Wait times between visitor visa

[Spectre]

Hi, my girlfriend is from the US, im a british citizen. She's coming over in a month on a visitor visa, and I was wondering after that runs out in 6 months how long must she wait before she can come back to England on another visitor visa. 6 months? a month? could we go for a weekend away to France?

[Wanderer]

Hi, my girlfriend is from the US, im a british citizen. She's coming over in a month on a visitor visa, and I was wondering after that runs out in 6 months how long must she wait before she can come back to England on another visitor visa. 6 months? a month? could we go for a weekend away to France?

Usual rule is no more than six months in every twelve. Can u get away with more? maybe but if u don't and she gets caught she's gonna have to formally apply for a UK visa every time. As a US cit. she doesn't need a visa for UK....

France? S/be no problem, assuming US citz need no visa for France....

As an aside - do you mean girlfriend or penfriend?

[Dawie]

She's coming over in a month on a visitor visa

US citizens do not normally require a visa to visit the UK as tourists.

and I was wondering after that runs out in 6 months how long must she wait before she can come back to England on another visitor visa.

There is no hard and fast rule. When a US citizen arrives in the UK as a visitor they are granted leave to remain for 6 months usually. There is no prescribed time period that a person has to wait before they can return to the UK for another visit. Each time the person enters the UK they will be assessed by an immigration officer and all the relevant facts will be taken into consideration before they are granted leave to remain again.

Having said this, staying in the UK for 6 months as a tourist, leaving and then trying to return within a few days will arouse the suspicions of immigration officers who will assume that she is trying to illegally live in the UK as a tourist.

[paulp]

She's coming over in a month on a visitor visa

US citizens do not normally require a visa to visit the UK as tourists.

Hi Dawie,

Some (most?) people use the term visa loosely for both Entry Clearance and Leave to Remain.

[Nowty]

Doing the French weekend thing is a lottery, you might get away with it the first time if there is still some time to run on the original leave to remain. My Brazilian girlfriend did this but she got loads of verbals from the IO. However I have to say that the Frech trip was only an innocent weekend away when we were a little more naive of the immigration rules. And the IO nearly had a fit when I told him she was coming back to see me for Xmas only a few months later.