The type of visa required depends on the country of residence of the traveller. Some countries are required to have their citizens obtain a direct air transit visa when visiting the United Kingdom.

Visitor visas enable their holders to stay in the country for six months. This includes business trips and medical treatment.

There is a points system in place to obtain a UK visa. The most talented applicants are considered for Tier 1 and British companies may sponsor foreign workers.

Anyone with capital, who wishes to invest in the country, can apply for an Entrepreneur Visa while those with talents or innovative ideas might apply for an Investor Visa. To obtain an Entrepreneur Visa, there must be proof of sufficient funds to start a business, invest in or buy an existing one. The holder is barred from seeking employment in other companies.

The government issues UK visas for professional training and education. There are several types of student visas, including the Post Study Work Programme and the Youth Mobility Scheme, which allows only a short stay.

Anyone who has been living legally in the country can apply to become nationals of the United Kingdom. They receive numerous benefits, including the right to work or reside in other EU countries.

There are four types of Tier 2 visa:
General visas allow foreign professionals to move to the country if a UK employer sponsors them. Overseas workers who move to the UK with a Tier 2 visa are usually in great demand and it’s skill shortages in their specific areas of expertise that generally necessitates the approval of their visa.

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Intra Company Transfers are designed for foreign nationals who have to move to the UK due to employer-mandated job relocation. For General and Intra Company Transfer visas, an S/NVQ level 3 or above is required, as specified in the relevant code of practice.

Sports People visas are for professional athletes and coaches whose employment is deemed a crucial factor in the development of their sport.

Ministers of Religion, as its name implies, is a type of work visa intended for preachers or ministers of religion, missionaries and other members of church polity.

The Tier 2 visa does not grant temporary residency, but it can lead to Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR), popularly known as permanent UK residency.

There are several preparations to be made before formally applying for a UK Visitors Visa. You need a letter from your employer, stating that you are allowed to be absent from work for a certain period, but you are expected to be back on a particular date. However, if you are self-employed, you have to show proof that you are financially stable enough to be able to support yourself for the period of your stay. Aspiring applicants must also present evidence that they own at least one property in their home country.

In the event that you intend to visit the UK as a student, you must request a letter from your school that provides details regarding your courses, the year and the dates that you are permitted to travel to the UK. These dates may be during the school year as long as the school officials allow you to miss classes. Alternatively, you may mention that the dates provided are holidays in your country of residence.

To further increase your chances of succeeding with your UK Visa application, provide details of your family, friends and responsibilities that you definitely have to return home to. You also have to provide copies of your bank statements, including those that were issued several months before your application and be able to prove that you have savings.

Finally, you have to make an itinerary for your trip, in order to prove you don’t intend to wander aimlessly around the country.

Although the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP), which was introduced in January 2002, has proven to be very successful for UK immigration, it has now been replaced by Tier 1 (General). Tier 1 is a points-based visa system specially designed to attract gifted individuals to migrate to the UK. The Tier 2 work permit allows a UK-based company to sponsor a foreign individual to come and contribute to the UK’s economy.

Under the Entrepreneur visa, a foreign individual is allowed to live and work in the UK and invest capital and start a business, as long as it is within UK immigration rules. A potential investor may also come to the country with a pioneering idea under an Innovator visa or simply to invest in the country’s economy through a Tier 1 Investor visa.

For students wishing to study in the UK, a study permit or Tier 4 Student visa permits foreign students to enter the country. The Post Study Work and Youth Mobility Scheme allow students and young individuals to work in the UK for a restricted time.

Family-based visas include UK Marriage visa and UK Fiancé visa or De Facto visa or the Unmarried Partner visa. A UK marriage visa allows the husband, wife or civil partner of a person who settled in the UK to apply for leave to enter and live permanently in the country. The UK Fiancé visa permits a person who is resident in the UK to bring their fiancé into the country.

There are a many circumstances where you do not need to apply for a UK visa in order to visit the country. Needless to say, citizens of the European Union do not require one to visit, work or indeed live permanently.

In some instances, however, a work permit will have to be obtained by anyone moving to the UK from outside the EU, who intends seeking employment during their time in the country. In many cases a UK visa will not necessarily be required, it all depends on the country that the visitor is a citizen of.

A UK visa is not generally necessary when visiting the country for a period of between three to six months. However, there are a number of strict regulations in place for anyone staying for this length of time, who is not strictly on holiday. There are also restrictions in terms of the ability to use the UK National Health Service.

UK visas can be obtained from any Embassy or High Commission, but they should not be needed if the person travelling to the country can provide adequate proof of intent to leave. They must also be able to provide a UK address where they will be staying.

