Business Visa Activities

Can I carry out any business during my visit?

As a visitor, you can do the following.

> Go to meetings, conferences, trade fairs or seminars - including being a guest speaker - as long as the conference or seminar is a one-off event and not part of an ongoing business arrangement.

> Buy, check details of or examine goods.

> Deliver goods from abroad, for example as a lorry driver.

> Negotiate or sign trade agreements or contracts.

> Go for interviews - this can include a sportsperson going for trial, or an entertainer going for an audition.

> Carry out fact-finding missions, such as a journalist going on a short assignment to cover a story.

> Act as an adviser, consultant, trainer or investigator, as long as you are employed abroad, either directly or under contract, by the same company (or group of companies) to which the UK client firm belongs, but:
* your involvement must not include actually managing the project or providing consultancy services direct to the UK company's clients, and
* training should be for a specific, one-off purpose, should not go beyond classroom instruction, and should not be otherwise readily available in the UK.

> Act as tour-group carriers working for a firm outside the UK who want to enter the UK to carry out short-term duties but do not want to base themselves permanently in the UK.

> Act as interpreters or translators if you already work for an overseas company and you are travelling with business visitors from the company and working for them only.

> Act as representatives of computer-software companies coming to install, upgrade or repair their products. You can also visit the UK to find out the requirements of a UK customer. However, if you would be expected to provide a detailed assessment of a possible new customer's needs, we would consider this to be consultancy work and you would need a work permit for it.

> Act as a representative of a foreign company coming to put up, take down, install, service, repair or give advice about machinery made abroad.

> Take part in training techniques and work practices that we use in the UK, as long as training just involves watching demonstrations and classroom instruction only.

You cannot:

> take paid or unpaid work

> produce goods or provide services in the UK, or

> sell goods and services to members of the public.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

Please choose a category below to view commonly asked questions about UK visas:

Applying for a UK Visa

Visa and Immigration Problems

After your UK visa is issued