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My daughter who is just under 18 has a child accompanied visa to the UK. I am traveling with her to the UK for a few days. We return from UK on the same day except that she returns to India and I am heading to San Francisco an hour later on the same day.

Is that okay or will we have an issue at immigration into the United Kingdom?

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    @nikhil, it's not a question of verifying age. The visa has a written endorsement on it that specifies it is only valid if the holder is accompanied by a named adult. UKVI is very serious about compliance. They may or may not let her fly depending if someone is there to receive her in India, but the adult will definitely be flagged as entering breach. That will be problematic going forward.
    – Gayot Fow
    Jan 16, 2016 at 2:15
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    See also travel.stackexchange.com/questions/51015/…
    – Gayot Fow
    Jan 16, 2016 at 2:24
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    @JayashriRamamurti, no you've got it wrong. At the application stage you agreed an undertaking to provide end-to-end supervision of the child. That includes the destination and abandoning the child when you reach Heathrow airside is a breach. However, the UK operates passive exit controls so it wouldn't be discovered until later. But if the carrier spots you haven't bought a ticket (or any other incident like a baggage check) Section 55 kicks in right away.
    – Gayot Fow
    Jan 16, 2016 at 5:57
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    Not sure about the duplicate. There's a difference between wanting to travel to the UK entirely unaccomanied and wanting to end the accompaniment as you leave the UK
    – CMaster
    Jan 26, 2016 at 14:55
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    Duplicate of: travel.stackexchange.com/questions/31658/…
    – JonathanReez ♦
    Jun 19, 2016 at 10:25

1 Answer 1

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Child Visitor Visas have been replaced by the Standard Visitor Visa as of 2016 and therefore all visitors are now under the effect of Appendix V of the Immigration Rules. Specifically, section V4.13 states that:

A child who holds a visit visa must either:

(a) hold a valid visit visa that states they are accompanied and will be travelling with an adult identified on that visit visa; or

(b) hold a visit visa which states they are unaccompanied; if neither applies, the child may be refused entry unless they meet the requirements of V 4.12.

Therefore it's a violation of the rules to leave the child in the UK after entering the country as it's required that the child is accompanied by the individual named in the visa's endorsement. You agreed to this condition when the visa was issued.

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  • I'm not sure the last paragraph is correct. The kid would then need a visa of their own, no? (see Q linked by Gayot above.) About the "technically a violation", it would be nice how strict they are about enforcing it. Also there's a comment of Gayot to the Q about section 55, could you refer to that?
    – mts
    Oct 19, 2016 at 20:52
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    @mts yes, there is no such thing as an implicit switch on a visa. Across the board, including child visitor. There are corner cases where implicit switching is TOLERATED, but never for child visitor.
    – Gayot Fow
    Oct 20, 2016 at 13:31
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    The question isn't about leaving the child in the UK. The child departs first.
    – DJClayworth
    May 26, 2017 at 16:37
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    That sounds like a very strict interpretation. I would at least think it possible that if the parent walks the child to the departure gate, and especially if they arrange for the child to be an unaccompanied minor on the plane, it might be OK. But I don't know that. I'm just looking for something a bit more definitive than the contradictory statement in the last paragraph.
    – DJClayworth
    May 30, 2017 at 17:06
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    @mts that's somewhat correct. A friend of mine had a child accompanied visa. After she turned 18, she traveled to the UK alone twice between 2005 and 2008. She was always questioned by the airline but then let go. She did get questioned at immigration once but the officers eventually let her go. I think the UK no longer issues accompanied visas valid beyond the 18th birthday.
    – user58558
    Aug 11, 2017 at 17:18

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