This programme is a form of a work permit to work in UK: so long as an applicant shows an interest of working in the UK and the meets the requirements needed then he or she qualifies for this visa. This is normally encouraged by the UK government because the it helps build their economy by outsourcing manpower from outside and in return benefits the Skilled Migration applicant to have an opportunity that he or she might have never seen in his or her country of origin.

The Highly Skilled Migration Programme can lead to British citizenship for the visa holder, so long as the person has stayed in UK for the first two years and has been granted another three years extension. After this five years period has elapsed, the visa holder can apply for an indefinite leave to remain in UK so long as the he or she is economically active and later can then apply for a British citizenship.

Many countries in the world have adopted the system of looking for skilled foreigners for employment. A good example in Africa is Botswana and Namibia, who have given work permits to skilled foreigners to help in the field of engineering, medical industries and even teaching. As an example, many Kenyans are employed in Botswana and Namibia as result of work permit programmes based on the Highly Skilled Migration Programme in the UK.

The concept of the PBS is not novel. The PBS is widely applied in highly industrialized nations like Australia to great effect.

The United Kingdom’s Home Office decided to borrow a leaf from these nations. The Office rolled off the Point Based System on February 29th, 2008, to replace the then existing Highly Skilled Migration Process – HSMP.

The PBS is more efficient when it comes to identifying the skills demands and filling the labour gaps than HSMP. This is because with the PBS, there is an advisory board known as the Skills Advisory Board which is mandated to identify the skill and labour demand in the United Kingdom.

Once the board identifies the skills gap, it recommends the changes which have to be implemented to the PBS in order to effectively address these needs. Such recommendations include increasing the points for tier 1 visa applicants with the desired skills in shortage. The move can be reversed when enough people with the desired skill set have been found to meet the labour demands.

The Point Based System is superior to HSMP in that it is a linear and more efficient application process. By implementing the PBS, the United Kingdom has been able to consolidate study and work permits to just 5 easily manageable tiers.

In addition to being a more transparent and objective system, the PBS also acts as a filter that only allows entry to those individuals whose skills are in demand in the United Kingdom.

The Tier 1, like the HSMP, uses a points system to determine immigration eligibility. The system is used to award points in six categories; education, adaptability, language skills, work experience, age and employment. The total number of points needed in order to submit your HSMP (Tier 1) application is 75. The purpose of the HSMP points system is to ensure that immigrants will be able to care for themselves and assimilate into society well. The HSMP is used as a first step towards permanent residency and ultimately, citizenship.  After five years with the HSMP an applicant can apply for residency and one year after that naturalisation to become a citizen. It is important to submit all the necessary paperwork and substantiations, along with your application, in order to be certain that the process will not be halted. If your application is incomplete you will need to resubmit and start the process over.

Getting an investor visa is not as easy as some may think, there are tight regulations governing investors in any country. For example in USA, the visa applies for those who are willing to invest either, $1million in a new enterprise that will employ more than ten U.S workers excluding immigrants; investment of $500,000 within an area with a high percentage of unemployment or in rural area. The investor visa for people investing with $500,000 is limited to a maximum of $3,000 every year. Investor Visa holders receive permanent resident status.

In the UK, the investor visa is under the Tier 1 and is categorized in two parts. The first one is that the investor is referred to a bank where he or she is given a loan of £1 million, of which the investor will be charged £170,000 without monthly interest and the second category is where by the investor has £1million from his or her own account, which will be used in the UK.

The UK investor visa is normally granted for three years and is eligible for an extension for two more years. At the end of this five-year period in the UK, the investor visa holder may apply for indefinite leave with his or her dependents and later British citizenship if desired.

Before the introduction of the PBS system, UK student visas were filled with loopholes. These loopholes exposed the system to abuse.

The introduction of the PBS placed more responsibility in the hands of educational institutes. The educational institutes work hand in hand with the Home Office to ensure students entering United Kingdom meet PBS requirements and adhere to the rules.

The rules include the provision of a certificate of sponsorship to all students coming to the UK. The certificates are issued by the educational institution which students will be joining. PBS rules require the educational institute issuing the certificate of sponsorship to vouch for the student’s ability.

The tier 4 student visa takes into consideration the time required to complete the study course and graduate after successfully completing the course.

A student holding a tier 4 visa can change courses within the same education institute without submitting another application. However should the student wish to transfer from the sponsoring institution – change the sponsor – he/she must lodge a new application. The same applies if a student wants to extend the visa duration.

Under the PBS, tier 4 visa holders cannot apply for permanent residency and are only allowed limited working opportunities. Dependants of tier 4 visa holders are afforded entry into the United Kingdom with either tier 3 or tier 5 visas which are also temporarily visas.