Visitors

• Tourism or visiting friends
• Visitors in transit (known as Direct Airside transit)
• Crew members - seafarers
  
  

Visitors for Business

• Business (general)
• Academic visitors
• Doctors coming for Professional & Linguistic Assessment Board Test (PLAB)
• Doctors undertaking clinical attachments
• Dentists undertaking clinical observer posts
• Professors accompanying students undertaking study abroad programmes
• Religious workers
• Sports visitor
• Entertainer visitor
  
  

Special visitors

• Private medical treatment
• Visitors coming to get married
• Parents of children at school in the UK
• Student visitor (As a student visitor you may take a short course of study during your visit to the UK, provided your college is recognised. Under this category you will be regarded as a visitor and not a student and for this reason you cannot work or extend your stay. A student visitor would, for example, come here on holiday and may do an English language course, as well)  
• Prospective students
• Visitors in transit (known as Direct Airside transit)

Long term visit visas

You should give careful consideration before applying for a long term visit visa valid for 1, 2, 5 or 10 years as there is the possibility that the visa may be refused, or issued for a shorter period than you have applied for. If the application is refused or the visa is issued for a shorter period, you will not be refunded your visa application fee. For more information on long term visit visas please see the UK Border Agency website.

Sponsoring a visitor

• Sponsoring a visitor

• Student visitor (As a student visitor you may take a short course of study during your visit to the UK, provided your college is recognised. Under this category you will be regarded as a visitor and not a student and for this reason you cannot work or extend your stay. A student visitor would, for example, come here on holiday and may do an English language course, as well.
  
• Points-based system Tier 4 General students and Tier 4 child student (Applications under made Tier 4 gives you full student status rather than visitor status. Under Tier 4 you are entitled to work part-time and extend your stay)
  
• Points-based system self assessment calculator
  
• Tier 4 policy guidance
  
• Tier 4 sponsor register
• Adult students - Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS)
  
• Child students - Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS)

Workers

• Work permit visas
  
• Permit free workers
  
  • Sole representative of an overseas firm in the UK
    
  • Representatives of overseas newspapers, news agencies and broadcasting organizations
    
• Overseas domestic workers
• Tier 1 (General skilled worker) migrant
  
• Tier 1 Investor
  
• Tier 1 Entrepreneur
  
• Tier 1 Post-study work
  
• Tier 2 General skill worker (for people coming to the United Kingdom with a job offer to fill a gap that cannot be filled from within the resident labour force. This category is also for applicants coming to fill shortage occupations)
  
• Tier 2 Intra company transfer (for employees of multi-national companies who are being transferred by an overseas employer to a skilled job in a United Kingdom based branch of the company)
  
• Tier 2 Sportsperson (for elite sportspeople and coaches whose employment will make a significant contribution to the development of their sport at the highest level).
  
• Tier 2 Minister of religion (for those people coming to fill a vacancy as a Minister of Religion, Missionary, or Member of a Religious Order)
  
• Tier 5 Creative and sporting (for people coming to the United Kingdom to work or perform as sportspeople, entertainers or creative artists for up to 12 months)
  
• Tier 5 Charity worker (for people coming to the United Kingdom to do voluntary, unpaid work for a charity.
  
• Tier 5 Religious worker (for people coming to the United Kingdom to work as religious workers. Duties may include preaching, pastoral and non-pastoral work)
  
• Tier 5 Government authorised exchange (for people coming to the United Kingdom through approved schemes that aim to share knowledge, experience and best practice)
  
• Tier 5 International agreement (for people coming to the United Kingdom under contract to provide a service that is covered under international law)
  
• Tier 5 Youth mobility scheme (working holiday makers & au pairs)

Points-based system

• Self assessment calculator
  

Settlement visas

• Husbands, wives, & partners
  
• Adopted children
  
• Family members
  
• Newcomers to the UK

Other visa categories

• Returning residents
  
• Right of abode
  
• United Kingdom ancestry

General information

• Supporting document checklists
  
• Visa nationals
  
• European economic area & Swiss nationals
  
• Photograph requirements
  
• Biometric data collection
  
• Biometric data collection exemptions
  
• Health (tuberculosis) screening

Coming to the UK?

• Playing by the Rules
  
• What can you bring into the UK
  
• Arriving in the UK
  
• Newcomers to the UK
  
• Extending your stay in the UK
  
• Identity cards
  
• British citizenship
  
• UK Passports