UK General Visit Visa (C) - Quick Decision!

[vulcan903]

My GF took her self off to BKK last Monday to submit her Visit visa to the UK. 3rd year running and starting to be a concern in case they use the "you are spending too much time in the UK" card.

Got a e mail on last Thursday saying a decision had been made which concerned both of us. EMS post just delivered her Passport back all good and a new Visit visa in it.

Thats a 7 day turnaround which is amazing.

We always allow a month as they suggest 3 weeks so we might go for a French visa now and i will take her over to France to see her friend.

[7by7]

Decision times do seem pretty fast at the moment, with other members reporting similar times.

Unfortunately, I doubt it will last when the student visa applications start to arrive!

You said

3rd year running and starting to be a concern in case they use the "you are spending too much time in the UK" card.

Whilst the rules do not allow a general or family visitor to spend more than 6 months in the UK per visit, there is no hard and fast rule to say how many different visits a person may make, nor how often they may visit.

There is, though, a convention that a visitor should not spend more than 6 months out of any 12 in the UK; see VAT1.5 Frequency and duration of visits.

So, unless your girlfriend is likely to spend more than 6 months out of 12 in the UK, there is no need for concern.

Indeed, as she seems to have a valid reason for making regular visits to the UK and a positive history of compliance with her visa conditions (I hope!) she may be able to obtain a longer term visit visa; 1, 2, 5 or 10 years. See VAT1.4 Visa validity - What period for a multiple entry visit visa?

Whatever term of visit visa she has she would still only be allowed a maximum of 6 months in the UK per visit and the '6 months out of 12' convention will still apply.

The longer the term applied for, the higher the fee (see here); so you need to decide if she is going to be visiting often enough in the future to make it worthwhile; bearing in mind that the fees increase each year.

But if the ECO decides to issue a shorter term than that applied for there will be no refund of the difference in fees.

[vulcan903]

Thanks for the info and yes good point - maybe a 2y multiple visa would work well next time.