1

er...your visa expires and you want to stay longer, and then keep going in and out of the country?

Am I missing something, or is this an issue with you not understanding the concept of 'expired visa'?

2

Hi,

Sorry, but only bad news here.

If your UK visa expires December 20th : then you'll need to be out of the country by that date : else you'll be in the UK illegally - which is frowned upon by police and immigration.

A day trip to France might do the trick if you can get stamped back in to the UK on a tourist visa : but you'll have to convince the UK Border Agency that you're not planning on working or studying illegally. As you had a Tier 4, there's a very real chance that you won't get back in as they'd worry that you found a job while studying, and were planning on carrying on working after your work permit expired.

Documentation showing you're going to be studying in Wisconsin will help ( and copies of your flight home tickets as well ): but it'll all come down to the mood of the guard on the day.

Edited by: SadisticToaster

3

Modest overstays are often not picked up in the UK these days since the UK does not currently have passport control on exit (apparently there is an intention to reintroduce it). I think that if you are on your way out they'd rather you just left rather than make any kind of fuss about it which might lead to public expense. In the past when we did have passport control on exit, I have seen the person in front of me in the queue have "overstayed do not readmit" stamped, but that was the limit of sanctions on them.

But if you did overstay and then attempt to go to Schengen, arriving from UK, I think there is some possibility that they might notice you arrived from UK having overstayed your UK visa and deny you entry there on those grounds. Things then might get torrid if you were put on transport back to the UK. I did recently fly from the UK into an airport in Schengen and the passport control there had apparently gone home and left the door open. Several other people using that airport at other times report a similar story. However I hesitate to tell you where, since, with advance passenger information now mandatory, it is possible that they had seen the manifest of arriving passengers and had absented themselves realising there was no one still to arrive that day they were bothered about.

I'm not aware of any clear statement as to whether you can get readmission to UK as a tourist immediately or shortly after expiry of another category of visa. My suspicion is that they don't allow it in general, as it would amount to visas being 3 months longer than they said they were.

4

So long as you leave the UK before the expiry of your visa, you should be admitted to Schengen for 90 days. Maybe you could fly back to the USA from an airport in Schengen-land? Otherwise you are likely to be allowed back into the UK in order to catch a confirmed flight home, but probably not for a longer stay.