I am an Indian citizen, living in the US on a H1B visa, have the following itinerary -
Going to India via London on December 24th, staying at the Heathrow airport for 3 hours. (Assume that if I weren't doing 2) below, this would require a transit visa).
Coming back to the US via London, but staying there for 3 days (January 23 - 26).
Now I'll need a general visitors visa for 2) above, but the eligibility criteria for that visa says that you are "not in transit to another country, except for Ireland, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands". So here are my questions -
a) Does that mean I need to apply for 2 UK visas - one for transit and one for the 3 day visit?
b) If the answer to the above is yes, do I need to make two biometric appointments to give the same information?
c) How do I send original documents in this case? I mean, I only have one original passport, so how exactly should I send it as part of independent applications?