Split tourist visit?

I am a UK citizen resident in the US and currently visiting the UK with my American wife and child. They are traveling on tourist visas. Our total stay is 11 months broken into three blocks with short 1-3 week trips out of the UK dividing them up. My understanding that a tourist visa was worth 6 months in the UK after which you must leave but its not clear how long you have to spend outside the UK to reset the clock.

They are not going to work or study and plan to return to the US at the end of this period – did we do something wrong and if so how do we put it right?


Thanks

I don't know that there's a precise answer to this, to be honest... I think the general point is that immigration authorities (perhaps understandably) don't like the idea of people using "visit" entry clearance in order to live in the country, and they tend to look out for people who might fit this pattern.

I don't think the UK is any different from any other country in this regard - I can't see, for instance, the US authorities letting the average Brit into the USA on the visa waiver scheme for three 89 day visits in eleven months, without at least raising an eyebrow...

Having said that, I don't know what the solution is - or even whether one is necessary - and I hope others will. It might help if you were to indicate how far you are into your stay. Are you about to go back to the USA, having been here for approaching 11 months, or or are you still in the early stage of your visit, with one or more short breaks still to come?

This has come up on other boards and the consensus was that you could only be in the UK on a tourist visa for six months of any twelve-month period. Your wife and child will risk being denied entry if the IO reads the stamps in the passports. Solution: don't do it again, if you want to bring her over again simply get her a spouse visa (very easy to do), and if she gets asked about it later be honest in answering.