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UK border

I visited northern Ireland for about 3 months and went home for Christmas. Now I’d like to return to Northern Ireland for another 3-4 months. Will I have any issue? No visa. Just a tourist

Posted by
6788 posts

Where exactly is "home" (presumably where you returned to for Christmas)?
What country is your citizenship/passport?

Posted by
2 posts

I should’ve been more specific. I’m from the states. USA citizenship/passport

Posted by
548 posts

The United Kingdom doesn't have strict "X day out of Y day" type requirements, in comparison to Schengen (where you, as a third-country visitor can stay 90 days out of any 180-day period) and typically grants visa-free entry of six months to visa-free visitors such as US citizens.

However, this doesn't mean your plan is entirely problem-free. If you're a visitor, the UK doesn't want you to use successive long periods of visa-free stays to establish a de facto residence, or in their language, that you "do not intend to live for extended periods in the United Kingdom through frequent or successive visits." In other words, they don't want you basically living in the UK but leaving every couple of months on a short visa run just to "reset" your visa-free entry. (This is, incidentally, what many Westerners, including Americans and Britons, do in developing countries but that's a topic for another thread!)

For a second visit of 3-4 months in the UK shortly after a first visit of 3 months, you might be lucky and not "trigger" the UK passport control officer to ask you more questions. However, I have always found UK immigration to be reasonably thorough (unlike Schengen passport control officers, where I have often sailed through with a US passport with nary a word exchanged). So I'd be prepared to be asked questions along the lines of:

  • What will you be doing in the UK for another 3-4 months?
  • How are you supporting yourself during this visit? Do you have evidence of these funds?
  • Do you have/can you show me a return ticket?
  • Who do you know in the UK/what is your relationship to them?

Again, you might get lucky, particularly because it's only your second visit. But I always think it's better to be prepared at passport control.