Enter the United Kingdom
as a tourist or visitor: visa requirements
Application Form
VAF1A: For tourism or friends
VAF1B: For family
Price of Form: £ 83
This category is generally for people who wish to come to
the UK as a tourist or visiting family or friends for a maximum period of 6
months (12 months if you are accompanying an academic visitor) with a condition
prohibiting work.
All potential members of the family who may be traveling
with you must make an individual visa application.
Everyone, except for EEA nationals / Switzerland, must apply
for a visa for a stay of more than 6 months for example to support an academic
visitor.
To come to the UK as a general visitor or family, you must
be able to prove that you have:
18 years;
Sincerely intend to enter the territory as a visitor for a
limited period, not more than 6 months (or 12 if you are accompanying an
academic visitor);
The intention to leave the United Kingdom at the end of the
visit period;
Having enough money to support yourself and your accommodation
as well as your dependents without recourse to public funds or work, or you and
the dependents will be adequately maintained and accommodated by relatives or
friends;
Can afford the return or the previous trip, and Are not in
transit to a country outside the common travel area.
You also need to prove that you did not intend to:
Working;
Produce, sell or provide goods or services, including
directly to the public;
You engage in activities of a business visitor, a visitor to
a sporting event, artist;
Get married or enter into a civil partnership or advertise
your wedding or civil partnership, or;
Receive private medical treatment.
You are allowed to study for a maximum of 30 days, as this
is not the main purpose of your stay. These studies can be recreational
(pottery or riding, for example) or in an institution with a Tier 4 license, in
which case they consist of academic studies or English during the short term.
To qualify as a visitor of the family, you must prove that
you are going to visit one of the following family members:
Your spouse, civil partner, parent, child (including
recognized adoptions), grandfather, grandmother, grand-son, granddaughter,
brother, sister;
The husband, wife or civil partner of your son or daughter;
Your stepfather, stepmother, son-daughter-in-law or
sister-in and / or
Unmarried partner who lived with you for at least 2 of the 3
years preceding your application.
The UKBA says that if you are visiting a family member who
is not listed above, you should come as a simple tourist visit (general
visitor) rather than a family visit (family visitor)
