Transit visa for United-Kingdom in 2023
The UK transit visa is required when you transit through the UK during your trip. There are two types of transit visa depending on the duration of your connection: the 24-hour Direct Airside Transit and the 48-hour Visitor in Transit.
General information
UK.Visas.Consulting will not answer any questions regarding transit visas. Our agency is not offering consultation service for this visa.
UK.Visas.Consulting is not involved in checking what type of transit visa you need to do. Only your carrier can tell you the type of visa you need to apply for, because only your carrier (airline...) can tell you if you will have to show your passport during the transit in the UK or not.
Please do not contact us telling us your transit details (flight details...), we will not reply in that case.
According to your situation, you can check if you need a visa or not following this link : https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa and verify with your carrier if you will have to show the passport or not.
You need a transit visa if you travel to another country through the UK, according to your nationality, the duration of the transit and if you need to show your passport or not regardless of the transit duration.
Depending on your nationality and if your stop in the UK is less than 24 hours and you do not show your passport during the transit, you need to apply for a Direct Airside Transit visa.
If you need to change the airport, or your stop is for more than 24 hours and up to 48 hours, or if you will have to show your passport (cross the border) you need to apply for Visitor in Transit visa.
If you do not have any UK visa, it will be up to an Immigration Officer at the border to decide to let you pass or not.
European Economic Area (EEA) nationals do not need a visa to transit through the UK. They must travel with a valid EEA passport in all cases. This is mandatory since October 1, 2021, it is not possible to travel with only an ID from an EEA country anymore (except specific cases stated on gov.uk).
EEA residents having a common format residence permit issued by an European Economic Area (EEA) country or Switzerland do not need a visa. They must travel with their resident permit and passport in all cases.
However, you may be denied boarding as agents on the European side may not be aware of this exception (see https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa).
PLEASE NOTE: some UK airports (such as London LUTTON LTN) do not have an international transit area. Showing the passport will therefore be compulsory, and considered as a border crossing, it will then be necessary to apply for a Visitor in Transit visa if you need a visa.
You can find all the information regarding the Transit visa on the official web-site gov.uk : https://www.gov.uk/transit-visa
And you can check if you need a transit visa here : https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa
Where you can find the official information about UK visas
You can find all necessary information on https://www.gov.uk.
Official names for this visa on GOV.UK and VISA4UK
Visa to pass through the UK in transit / UK Direct Airside Transit visa , UK Visitor in Transit visa
All informations on this page about this visa have been last updated on : 4 November 2022
