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A visitor intending to travel to the United
Kingdom for business purposes must be a one who:
- intends to transact business directly linked to
his or her employment abroad;
- normally lives and works abroad and has no intention
of transferring the base to the UK, even temporarily;
- receives a salary from abroad (but may get reasonable
expenses to cover travel and subsistence during the
visit).
Business visitors are
- those going to attend meetings, conferences, trade
fairs, seminars etc including guest speakers provided
- the conference or seminar is a single event, i.e.
not part of a commercial venture;
- those going to purchase, check details of or examine
goods;
- those delivering goods from abroad, such as lorry
drivers;
- those going to negotiate or sign trade agreements,
contracts, etc;
- those attending interviews including sports persons
going for "trials", entertainers going for
auditions (see separate section below);
- those coming to undertake fact-finding missions,
e.g. journalists on a short assignment to cover a
story;
- advisers, consultants, trainers, trouble shooters
etc, provided that they are employed abroad, either
directly or under contract, by the same company (or
group or companies) to which the UK client firm belongs,
but,
- the involvement of such advisers must not extend
to actual project management or providing consultancy
services direct to clients of the UK company
- raining should be for a specific, one-off purpose,
should not go beyond classroom instruction, and
should not be otherwise readily available here
- tour group carriers contracted to a firm outside
the UK, who are seeking entry to carry out short term
duties and are not seeking to base themselves in the
UK;
- interpreters or translators who are existing employees
of an overseas company and who are accompanying and
solely providing a service for business visitors from
the company;
- representatives of computer software companies
coming to install, debug or enhance their products.
A trip to be briefed on the requirements of a UK customer
is also acceptable. However if representatives are
to provide a detailed assessment of a potential customer’s
needs, this is regarded as consultancy for which a
work permit is required;
- representatives of foreign companies coming to
erect, dismantle, install, service or repair their
company’s products;
- those coming for training in techniques and work
practices employed in the UK, provided that the training
is confined to observation, familiarisation and classroom
instruction only.
- discretion may also be exercised where an applicant
proposes a visit for business purposes which might
be seen as the provision of a service such as taking
instructions or giving professional advice. In such
cases a short visit may be authorised.
Conversely, the following should not be treated
as business visitors:
- employees of overseas firms whose involvement with
a United Kingdom subsidiary amounts to employment
here;
- consultants who are self employed, other than those
contracted abroad by an overseas firm with a UK subsidiary;
- those who are undertaking productive work which
could be undertaken by someone recruited from the
local or EEA labour force;
- those offering training, unless such training involves
products manufactured overseas, or is specific to
the operation of a group of companies of which the
UK firm is a member.
DOCUMENTS
REQUIRED FOR UK BUSINESS VISITOR VISA (PDF)
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