Visit the UK for tourism, family, business or medical reasons on an application that presents your circumstances credibly.
A visitor visa looks like the simplest application here. It is often the hardest one to get right. The rules do not ask you to prove very much about money. They ask you to prove something much harder: that you are a genuine visitor and that you will go home at the end of your trip. No document proves what you intend to do in six months' time. So the caseworker builds a picture from everything else in your file, and decides. That is why applications that attach a bank statement, a hotel booking and nothing else are refused so often. It is also why the first application matters more than most people expect. Most visitor refusals carry no right of appeal, and the Home Office does not refund its fee.
This is a general guide only; we confirm your exact position at the free consultation.
A free consultation to assess the strength of your case
A checklist tailored to your case
Preparation of your application and the covering letter that supports it
Your approval before we submit
Support with submission, plus ongoing updates
On paper you must show four things. That you will leave the UK at the end of your visit. That you can support and house yourself without working or claiming public funds. That you can pay for the trip, including the journey home. And that you are not using repeated visits to live here in practice.
In reality all four collapse into one question. Does this person intend to go home.
Nobody can prove an intention directly, so the caseworker reads it from your circumstances. What is waiting for you at home, whether that is a job, a business, a tenancy, a property, children, studies, or a parent you care for. Whether your finances make sense next to the trip you have described. Whether your account of the visit is specific or vague.
The strongest visitor applications answer that question before it is asked, in a covering letter that connects the evidence together instead of leaving a stranger to assemble it. That connecting work is most of what you would be paying us for.
Visitor refusals are rarely about eligibility. They are about how the case was put together.
The same principle applies here as everywhere else in the system: the format and coherence of your evidence decides the outcome. Money that genuinely exists gets discounted because it appeared in the account three days before you applied with nothing to explain it. Support that is genuinely available gets ignored because the person offering it never evidenced their own status or income.
Nobody will contact you to clear up a doubt. The doubt simply becomes a refusal.
A visitor application carries a smaller Home Office fee than most routes, so it is fair to ask whether paying for professional help makes sense at all. We would rather you asked that out loud.
For context, published rates for immigration work in the UK run high. A spouse or partner application is commonly quoted between £1,500 and £5,400, and firms often charge £300 to £500 plus VAT for an initial meeting alone. Our consultation is free, and our fee is £500, fixed, for any application we take on.
Whether that is worth it depends on your case. If your ties are strong, your finances are clear and you have nothing in your history to explain, you may well not need us, and we will tell you so at the consultation. If you have been refused before, if a relative is funding your trip, or if your circumstances are tangled, the calculation is different. A refused application costs you the Home Office fee anyway, and the refusal then has to be declared in every application you make afterwards.
Home Office fees, biometrics and any translation costs are separate from our fee and are set by other people. We put the full list in writing before you decide. Our fees page has the detail.
We look at your circumstances honestly first. If we take the case on, we build the application around the question the caseworker is actually asking. We gather the evidence of your ties, make sure the financial picture is coherent and explained, and write a covering letter that walks the caseworker through it in order.
We cannot promise you a visa. Nobody can, and anyone who does is telling you something they are not in a position to know. We also do not conduct appeals, administrative reviews or tribunal work, because that is outside our authorised scope. Most visitor refusals carry no appeal right in any event, which is exactly why the first application deserves care.
We are regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority, and you can check that on the public register before you speak to us. It is worth doing for any adviser you consider. Giving immigration advice in the UK without authorisation is a criminal offence, and if the person you paid is not on that register, you cannot get your money back.
A refusal is not the end of it, but applying again unchanged usually produces the same answer and a second lost fee. Your refusal notice states which requirement the caseworker was not satisfied about. That paragraph is the whole map, and most people read it once in distress and never properly again.
We will read it with you at the free consultation and tell you honestly whether a stronger fresh application is realistic, or whether the sensible thing is to wait until your circumstances have changed. Sometimes waiting is the right advice, and we would rather give it than take your money. There is more on our visa refusal page.
Usually up to six months per visit. Longer-validity visas exist that let you come and go over several years, but each individual stay is still limited, and you must not use repeated visits to live here.
No. You cannot take a job or do paid work for a UK organisation. A defined list of business activities is permitted, such as meetings, negotiations, conferences and some training, but that is not the same as working, and the line matters.
Yes. A relative or friend here can fund your visit and host you. Their side has to be evidenced properly though: who they are, their immigration status, their income, their address, and their relationship to you. A short letter on its own rarely carries it.
You can apply again at any time, but repeating the same application usually produces the same result. The refusal notice states exactly what the caseworker was not satisfied about, and a new application has to answer that directly. We will read the notice with you and tell you honestly whether reapplying now is realistic.
No. Marrying or forming a civil partnership in the UK needs a Marriage Visitor visa or a family route, not a standard visitor visa. If your plan is to marry and then stay, look at the spouse and partner route instead.
Only in limited circumstances, and the total stay generally cannot go beyond six months. Wanting to stay longer is not by itself a reason, and overstaying causes far more damage than it solves.
The rules do not require it, but it is sensible. If you are coming for private medical treatment, evidence of how that treatment will be paid for is important and is looked at closely.
No, but it must be disclosed and it will be considered. A refusal on its own is not fatal. A refusal you failed to mention is far more serious, because it becomes a question about your honesty rather than about your circumstances.
Book your free 30-minute consultation for a straightforward, honest assessment of your matter.