We are pleased to share another recent success. Our clients, a farming couple, have been granted 10-year standard visitor visas.
Their sponsor in the UK is their child, a construction worker sponsored by a construction company on a Skilled Worker visa that expires in January 2027.
It was their second visit visa application. The first had been granted as a standard six-month visitor visa.
That combination is worth setting out, because three assumptions put people off applying for a long-term visit visa, and none of them appear in the Immigration Rules.
The first is that the sponsor's permission must outlast the visa being applied for.
Here it did not come close. The visa granted runs for 10 years. The sponsor's Skilled Worker visa runs out in January 2027. Appendix V: Visitor sets no such requirement. The length of a visit visa is not tied to how long the person in the UK has permission to stay.
The second is that the person in the UK must be settled.
The sponsor here holds a Skilled Worker visa, not British citizenship or indefinite leave to remain. The visitor rules do not require a sponsor at all. A third party can support and accommodate a visitor, and that party does not need any particular immigration status to do it.
The third is that a six-month visa sets a ceiling for the next one.
Our clients went from a six-month visa to a 10-year visa on their second application. There is no ladder to climb and no minimum number of previous visits written into the rules.
What the decision actually turns on is whether the applicant is a genuine visitor.
The caseworker has to be satisfied that the person will leave the UK at the end of each visit, will not make the UK their main home through frequent or successive trips, and can meet the cost of the trip. That is a question about the applicant's own circumstances, not the sponsor's.
For our clients, those circumstances were a farm. Land, work and income in their home country are the kind of ties that answer the question the caseworker is asking. We set out that evidence clearly and made the position on each of the three points above explicit, rather than leaving the caseworker to draw conclusions.
It is also worth being clear about what a 10-year visa is and is not. It allows stays of up to six months at a time over the life of the visa. It does not permit work, access to public funds, or living in the UK through back-to-back visits.
If you are supporting a family member's visit application, book a consultation with our team before you apply.
The outcome matters beyond the fee saved. A 10-year visa means these parents can visit without making a fresh application, paying a fresh fee and waiting for a fresh decision every time. For a family split between two countries, that is the difference between planning a trip and applying for permission to see each other.
We handle visitor visa applications, refusals and administrative reviews alongside our work for businesses and skilled workers. You can read more of our success stories, including a visitor visa refusal we overturned, or see our full range of services for individuals.
If you have been told your family cannot apply because of your own visa status, that advice is worth checking.
Book a consultation with NARA Solicitors today.
