United Kingdom · Standard Visitor
How a UK visitor profile is actually assessed.
Five factors carry the decision. This page sets out what each one means, how much weight it carries in our model, and where the underlying rule is published.
The question behind every UK visitor decision
Everything on this route reduces to the genuine-visitor requirement: will you do what you said, and leave when you said? The rest, funds, history, itinerary, is evidence bearing on that one question. Once you see the route that way, the weighting stops being arbitrary.
The 7 factors, and what each one is really testing
Ties to where you live
22%The genuine-visitor requirement turns on whether you will leave the UK and return to the country you live in. Employment, dependants, property and business commitments there are the evidence that speaks to it. Where ties exist in more than one country, common for expatriates, both count, but the ones where you actually live carry the most.
Financial means
18%The rules require an applicant to be able to meet the reasonable costs of the visit without working or accessing public funds. There is no published minimum balance; what matters is that the money is genuinely yours, available, and proportionate to the trip you described.
Immigration history
16%Previous compliance is treated as evidence of future compliance. Refusals, overstays, breaches and any earlier misrepresentation engage the previous-breach grounds in Part Suitability and carry substantial weight.
Information consistency
13%Applications are read as a whole. Where the figures, dates and statements in one place disagree with another, the discrepancy itself becomes the issue, regardless of which version is correct. This dimension is scored from cross-checks between your own answers, not from any single question.
Purpose and trip coherence
12%The visit must be for a permitted activity, be genuine, and be proportionate to the time and money available. A plan that is vague, unusually long, or inconsistent with your circumstances is a common and entirely avoidable source of doubt.
Travel record
11%A record of travelling and returning home is documentary rather than assertive, which is why we weight it. Travel to countries operating comparable visa regimes is weighted higher here than regional travel. That is our judgement about evidential value, not a published rule.
Evidence readiness
8%A strong set of circumstances that cannot be evidenced is assessed on what was actually submitted. This dimension measures how much of your account you can support with documents you already hold or can obtain.
These weights are ours, published openly and explained in full on the methodology page. They are a considered reading of what the published rules emphasise, not an official scoring system, and not something UKVI publishes.
Where the rules are published
Every factor above traces to a source you can read yourself. If anything on this site disagrees with these, believe them and tell us:
- Immigration Rules, Appendix V: Visitor The genuine-visitor requirement and the rules governing this route.
- GOV.UK, Standard Visitor visa Eligibility, permitted activities and what evidence is expected.
- Immigration Rules, Part Suitability: grounds for refusal The general grounds, previous breaches, deception and criminality.
- GOV.UK, check if you need a UK visa The official check for whether your nationality requires a visa or an ETA.
- Home Office, immigration system statistics Quarterly entry clearance data, including visitor outcomes by nationality.
What this route does not allow
A Standard Visitor cannot work for a UK employer, run a business from the UK, live in the UK through repeat visits, or access public funds. Short courses of study at an accredited institution are permitted within the six-month limit. Repeatedly spending most of the year in the UK on visitor visas is one of the clearer ways to attract a refusal on a later application.
See how your UK profile reads
The free check takes about 6 minutes and asks for ranges, never document numbers. If it puts you in the red band, we tell you plainly and charge you nothing.
Start the free checkGuides for this route
Do I Need a UK Visa? Check by Passport
Whether you need a visit visa or a £20 ETA turns on one published list. Every nationality on it, what each path costs, and what the difference actually means.
12 August 2026UK Visitor Visa Document Checklist
The rules require one document: your passport. Everything else is evidence you choose to bring. The full catalogue, and what missing items actually cost.
12 August 2026UK Visitor Visa Cover Letter
No rule requires a cover letter. It is still the most useful thing you write, and the one document that can be used against you. Structure, and what to omit.
10 August 2026UK Visitor Visa Refused: What Happens Next
A refusal is not a ban and there is no waiting period. What the letter is really telling you, and the one mistake that turns a setback into ten years.
9 August 2026UK Genuine Visitor Requirement, Explained
Paragraph V 4.2 of Appendix V has five limbs and money is only one of them. What the rule actually says, and why most applicants answer the wrong part of it.
8 August 2026How Much Bank Balance for a UK Visitor Visa?
There is no published minimum. An ACCA-qualified accountant explains what UKVI actually looks for in your bank statements, and the patterns that cause doubt.