Understanding UK Customer Entry Necessities: What You Have to Know

by Callum Ingram-Taylor, Trainee Solicitor at Latitude Legislation

Who can go to the UK?

Anybody – topic to assembly good character necessities – can go to the UK, however from April 2025 everybody will want some type of prior permission, within the type of an Digital Journey Authorisation (ETA) or a customer visa, earlier than travelling.

A customer visa is required by a visa nationwide who’s wishing to go to the UK; a listing of visa nationwide international locations could be present in paragraph VN1.1 of the Immigration Guidelines.

UK customer visas are usually legitimate for six months and allow a number of entries into the nation. It might be doable to use for a go to visa for an extended time period, resembling as much as 2 years, 5 years or 10 years. However bear in mind, every go to should not be longer than six months from the date of entry.

In contrast, a non-visa nationwide, resembling an EU or US nationwide, can arrive within the UK and not using a visa for now; however from April 2025, they might want to acquire an ETA.

Digital Journey Authorisation

The ETA scheme has been rolled out by the UK over the previous couple of years. It’s a pre-screening course of designed to boost UK border safety by evaluating travellers earlier than they arrive within the UK. The scheme primarily applies to specified non-visa nationals who intend to go to the UK for tourism, enterprise conferences, or brief research. As of January 2025, many nationalities together with US and Australian residents should maintain an ETA. From April 2025, EU nationals will even be required to use. The complete record of nations and when to use could be discovered right here: Apply for an digital journey authorisation (ETA) – GOV.UK.

Failure to acquire an permitted ETA can result in denial of boarding or entry into the UK. It is very important word that the ETA doesn’t substitute a visa. Travellers who’re required to acquire a visa for his or her go to to the UK should nonetheless undergo the same old visa utility course of.

The ETA utility is fast and completely on-line; the price is £10 for a 2-year authorisation, or till your present passport expires. It’s a requirement that any felony convictions are disclosed; in case you are ineligible for an ETA on these grounds, you’ll have to apply for a customer visa as a substitute.

What are the necessities for a customer visa?

In contemplating a customer visa utility, an Entry Clearance Officer on behalf of the House Workplace will assess the appliance in opposition to the next necessities:

• Whether or not the applicant is appropriate for a grant of entry clearance – criminality or a poor immigration historical past may cause issues right here
• Whether or not the applicant (or their sponsor) has ample funds to keep up and accommodate themselves throughout the journey with out working. This may embrace:

• the price of the return or onward journey
• any prices regarding their dependants
• the price of any deliberate actions e.g., personal medical therapy. 
• Whether or not the applicant is a ‘real customer’. The Entry Clearance Officer should be glad that:

• They’ll depart the UK on the finish of their go to
• They don’t plan stay within the UK for prolonged intervals by means of frequent or successive visits, or make the UK their most important dwelling
• They’re genuinely looking for entry or keep for a function that’s permitted beneath the customer route

What actions are you able to do within the UK?

The House Workplace limits what actions each visa and non-visa nationals can do while they’re within the UK. The kind of actions that people on a go to visa are permitted to undertake rely upon the kind of visa granted:

Permitted Actions 

The exhaustive record of actions could be discovered right here in Immigration Guidelines Appendix Customer: Permitted Actions. Typically, it’s anticipated that folks will solely perform vacationer and leisure actions or go to household and mates while within the UK. Nevertheless, some exceptions embrace volunteering for as much as 30 days with a UK-registered charity, receiving personal medical therapy or partaking usually enterprise actions – for instance, attending a gathering or interview.

If you’re an worker of an abroad enterprise visiting the UK, it’s best to confer with the ‘Intra-corporate actions’, ‘Manufacture and provide of products’,  ‘Shoppers of UK export firms’ and ‘People employed outdoors the UK’ paragraphs in Appendix Permitted Actions to make sure any work or coaching you need undertake or present within the UK will likely be permitted.

Permitted Paid Engagements

It’s doable to hold out ‘permitted paid engagements’ throughout your go to to the UK. This could possibly be a paid public efficiency or giving a lecture at a seminar or convention. Non-visa nationals don’t have to make any form of further utility to hold out these actions, however ought to carry with them a replica of their invitation to any such engagement. Visa nationals should declare this on their customer visa utility and will likely be required to supply documentary proof of this.

Practicalities of customer visa purposes

To make sure the very best likelihood of success in a go to visa utility, it’s important that robust proof of the applicant’s circumstances of their dwelling nation is supplied to show they’re a ‘real customer’. Candidates have to make it clear why they are going to be returning to their dwelling nation as soon as they’ve completed their go to. On this regard, candidates should submit proof of their employment, property, and household overseas. A canopy letter can be very useful to attract the choice maker’s consideration to the proof supplied and the way this meets the related immigration guidelines.