Types of Visa

The .gov.uk website’s details most of the types of visa (including Leave To Remain), but omits others (such as Leave to Enter Outside the Rules: LOTR) for Hostile Environment implementation reasons. We divide this page in to two sections, the first (A) contains UK Government website hyperlinks, and the second (B), a note on other types of visa/Leave to Remain that exist, but are not easily found on the government webpages material. 

A: .gov.uk website types of visa information pages list:

General about visas page:

https://www.gov.uk/browse/visas-immigration

‘At a glance’ specific types of visas and related information pages accessed from the above:

What you need to do

Check if you need a UK visa, apply, manage your application, biometric residence permits

EU, EEA and Commonwealth citizens

Settled and pre-settled status for EU citizens, EEA family permits, UK Ancestry visa

Visit the UK

Visit for a holiday, business or a short stay (up to 6 months), airport transit visas

Study in the UK

Short-term study visas and visas for longer courses, degrees and independent schools

Work in the UK

Paid and voluntary work, entrepreneur and investor visas

Family in the UK

Partner, spouse and family member visas and permits

Live permanently in the UK

Ways to settle in the UK and routes to British citizenship

Seek protection or asylum

Claiming asylum as a refugee, the asylum process and support

Immigration appeals and status problems

Appeal against a visa, settlement or asylum decision, immigration status problems

NOTE: important ‘need to know’ independent information on the last four categories of information pages are provided separately on this website for those using these services. 

B. other types of visa not found and/or easily accessed on the .gov.uk website include particularly Leave to Enter Outside the Rules (LOTR).

Leave to Enter Outside the Rules (LOTR): under the Hostile Environment LTOR is sometimes given where an appeal is successful regarding a specific visa applied for being refused by the UKVI. Such instances constitute one of the major perceived tactics of Hostile Environment application by the UKVI (led by the Home Office in the UK, and the FCO outside of the UK [the ‘FCO’ — Foreign & Commonwealth Office — provides multiple key services, so it is unfortunate that by ‘association the FCO per se and these other services are understandably ‘contaminated’ by the UK Immigration services overseas in the Hostile Environment era).

To give an example: an appeal is won, and the UKVI overseas provides an LOTR visa instead of the visa that was actually applied for, which the Immigration Tribunal in the UK has considered (NOT a ‘LOTR’ visa — which can’t be applied for by a UK Immigration visa applicant) and only considered. Consequently, the appeal if granted is for the visa applied for, and no other. The tactic of UK Immigration considering the winning of an appeal for a specific visa applied for, initially refused by the UKVI, and then the successful applicant being given a completely different (LOTR) visa, is not accidental. It is just one of the Hostile Environment operational level tactics utilised in forcing out of the UK successful appellants who on their winning appeals have been given LOTR rather than the correct visa originally applied for.  There is more information on this in the Tribunal appeals section of this website — http://needtoknow-immigrationuk.com/the-immigration-tribunal/

Leave to Remain Outside the Rules: linked to ‘exceptional circumstances’ or ‘compassionate grounds’ – this exceptional category of LTR links to the ongoing UKVI and Immigration Tribunal record on both the latter becoming merely public policy statements rather than delivered realities.