What type of UK visa do I need ? Quick suggestions please.

Hello Everyone

Please forgive me if this has been answered earlier but even though I did have a quick look, I couldn't find any post that could answer my request.

For those of you who don't know, I am a Pakistani citizen living in Poland on the basis of my wife being Polish. I need to go to London to attend a 4 day software training and obviously I need visa.

I do have a valid EEA Family Permit ( on which I travelled last month to attend a seminar ) which mentions 'To Accompany spouse' meaning I can travel only with my wife. Since I am going to travel alone this time, I need a separate visa.

Our HR is going to apply for one for me but they just sent me an e-mail asking me to fill out the Online Application form which is fine. The problem is, I don't know which type of visa do I apply for and surprisingly, the HR doesn't seem to know either !

Is it going to be 'General - valid for upto 6 months' or 'Business - valid for upto one year' ? I actually need to go to UK for 4 days only.

I don't think I have to worry about the supporting documents since its upto our HR to sort out but I am expected to apply for the correct type of visa at least.

I need to fill this out as soon as possible ( because as per the HR, the embassy needs 15 working days to process the visa ) and I need to be in UK on 23rd, neither later nor earlier

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance

For it's one of those grey area ones, but I'd go for the business visa since you are on a work-related task and a visit visa doesn't seem quite right. Plus with ur company behind you I think it will be a formality whereas the visit visa would open a new can of worms.

Thanks for your reply Wanderer.

Thats what I thought initially but the problem is Business visa is issued for one year and my residence card for Poland is expiring end of November this year.

I am positive BHC or any other embassy for that metter won't give me a visa which would be valid beyond the validity of my Polish residence card ( and thats what they should do ! ). The General visit visa for six months takes care of this issue but then as you pointed out, there are other problems.

Damn confusing

Any more suggestions ?

Pakhtoon wrote:Thanks for your reply Wanderer.

Thats what I thought initially but the problem is Business visa is issued for one year and my residence card for Poland is expiring end of November this year.

I am positive BHC or any other embassy for that metter won't give me a visa which would be valid beyond the validity of my Polish residence card ( and thats what they should do ! ). The General visit visa for six months takes care of this issue but then as you pointed out, there are other problems.

Damn confusing :?

Any more suggestions ?

I'd would say it was more dependant on the validity of ur Pakistani passport, I think ur Polish residence card is a matter between u and Poland. But I'm a but out of my depth here so wait for the others!

Pakhtoon as previous poster have said if your Pakistani passport is valid for the year then you will be issued with a visa valid for a year.

( because as per the HR, the embassy needs 15 working days to process the visa ) and I need to be in UK on 23rd

That's cutting it very close. Suggest you apply on a fast track basis, if available. (should be, for business visas)
And what others have mentioned about your passport expiry date driving the date for visa is correct.

Thanks for your replies Wanderer and Rebel.

I searched a bit for how to contact UKBA or UKVisas and finally came to know that its the World Bridge people that I should be contacting since I am outside UK. They don't take telephone enquiries so sent them a mail and they replied back just after an hour ( Yes, I am surprised ) and said I should apply for Business visa for six months.

I did ask the questions that Wanderer raised and the validity thing that I mentioned however they didn't bother. Their e-mail looks more like a ready-made template rather than being written by someone to reply my enquiry.

In any case, I think I have got my answer so I am still thankful to them.

Thanks to you guys anyway for your time.