Business Categories

Business activities as a business visitor

You may be able to come to the UK as a business visitor if you are one of the following:

Film crew

You must be an actor, producer, director or technician who is on a location shoot only, and employed or paid by an overseas company or programme.

Representative of overseas news media

You must be employed or paid by an overseas company and be gathering information for an overseas publication.

Academic visitor

You must be:

• on sabbatical leave from an overseas academic institution, and wanting to use your leave to carry out research in the UK (for example, to do research for a book); or
• an academic (including a doctor) taking part in formal exchange arrangements with UK counterparts; or
• an eminent senior doctor or dentist coming to take part in research, teaching or clinical practice.

(If you are on sabbatical leave from a private research company, you cannot be an academic visitor. Instead, you should apply for a visa under Tier 2 or Tier 5 of the points-based system.) . Additionally, you must not:

• receive funding for your work from any UK source (except payments of expenses or reasonable honoraria, and payments on an exchange basis); or
• engage in any work other than the academic activity for which you are being admitted; or
• fill a normal post or a genuine vacancy in the UK.

Visiting professor accompanying students on a study abroad programme

You must be a professor or teacher from an overseas academic institution. While in the UK, you may undertake a small amount of teaching, limited to the institution hosting the students you are supervising. However, you must be employed and paid by the overseas academic institution, and must not intend to base yourself or seek employment in the UK.

Religious worker

You can come to the UK for a business visit (for example, to attend a conference) and undertake some preaching or pastoral work during your visit. You must be based abroad, and you must not intend to take up an office, post or appointment in the UK. If you want to come to the UK to fill a vacancy as a religious worker for a recognised religion, and will be undertaking preaching and pastoral work, you will need to apply for a visa under Tier 2 (Minister of religion) or Tier 5 (Temporary worker - religious worker) of the points-based system.

Adviser, consultant, trainer or trouble shooter

You must be employed abroad by the company to which the client firm in the UK belongs, but this must not amount to employment for the UK firm. You must not do paid or unpaid work for the UK firm's clients.

Person undertaking specific, one-off training

The training must be:

• provided by your employer (or one of its UK branches); and
• delivered in techniques and work practices used in the UK, provided this is not on-the job training.

Secondee from an overseas company

The UK company providing the secondment must have a contract to provide goods or services (but no corporate relationship) with your overseas employer, which must continue to employ and pay you. In some cases, you may need to apply for a visa under Tier 2 or Tier 5 of the points-based system.

Doctor undertaking a clinical attachment, or dentist undertaking a clinical observer post

You must be a graduate from a genuine medical or dental school, and provide documentary evidence of a clinical attachment or dental observer post which will:

• involve observation only and not treatment of patients; and
• be unpaid.

Doctor taking the Professional and Linguistic Assessment Board (PLAB) test

You must:

• be a graduate from a genuine medical school;
• intend to take the PLAB test in the UK; and
• provide documentary evidence of a confirmed test date or of your eligibility to take the PLAB test.

Other business persons

You can also apply to come to the UK as a business visitor if you intend to carry out any of the following 'permitted activities' here:

• attending meetings (including interviews that have been arranged before you come to the UK) or conferences;
• arranging deals, or negotiating or signing trade agreements or contracts;
• undertaking fact-finding missions;
• conducting site visits;
• delivering goods and passengers from abroad (as a lorry driver or coach driver, for example, provided you are genuinely working an international route);
• accompanying a tour group as a tour group courier, provided you are contracted to a firm outside the UK, and you intend to leave with that tour group;
• speaking at a 'one-off' conference where this is not run as a commercial concern;
• representing a foreign manufacturer by coming to service or repair its products within their initial period of guarantee;
• representing a foreign machine manufacturer by coming to erect and install machinery too heavy to be delivered in one piece, as part of the contract of purchase and supply;
• interpreting or translating for visiting business persons, provided you are employed by the overseas company and are coming solely to provide this service for the visiting company member;
• acting as a monteur (a worker such as a fitter or serviceperson) for up to 6 months to erect, dismantle, install, service, repair or advise on the development of foreign-made machinery;
• attending board meetings in the UK as a board-level director, provided you are not employed by a UK company (although you may be paid a fee for attending the meeting); and
• representing a computer software company by coming to install, debug or enhance their products. You may also come here as a business visitor to be briefed about a UK customer's requirements - but if you use your expertise to make a detailed assessment of a potential customer's requirements, we will regard this as consultancy work, for which you will need a visa under the points-based system.

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