The Standard Visitor visa covers tourism, family visits and business meetings for up to six months per trip. Since 8 April 2026 it costs £135, up from £127. A long-term visit visa costs £506 for two years, £903 for five and £1,128 for ten, and each trip on it is still limited to six months (Home Office fees table).
How the application works
- You fill in the form and pay online on gov.uk, then give your photo and fingerprints at a visa application centre.
- You can apply no earlier than three months before the trip. A decision usually takes about three weeks after the appointment; where available, priority service costs £500 extra and super priority £1,000.
- Visitors who applied from 25 February 2026 get an eVisa linked to their passport instead of a sticker. You create a UKVI account and check the status before travelling; the passport comes back to you while the application is decided.
- The visa application centre may be in another country — gov.uk warns about this when you book.
If your passport does not need a visa — the Gulf states, Mexico, Peru and others — you need an electronic travel authorisation instead.
The only required document is your passport
Everything else is evidence, and the official guide to supporting documents lists what helps:
- Work and income: a letter from your employer on letterhead with your position, salary and length of service; for the self-employed, business registration and invoices; for students, a letter from the place of study.
- Money: bank statements where the origin of the money is clear. If someone else pays, add their income, your relationship and, if they live in the UK, their status.
- Travel history: old passports with visas.
- Children under 18: a birth certificate, a copy of the parent's passport and a consent letter describing the trip.
- Translations: every document not in English needs a full translation with the date, the translator's name, signature and contact details.
What not to send
The same guide asks applicants not to send hotel bookings and tickets, travel insurance, credit card statements, a driving licence, car documents, utility bills or personal photos. They do not help, and paying for a hotel before the visa only risks the money.
How much money: there is no minimum
The UK sets no fixed amount. The caseworker looks at whether the money is enough for this trip on top of your normal life, and whether it fits your income. A large deposit shortly before the application with no explanation looks like borrowed money; if you sold something, received a gift or a bonus, show where it came from. A balance that has been stable for months says more than a big round figure.
What the decision rests on
The eligibility rules come down to three things: you will leave at the end of the visit, you can pay for the trip and the journey back, and you are not trying to live in the UK through frequent or long visits. Ties at home — a job, family, property, studies — answer the first question; the documents above answer the second; your travel history answers the third.
| Common reason for doubt | What helps |
|---|---|
| A big recent deposit | Proof of where the money came from: sale contract, payslip, gift letter with the giver's statement |
| Dates and amounts that do not match | One story across the form, the letters and the statements |
| No ties at home | Employer letter with approved leave, family documents, property or study certificates |
| Long or frequent visits | A clear plan for this trip and the time you spend at home |
If the visa is refused
A visitor visa refusal cannot be appealed. There is no waiting period either: you can apply again at once, but without new evidence the answer will be the same, and the fee is not refunded. False information or a forged document is a different matter: the application is refused, and so are new ones for the next 10 years — even when an intermediary submitted the document. In 2025 the United Kingdom refused one visitor visa application in five.
Vizir builds the evidence pack around these questions, and the specialist checks that the form, the letters and the bank statements tell the same story before you submit.