Check your UK Standard Visitor application before you apply

The grounds, in the authority’s words

• Genuine visitor: intention to leave at the end of the visit

  Appendix V: Visitor, V 4.2(a)

  The officer is asking one question: when this visit ends, what pulls you home? Ties are not a score you pass. They are facts you evidence: a job you hold, dependants who rely on you, property in your name, a business that needs you, study you are enrolled on, and a record of leaving other countries on time.

• Genuine visitor: permitted purpose and no prohibited activities

  Appendix V: Visitor, V 4.2(b) to (d), V 4.4 to V 4.6

  A visitor may holiday, see family, do limited business activity, and take a short course. A visitor may not work for a UK business, take employment, run a business from the UK, marry or register a civil partnership, access the NHS for planned treatment without paying, or live here through back-to-back visits.

• Maintenance and accommodation: funds for the visit and the return journey

  Appendix V: Visitor, V 4.2(e) and (f), V 4.3

  There is no minimum balance in the rules. The test is whether the funds shown cover the trip you have described, plus the flight home, plus anything your dependants need. Money that appears shortly before the application without an explanation weakens the account rather than strengthening it, because the officer cannot tell whose money it is.

• Purpose of visit: consistency between the purpose, the invitation, the itinerary and the money

  Appendix V: Visitor, V 4.2(c)

  A purpose the officer can picture is specific: who you are visiting, where you will stay, what you will do, and when you leave. A purpose that reads as a template is one where the dates in the invitation do not match the flights, or the itinerary covers a fortnight and the leave letter allows a week.

• Previous immigration history and travel history

  Part 9: grounds for refusal, and Appendix V: Visitor V 4.2

  A previous refusal is not a bar. An undisclosed previous refusal is close to one, because it goes to whether the officer can rely on what you say. Travel that you completed and left on time is the single most useful thing you can show, including travel to countries other than the one you are applying to.

• False representations, false documents or non-disclosure

  Part 9: grounds for refusal, paragraph 9.7.1 to 9.7.3

  This ground carries consequences the other grounds do not: a refusal under it usually carries a re-entry ban of up to ten years and it follows you into every future application, to the UK and often elsewhere.

What the officer is deciding

One question sits under all of it: will you leave at the end of the visit. Everything else is evidence about that question. The officer reads your bank statements, your employment letter and your itinerary looking for a life you are going back to, and for a trip that costs what you say it costs.

Why applications fail

Most refusals are not about honesty. They are about paper. An applicant states they are employed and sends no letter. A balance covers the trip but arrived last month with no explanation. The invitation covers two weeks and the leave letter covers one. Each of those is a ground the officer can tick, and each has a document that answers it.

What we do

The quick check reads your five answers against the grounds and tells you where they usually land. The Review reads your documents: it checks that your statements cover six months, that the deposits have sources, that the names match, that the dates line up, and it writes the cover letter, the sponsor letter and the employer letter from the facts you gave.

What to have ready

• Employment letter on headed paper stating role, start date, salary and approved leave dates
• Payslips covering the same period as the bank statements
• Business registration, tax filings and business bank statements where self-employed
• Property deeds, a tenancy agreement or a mortgage statement in the applicant's name
• Evidence of dependants: birth certificates, school letters, care responsibilities
• Previous passports showing visas used and departures made on time
• Proof of enrolment and term dates where studying
• An itinerary that matches the stated purpose and the permitted activities
• For business visits, a letter from the home employer stating the activity and that salary continues to be paid from home
• Previous passport stamps showing the length and spacing of earlier visits
• Where a short course is planned, the course letter and its dates
• Six months of personal bank statements, stamped or downloaded from the bank with the bank's name on every page
• Payslips matching the salary credits in the statements
• A written explanation and evidence of the source of any large or unusual credit
• Where a sponsor pays: their letter of invitation and undertaking, their bank statements, payslips, and proof of their UK immigration status
• Proof of accommodation: hotel booking, or the sponsor's address with proof they live there
• A day-by-day or week-by-week itinerary with dates
• The invitation letter, where someone is inviting you, with their address and status
• Flight reservations or bookings matching the itinerary dates
• Accommodation bookings for the whole stay
• Evidence of any event you are attending: tickets, a conference registration, a wedding invitation
• All previous passports, including expired ones, showing visas and entry and exit stamps
• The previous refusal notice, with a short written explanation of what has changed
• Evidence of compliance with earlier visas: departure stamps, boarding passes

Review, £29

We read your documents, check every ground, tell you exactly what is thin and what would fix it, and write the cover letter, the sponsor letter and the employer letter from the facts you gave. One re-run included within 30 days.