If your sole purpose of visiting the UK is sightseeing or visiting family and friends in the UK, a tourist visitor visa UK would be ideal. However, if you want to perform some business activities as well during your trip to the UK, then opt for a business visa. Let us understand both the visas in detail below.
UK Business Visitor Visa
Travelers who are visiting the UK for business purposes will need to obtain the relevant permission. Depending on your nationality, you may have to apply for a UK Business Visitor visa or you may need an ETA.
Under the Immigration Rules for visitors to the UK, such overseas nationals can come to visit the United Kingdom for a temporary period of a maximum of 6 months to carry out remote or unpaid business activities. A business visa is a subcategory of the UK Standard Visitor visa, however, it is also generally referred to as a UK Business Visitor visa.
Permissible Activities under the Business Visitor Visa
If you are coming to the UK visa-free for business purposes, under the Business Visitor visa, or with an EVW or ETA, it should be for activities permitted under the UK visitor rules. The relevant activities include:
. attending meetings, seminars, interviews, and conferences
. giving a short series of talks, speeches, or a one-off
. negotiating
. attending trade fairs promote your business in the UK
. Signing contracts or deals
. Conducting inspections and site visits in the UK
. being briefed on a UK-based customer requirements
. gathering information related to business or your employment overseas
. consulting and advising on internal projects
. delivering or receiving work-related training
. installing, repairing, servicing, dismantling, or advising on machinery, software, equipment and hardware
. overseeing the goods and services delivery.
While a business visitor is allowed to give a short series of speeches and talks or a one-off under the visitor rules, these must not be set up as commercial affairs and must not be organized to make a profit for the event organizer. Similarly, if a visitor on a business visa wants to attend trade fairs in the United Kingdom, it must be related to only promotional work. The visitor must not be involved in directly selling. Moreover, when being briefed on a UK-based customer’s requirements, any work by a visa holder for that customer can only occur outside the UK.
UK Business Visitor Visa Requirements
The applicant must meet any, or even all, of the requirements to be eligible for a Business Visitor visa:
. be travelling genuinely for business purposes allowed under the rules of the UK
. intending to leave the United Kingdom at the end of his / her authorized stay
. can afford reasonable expenses relating to his / her visit to the UK, without engaging in gainful employment or
drawing on public funds for such purposes, including return or onward travel costs
. have enough funds to support oneself wherever in the UK
. not be intending to engage in any of the prohibited activities during the visitor’s stay in the UK
. not intending to stay in the UK for prolonged periods using visiting frequently or in quick succession on this
type of visa, nor trying to make the UK your main home.
You have to comply with the requirements for eligibility for a UK Business Visitor visa, even though this may not mean a straight necessity for a visa. This also applies to traveling under current visa-free rules, as well as under an ETA once the latest electronic travel authorization system gets fully into the swing.
UK Tourist Visa
This Visitor Visa is for those who want to visit the UK for a short period to visit relatives and friends, or for a short vacation. The UK Tourist Visa is a subdivision of the Standard Visitor, which applies to visitors wanting to come to the United Kingdom for a temporary stay of up to 6 months. Again, the route does not provide any way of settlement in the UK.
Permitted activities under the UK Tourist Visa
You must convince the UK visas and immigration that you genuinely want entry to the United Kingdom for a purpose permitted under the visitor routes and will not do anything that falls under prohibited activities in order to qualify for a Tourism, Leisure or Family Visit Visa.The UK Tourist Visa holders may engage in:
. Visit family and family in the UK
. Come to spend a holiday in the UK
. Participate in an exchange visit provided both schools are publicly funded, either by the state or an independent
school.
. Attend an educational course (other than an English language course) for a maximum period of 30 days.
As the UK Tourist Visa is a part of the Standard Visitor route, tourist visa holders may also engage in other activities permissible under other subclasses of the Standard Visitor route. This comprises paid engagements, on the proviso that they are scheduled before traveling to the UK and performed within 30 days upon arrival in the United Kingdom.
Right to Work
Tourist Visa holders have no rights to work at all in the UK or receive payment from a UK source for activities completed in the UK. In other words, these tourists cannot take employment, set up or run a business in the UK as self-employed people, work for a business based in the UK, or engage in an internship or work placement in the UK.
Conclusion
A UK Tourist Visa is limited to individuals going for leisure in the UK, like sightseeing, family visits or vacations. A Business Visa is for those who want to go for business purposes like attending conferences, meetings, or negotiating contracts. If you are worried about the UK Visit Visa processing times
, then know that both the visas would take around 3 weeks. Also, hiring immigration lawyers in London would be helpful.
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