Spending a Half-Year in the United Kingdom on a Tourist Visa

With the way visas normally work, most people would assume that if one's been issued a guest visa for half a year, that they could enter Great Britain an unlimited number of times over that half-year period. There are lots of people in Great Britain who consult their local lawyers about it, after which point they’re absolutely certain their relatives can spend the entire half-year in Great Britain for the duration of their visas. Even though British lawyers claim you can live in Great Britian on this visa as long as you want, the immigration rules clearly indicate otherwise – that this type of visa does not allow frequent or lengthy stays in Great Britain. We always warn all our clients that their visits must be short for them to resemble actual guest visits. It cannot turn into a situation in which for the whole duration of their visa the client is really living in Great Britain and then their home country ends up being the one they visit.

A lady named Marie got in touch with us. She was refused a visa because of visiting Great Britain too much. The visa officer was thorough in his response letter, detailing all the dates she had resided in Great Britain, and he counted the total number of days she'd spent there. It turned out that she'd resided a total of 62 days in Great Britain during her half-year visa. The visa officer believed that the vacation her employer allowed her in her come country did not match up with the number of days she spent in Great Britain. For that reason, she was denied the next time she applied for another visa.

Our experts studied Marie's situation. It turned out that she'd been issued her last visa based on an invitation to visit her elderly relatives. We got in touch with her relatives’ doctors in Great Britain and obtained confirming documents of their illnesses along with their treatment regimens. We also requested her employer to issue documents confirming the work Marie had done over the indicated time period and he agreed. The employer also proved that, as one of the best professionals in their organization, Marie was able to work from home sometimes and turn in her projects in electronic format. The letter our company wrote summing all of this up explained the particularities of the case to the visa officer. Marie received a new visa without delay. How nice your job is to know the work you do ends up saving somebody's immigration story!