The United Kingdom and its thriving economy attract business people from all around the world. The UK’s economy is ranked above regional and world averages.
If you do not own a British passport and wish to carry out your business activities in the UK, you might need to apply for a visa first. The UK Business Visitor Visa is a subcategory of the Standard Visitor Visa.
You must apply for a UK business visitor visa if you plan to:
Nationals of the following countries need a visa in order to visit the UK for business purposes:
If you wish to carry out any business activity in the UK and apply for the UK Business Visitor visa you must first make sure that you meet the eligibility requirements:
You have to apply for a UK business visa online, on the website of the UK government before submitting your application in person at a visa application centre in your country. The step-by-step process is as follows:
Depending on your nationality, you may be able to visit the UK for up to 6 months without needing a visa. Therefore, check if you need a UK visa first. On the UK government website, before you are redirected to the application form, you will need to select your nationality and purpose of visit (in this case, a visitor visa), which informs you whether you have to apply for a visa and which one.
On the official visa and immigration website of the UK government, you must create an account first (if you haven’t done so previously) and complete the UK application form online carefully. You must complete the application form in English. You will be able to save your application and go back to it whenever you feel ready to do so. If you are inactive for 25 minutes, you will automatically be logged out but your answers will be saved.
You can start your application here.
To apply for a UK visitor visa for business purposes, you must “Upload Evidence” of your trip. This includes documents that support your visa application, such as the following:
The full checklist of documents is on the visa application form. You must upload digital copies of the documents.
The visa fee is paid online. Once you have provided all of your information on the application form, you will be able to pay the fee on the UK government website.
You must visit the UK visa application center in person, as you will need to submit your documents and biometric data. If your biometric data has been submitted in the last 59 months, you don’t need to re-submit them.
You can find the exact visa application center that you need to submit your documents at here.
The Standard Business Visitor Visa is valid for 6 months, during which time you can attend meetings, conferences, and do other business activities. If you visit the UK for business often, you can apply for a long-term visitor visa, which is issued for 2, 5, or 10 years, allowing you to stay in the UK for six months at a time.
You can extend your stay in the UK only up to six months, if you were originally issued a visa for a shorter period of time. Even if you have a 10-year business visitor visa, you can only stay for six months at a time.
If you want to stay longer than six months or work in the UK, you have to apply for a different visa type, such as a work visa or a startup visa.
UK business visitor visas are issued within three weeks. Depending on the work load of the visa application centers, this period may be extended up to six weeks or longer. So, you should submit your visa application well in advance of your trip; the earliest you can do so is three months before your travel date.
The visa fee depends on how much you intend to stay in the UK. The following table lists fees for the different types of Standard Visitor Visas.
| Visa type: | Fee: |
| Standard Visitor Visa (with a validity of 6 months) | £100 |
| Long-term Standard Visitor Visa (with a validity of up to 2 years) | £376 |
| Long-term Standard Visitor Visa (with a validity of up to 5 years) | £670 |
| Long-term Standard Visitor Visa (with a validity of up to 10 years) | £837 |
A long-term visitor Business visa grants you the possibility to stay in the UK for two, five, and ten years. You can stay in the country for up to 6 months on each visit. Documents that you’ll need include:
Additionally, you might need to provide:
If anyone is paying for your trip, you should include their details (name, address and passport number) as well.
Once you submit your application at the visa center and submit your fingerprints, that’s when the waiting time begins. It is currently taking 7 weeks on average. You can check to see if you can get a visa decision faster here. However, this depends on where you are applying from. The standard visa processing time is 3 weeks.