TRANSIT VISA

[blessedlady]

If one came in the country with a transit visa but decided to stay . Is he considered as an illegal entrant???

Thanks

[Dawie]

By definition you cannot stay on a transit visa, that's why it's called a transit visa! You simply will not be allowed out of the international area of the airport through immigration control. Technically speaking, people on transit visas don't enter the country at all, from an immigration perspective.

You might be able to claim asylum while in the internation area of the airport on a transit visa, but I'll leave that to someone else to explain.

[Christophe]

By definition you cannot stay on a transit visa, that's why it's called a transit visa! You simply will not be allowed out of the international area of the airport through immigration control. Technically speaking, people on transit visas don't enter the country at all, from an immigration perspective.

In UK visa-speak, isn't that a Direct Airside Transit Visa (DATV), which is required by people of a few nationalities if they are not leaving the international part of the airport? People who need a visa to enter the UK but who are only 'in transit' - i.e. passing through the UK on the way to somewhere else - need a Visitor-in-Transit Visa. Examples of being 'in transit' by this defninition would be arriving at Heathrow and flying out from Gatwick, or staying overnight to make a connection. I think that 48 hours in the country is allowed.

So for someone with a Visitor-in-Transit Visa, it would be perfectly possible to overstay. I suppose logically that person would not be an illegal entrant, but he or she would be in the country illegally.

http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk/servlet/Front ... 5559336313

[Dawie]

Yes, I am indeed talking about a direct airside transit visa, as this the usual type of transit visa that most people obtain. From the UK government's perspective this visa is far easier to issue as it is less risky because the holder never technically enters the UK and therefore there is no risk of them absconding.