make sure any work or coaching you need undertake or present within the UK shall be permitted.
Permitted Paid Engagements
It’s doable 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 wouldn’t have to make any form of further utility to hold out these actions, however ought to carry with them a duplicate of their invitation to any such engagement. Visa nationals should declare this on their customer visa utility and shall be required to offer documentary proof of this.
Practicalities of customer visa functions
To make sure the perfect likelihood of success in a go to visa utility, it is important that sturdy proof of the applicant’s circumstances of their residence nation is supplied to show they’re a ‘real customer’. Candidates must make it clear why they are going to be returning to their residence 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 can be very useful to attract the choice maker’s consideration to the proof supplied and the way this meets the related immigration guidelines.
