Confirm every figure against the official source before you rely on it — fees and processing times change without notice.
| Visa type | Standard visitor visa |
|---|---|
| Where to apply | Online, with a biometrics appointment at a visa application centre |
| Application fee | TO VERIFY |
| Processing time | TO VERIFY |
| Interview | Not usually required |
| Typical validity | TO VERIFY |
| Passport validity | TO VERIFY |
The order matters. The gap between booking an appointment and attending it is usually the longest part, so start earlier than feels necessary.
The form and the fee come first. Take your time — this is the version of your story the decision maker will read.
At a visa application centre. Bring your passport and the appointment confirmation.
Uploaded or handed in, depending on the route. Organisation matters: a file that's easy to follow is easier to approve.
Your passport comes back with the outcome. There's no interview stage to recover in, so everything has to be in the file the first time.
The core list. Your situation may call for more — someone self-employed, recently hired, or being sponsored by family will each need to show something different.
A one-page checklist of everything above, ordered by when to start each item. Print it, tick it off, bring it with you.
We did too. Everything on this page stays free — the kit is for the part that's harder to research: actually putting the file together.
Earlier than feels necessary. Appointment availability, not paperwork, is usually the bottleneck, and it swings hard with the season.
No. Booking non-refundable travel before you hold an approved visa is an expensive way to put pressure on yourself.
There's no published figure that guarantees anything. What's assessed is whether your finances are consistent with the trip you're describing and with the rest of your situation.
Yes. What matters is whether something has genuinely changed — reapplying with an identical file usually produces an identical result.
These are the only authoritative sources. This page is a plain-language summary of them, not a substitute for them.