Personal & Corporate · IAA Regulated F201000109
UK Visit & Business Visitor Visas
Visit visas allow short stays in the UK for tourism, family visits, marriage or permitted business activities. We advise individual visitors, and corporate mobility and HR teams managing employees who travel to the UK regularly.
Visit applications are refused far more often than clients expect, usually on credibility and intention rather than eligibility. We prepare visitor and business visitor applications that demonstrate a clear, permitted purpose, sufficient funds and a genuine intention to leave at the end of the visit.
Visit routes we handle
Most visits — including business visits — are made under the Standard Visitor route in Appendix V of the Immigration Rules. The distinctions below reflect the purpose of travel rather than separate visa categories.
Standard Visitor Visa
The main visit route under Appendix V, for tourism, visiting family and friends, permitted business activities, receiving private medical treatment or a short course of study. It normally allows stays of up to six months and does not permit work or settlement — nor living in the UK through frequent successive visits.
Family Visit
A Standard Visitor application made to spend time temporarily with relatives in the UK. It needs clear evidence of the family relationship, the purpose and length of the visit, who is funding it, and strong ties to your home country showing you will return. It is not a route for ongoing care arrangements or long-term stays.
Marriage Visitor Visa
For those coming to marry or register a civil partnership in the UK without intending to settle here. It permits a stay of up to six months to give notice and hold the ceremony, but you cannot switch into a partner route from inside the UK on this visa — you must apply from abroad afterwards.
Business Visitor
Also made under the Standard Visitor route. It covers meetings, negotiations, conferences, site visits, interviews, signing contracts and other permitted business activities for a business based outside the UK — but not working for, or providing services to, a UK employer or client.
Business visits to the UK
A substantial part of our work involves business visitors: executives, engineers, technical specialists and directors travelling to the UK for meetings, oversight, inspections and short-term project involvement on behalf of an overseas business.
The Standard Visitor route permits a defined list of business activities. The critical principle is that you may come to the UK on behalf of your overseas employer or business, but you may not work in the UK, deliver services to UK clients, or fill a role that should properly be held by a sponsored worker. Getting that line right matters — both for the individual at the border and for the employer's compliance record.
Meetings, negotiations & conferences
Attending internal or external meetings, negotiating and concluding deals, taking part in trade discussions, and attending conferences, seminars and industry events on behalf of an overseas business.
Interviews, site visits & inspections
Conducting or attending interviews, carrying out site visits and inspections of premises, plant or facilities, gathering information for an overseas employer, and undertaking fact-finding for a project not yet in the UK.
Signing contracts & trade fairs
Signing contracts on behalf of an overseas business, and attending trade fairs — as a visitor, and with limited promotional activity at a stand permitted, provided you are not directly selling to the public.
After-sales service & installation
Installing, dismantling, repairing, servicing or advising on equipment, computer software or hardware where your overseas employer has a contract of purchase, supply or lease with a UK company or organisation, and the contract provides for that service.
Corporate training received in the UK
Receiving training in UK work practices and techniques from a UK-based company or organisation, where that training is required for your employment overseas and you are not being paid by the UK entity to do productive work.
Intra-corporate activity
Advising and consulting, troubleshooting, providing training or sharing skills and knowledge with UK colleagues on a specific internal project — provided the work itself is not being delivered to UK clients and does not amount to filling a UK role.
What is not permitted on a visit visa
Prohibited activities
- Doing paid or unpaid work for a UK company or organisation
- Working for, or being employed or engaged by, a UK business in any capacity
- Providing goods or services to UK clients or customers as if you were employed or self-employed here
- Filling a role or position within a UK organisation, including on a temporary or interim basis
- Receiving payment from a UK source, other than limited permitted reimbursement of expenses
- Establishing or running a business as a self-employed person in the UK
- Living in the UK for extended periods through frequent or successive visits
Why the distinction matters
Border Force can refuse entry and cancel a visa where the activities planned go beyond what the route permits, even if a visa has already been issued. A refusal or cancellation is recorded and affects all future applications, including work visas.
For employers, allowing a visitor to perform productive work in the UK creates illegal working exposure and, for licensed sponsors, a serious compliance risk to the licence itself.
