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Business Visitors

If you are coming to the United Kingdom as a business or special visitor, you can usually stay for six months unless you are:

an academic visitor
a doctor taking the professional and linguistic assessment board test
a parent of a child at school
a visitor in transit

Who can apply?

You will only need permission (known as 'entry clearance' or 'a visa') to come to the United Kingdom for a business visit of up to six months if you are a visa national.

To come to the United Kingdom as a business visitor you must be able to show that you:

only want to visit the United Kingdom for up to six months;
plan to leave the United Kingdom at the end of your visit;
have enough money to support and accommodate yourself without working, help from public funds or you will be supported and accommodated by relatives or friends;
do not intend to charge members of the public for services provided or goods received;
do not intend to study;
can meet the cost of the return or onward journey;
are based abroad and have no intention of transferring your base to the United Kingdom even temporarily;
receive your salary from abroad.

You must also show that you plan to do one or more of the permissible activities which include:

attending meetings, including interviews that have been arranged before coming to the United Kingdom, or conferences;
arranging deals or negotiating or signing trade agreements or contracts;
undertaking fact finding missions;
conducting site visits;
delivering goods and passengers from abroad such as lorry drivers and coach drivers provided they are genuinely working an international route;
tour group couriers who are contracted to a firm outside the United Kingdom, who are seeking entry to accompany a tour group and who intend to leave with that tour group;
speaking at a conference where this is not run as a commercial concern and the conference is a 'one-off';
representing computer software companies by coming to install, debug or enhance their products. Representatives of such companies may also be admitted as business visitors in order to be briefed as to the requirements of a United Kingdom customer but if they are to provide a service involving the use of their expertise to make a detailed assessment of a potential customer's requirements this should be regarded as consultancy work for which entry under the points-based system would be required;
representing foreign manufacturers by coming to service or repair their company's products within their initial period of guarantee;
representing foreign machine manufacturers by coming to erect and install machinery too heavy to be delivered in one piece, as part of the contract of purchase and supply;
interpreting or translating for visiting business persons, provided the interpreter/translator is employed by the overseas company and is coming solely to provide this service for the visiting company member.
monteurs - workers, for example fitters or servicepersons coming for up to six months to erect, dismantle, install, service, repair or advise on the development of foreign-made machinery;
board-level directors attending board meetings in the United Kingdom provided they are not employed by a United Kingdom company, although they may be paid a fee for attending the meeting.

If you are a non-visa national, permission to come for up to six months is not needed as a business visitor.

If you are an academic visitor and want to come for more than six months, you will need permission to come whatever nationality you are.

Multiple entry visas are available for business visitors for six months, and one, two, five and 10 years.

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