Do I need a VISA?
Hi all,I've been scouring the UK Border Agency website but can't find an answer, so I was wondering if anyone could help me out.
My cousin and I are planning on traveling around Europe next summer. We live in Canada, and my cousin is doing a semester in London, England from January to beginning of June, from which I'll fly over there and we'll begin our travels. I was just wondering, does anyone know if my cousin has to apply for a VISA? I know that if you are in the UK for less than 6 months you don't need one, but she'll be there for 6 months and then we'll be in Europe (not the UK) for another two months.
I'm assuming the answer is no but I just want to make sure. The normal thing to do after doing an exchange in another country is to stay there and travel around, but I didn't know that this whole VISA thing would be such a problem. So far she's told me she won't need a VISA if she books a return flight out of the UK right now, but I don't want to book any flights out at the moment cause it's 8 months away! So this doesn't really make any sense to me.
Any advice would be great!
1
A quick look at the UKBA site indicates she won't need one. But surely her school in Canada and/or the UK can give better advice than random people on the internet. Failing that call the UK embassy in Canada.2
What nationality? You say living in Canada but for all we know she and you could be Chinese nationals in which case you would need a visa.3
If "doing a semester in London" means she'll be studying, she'll need a student visa, unless the university has a special exchange programme which allows studying on a tourist visa (waiver). You need to go to the officials to find out about this.4
Well she is Chinese/English, but born and raised in Canada. I'm not sure what the specifics of the exchange programme are, though. But yes, I guess talking to her school would be the best bet.Thanks for everyone's input!
6
Yes, ethnicity, living place, where you were raised are not important.The country that issued your passport is important.
If she has a UK passport, no visas needed for any of that.
If you have Canadian passports, you can be in the UK as tourists for 6 months, then go to Schengen for 90 days with no visas....but if you are studying then you need a student visa (except as #3 explained).
There are often problems with Airlines not letting you on to go to UK/Europe if you do NOT have a return ticket. They are worried immigration will turn you away on the same ground and then fine the airline.
So, book a ticket back to Canada from London or Paris or something...
