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I am in UK on a Business Visit Visa for 6 months. I want to invite my cousin who studies in Germany to the UK.

Should I ask her to apply for a "Family Visit Visa" or a "General Visit Visa" ?

I do not have UK Citizenship.

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    What is your cousin's citizenship? That probably matters more than anything.
    – Flimzy
    Apr 14, 2014 at 15:56
  • If your cousin is a visa-national, she would apply for a general VV. Based upon what you wrote, you do not qualify as a sponsor in the first instance.
    – Gayot Fow
    Apr 14, 2014 at 18:15
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    Close voters: What's unclear about this question? Seems pretty clear to me; the question that I edited the title to seems pretty cut and dried, and the top answer reflects that. Apr 15, 2014 at 7:26

2 Answers 2

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I don't think the Family Visit Visa is an option for 2 reasons, based on the published eligibility requirements.

Reason 1: Ineligible family relationship

The list of people who can be visited under a Family visa is given as:

  • spouse or civil partner
  • children
  • parents or siblings
  • grandparents or grandchildren
  • your spouse’s or civil partner’s siblings or parents
  • your child’s spouse or civil partner
  • step parents, step children or step siblings
  • a person you've been living with in a long-term relationship, as if you were married or in a civil partnership, for at least 2 years before the day you apply

A cousin is none of those things.

Reason 2: Ineligible residency status

The family member being visited must be one of:

  • a British citizen
  • settled in the UK
  • granted asylum in the UK
  • under humanitarian protection in the UK

You're not a British citizen, and I don't think being in the UK on a short-term visa yourself counts as being "settled in the UK". The other 2 options are presumably not relevant either.

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  • To confirm: The op is not settled in the UK; otherwise they would not need a BVV.
    – Gayot Fow
    Apr 14, 2014 at 18:13
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https://www.gov.uk/browse/visas-immigration/short-visit-visas
The Family Visitor visa is intended for visits of 6 months. If your cousin is studying in Germany I suspect she won't be coming for that long.

If it's just a simple visit then General Visitor visa appears to be the correct one.

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  • A general visitor visa is good for up to 6 months too, so that doesn't really serve to differentiate them. More to the point is that as far as I can see the OP & their cousin are simply not eligible for the Family visa. Apr 15, 2014 at 8:30
  • @NigelHarper My reading of the immigration website is that the Family Visa is required for a visit of more than six months, precisely because a General (tourist) visa does not have sufficient duration. For less than six months a Gereral visa is all that is required and the purpose being to visit family is irrelevant.
    – toandfro
    Apr 15, 2014 at 9:13
  • I've no idea how you manage to read it that way. It clearly says "You can stay in the UK for 6 months on a Family Visitor visa." There's nothing to indicate you can stay for over 6 months. Apr 15, 2014 at 9:21
  • @NigelHarper The page I linked to doesn't say that, it says "Apply for a Family Visitor visa if you want to come to the UK to visit a family member for 6 months". The link to the FVV from that page says "You can apply to extend your visa up to 6 months if it’s for less than 6 months." (That seems to me a very clear indication that you can stay for longer.) This ability to extend the FVV does NOT apply to the General visa, with which "You can stay for a maximum of 6 months on each visit".
    – toandfro
    Apr 15, 2014 at 19:58
  • My original quote is from the FVV overview. Also look at Extend your visa for the FVV. Under How Long Can You Stay it says: "You can stay in the UK for 6 months on a Family Visitor visa. You can apply to extend your visa up to 6 months if it’s for less than 6 months." As I read that you can apply for an FVV with the stated plan to stay for, say 3 months, but change your mind once in the UK and extend up to 6 months from date of entry. You can't go beyond 6 months on an FVV. Apr 16, 2014 at 10:07

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