Invitation letter for a friend, please advise quickly

Hi all you helpful people,

I need to write an invitation letter for a friend to visit me in London, he will be staying in my house for a week.

However, he will be half here as a visitor, but a couple of days of his stay will be taken as a pre-arranged business trip. He has a private company, and will be visiting some UK companies related to that.

My invitation letter is for his visit to me, but how do I allow for these two days that he will be visiting the other town in England for a business? Does he have to have two invitation letters, one as a visitor (from me), and another, as the business visit? He won't be working here, just visiting one company to have a look at their products.
Will my invitation letter be enough to cover both purposes of visit?
I can vouch for this person that he will return to his country of origin and that he won't work here, after all, as a guarantor I would not risk getting me or him in trouble. I have vouched for several other friends before, all returned to their countries and all got visas no problem. But all of them stayed in London with me all the time during their stay, so it was a bit more straightforward.
I am just unsure about whether he needs two letters, as this is kind of a dual-purpose visit. When he visits this company in England, he won't be staying at my home, but at the local hotel there, so I guess I would not be responsible for this part of his stay?
But is this the same as the people who come to visit UK, and travel around, therefore stay at multiple places/hotels? Some of them visit various trade fairs, etc.?

Me and my husband are both British Nationals, if this helps for the reply.

Thank you, I hope someone can help as usual,

Piglet

I'd have thought he'd need a Business Visa for business activities, the HO is very funny about doing the wrong thing on the wrong visa...

Wanderer wrote:I'd have thought he'd need a Business Visa for business activities, the HO is very funny about doing the wrong thing on the wrong visa...

Unless he is working for pay during those business visits, it doesn't fall into a bvisa category.
I wouldn't complicate the matter by discussing his "business activities" during his visit. it is the equivalent of having a job interview, no deception there to be on a visitor visa, not everything fits in a perfectly fitted box

SYH wrote:

Wanderer wrote:I'd have thought he'd need a Business Visa for business activities, the HO is very funny about doing the wrong thing on the wrong visa...

Unless he is working for pay during those business visits, it doesn't fall into a bvisa category.
I wouldn't complicate the matter by discussing his "business activities" during his visit. it is the equivalent of having a job interview, no deception there to be on a visitor visa, not everything fits in a perfectly fitted box

To me a Business Visa is for pressing the flesh, meetings, seminars etc, and visit visa is for family, touring etc.

If ur being paid a WP is in order.

I have this issue with the line twixt Business Visa and Work permit..!

Why does he need a letter of invitation at all? Surely he can apply for his visa on his own without your support?

Hi all, thanks for your replies,

Dawie

For certain countries, including my native country, to get the visitor visa, you must have an invitation letter from someone (eg. a friend, family member, etc). The person who invites guarantees that this person will stay at his/her place, and in a way the invitee guarantees that the visitor won't overstay or in any other way default on his visa conditions.

SYH
This is also what I thought. He is not going to generate an income here, he will be observing some processes and methods of production, that's all. It will be like going to a trade fair while visiting the country for holiday (actually, I did this myself a couple of times). So it is more a meeting/observation rather then a business visit as such.
I did not somewhow think that this warrants another invitation letter beside mine one, but I don't know.

I think that I will tell him that it would be prudent to get the invitation letter from the company he is about to visit in addition to my "visitor visa" invitation letter, and I will leave it up to him to decide what to do.
I mean, I know that he won't be employed here (he is only staying for several days overall), if he decides to go with just my letter of invitation, so be it, I guess...

Thank you all, Piglet

I think it is a bit of a grey area as this is mix of tourism and business, with the majority of the time being tourism. In this day and age though, it doesn't hurt to be paranoid and just give the letters from you and the businesses he'll be visiting.

Hi,

Yes, I agree, it is quite grey. The majority of time will be visit/tourist, only a couple of days "business".

I myself would prefer him to get both letters, and I do intend to ask him to get both.

Thank you,

M