Where the intended activity genuinely is work, the right answer is a work route from the outset — not a visit visa and hope.
Corporate & multiple-entry visits
Frequent business travellers do not need to apply for a new visa each trip. Long-term Standard Visitor visas are available for two, five and ten years, permitting multiple entries throughout their validity, with each individual stay still limited to the maximum permitted visit period.
Long-term visas are granted where the applicant can show a credible, ongoing need to travel to the UK regularly and a consistent history of complying with UK immigration conditions. They are a practical, cost-effective solution for regional directors, account leads, auditors and engineers who visit the UK several times a year.
For HR and global mobility teams
We work with mobility, HR and legal teams to put a defensible framework around UK-bound business travel:
- Activity assessments confirming whether a trip is a permitted business visit or requires a work route
- Standardised invitation letter and employer letter templates for repeat use
- Long-term multiple-entry applications for frequent travellers, coordinated across a team
- Travel-pattern monitoring so cumulative time in the UK does not undermine visitor status
- Briefing notes for travellers on what they may and may not do at the border and on site
Managing repeat travel risk
The most common problem we are asked to fix is an employee who has been visiting the UK so regularly that Border Force questions whether they are in reality based here. Once that view is formed, entry is refused and the pattern is hard to unwind.
We review travel histories before the next trip, advise on the volume and structure of visits that remains sustainable, and where the pattern has outgrown the visitor route, move the employee onto an appropriate work route in good time.
Invitation letters and supporting evidence
Letter from the UK host
On company letterhead, from a named senior contact, confirming the invitation and the nature of the engagement.
- The host organisation, contact and their position
- The purpose of the visit and the activities planned
- Dates of the visit and locations to be attended
- Who is meeting travel and accommodation costs
- Confirmation that no work will be performed for the UK entity
Letter from the overseas employer
- Confirmation of your role, length of service and salary
- That you remain employed and paid by the overseas entity throughout
- The business purpose of the trip and its link to your role
- Approved leave or travel authorisation and your expected return date
Itinerary and personal evidence
- A day-by-day itinerary of meetings, sites and events
- Conference or trade fair registration confirmation where relevant
- Flight and accommodation bookings or reservations
- Bank statements or employer funding confirmation showing sufficient funds
- Evidence of ties to your home country — employment, property, family
Business visit, or a work route?
A visit visa is only appropriate where the activity is genuinely a permitted business activity for an overseas business. If an employee will be working in the UK, delivering services to UK clients, being assigned into a UK entity, or setting up a UK branch, a work route is required instead — and in most cases the UK entity must first hold a Sponsor Licence.
If your plans involve an intra-group assignment, a secondment, a graduate trainee placement or a service supplier contract, the Global Business Mobility routes are likely to be the correct framework. If you intend to employ staff in the UK, start with a Sponsor Licence application. We will tell you plainly which side of the line your plans fall on.
- Since 2009
- Advising business travellers
- F201000109
- IAA regulated adviser
- Corporate
- Dedicated business immigration team
Key requirements for all visitors
- A clear, permitted purpose for visiting the UK
- Sufficient funds to cover travel, accommodation and living costs without working
- Strong ties to your home country — employment, property, business or family
- A genuine intention to leave the UK at the end of the visit
- No intention to work, study long-term or settle in the UK
- A travel history consistent with the purpose and frequency of your visits
Our process
Individual visitors and corporate travel programmes, handled the same careful way.
- 01
Consultation
We confirm the activities planned are permitted, and identify whether a work route is needed instead.
- 02
Document review
Invitation letters, employer letters, itinerary and funds evidence checked and, where needed, drafted by us.
- 03
Application
Submission with a covering letter setting out purpose, funding, itinerary and intention to return.
- 04
Decision & travel
We advise on border readiness, and on re-application strategy if a previous visit was refused.
Managing frequent business travel to the UK?
Speak to our corporate immigration team about long-term multiple-entry visas, activity assessments for travelling employees, and when a business visit needs to become a work route.
Speak to us about your UK visit
Whether you are visiting family, marrying in the UK or travelling for business, an IAA-regulated adviser will make sure your application is presented properly first time.