I am planning to travel to the UK with my mother. Her visa is valid from 15th June and my visa's validity starts on July 1st.

I will be leaving from Chennai on June 30th, with a transit in Mumbai, but the arrival in the UK is late on the 30th of June. Will I be permitted to travel or will I be prevented from boarding because of the July 1 validity?

Do I need to apply for a vignette transfer? I'm confused about it, as some sites say it is only for those with a new passport. If I do need a vignette transfer, what is the procedure and what documents are required?

  • 1
    I've done a bit of an edit, to make it a bit clearer. If I've misunderstood, I apologize, and you can roll back the changes. Am I correct that your actual arrival in the UK would be on the 30th, not the 1st of July? – Giorgio May 16 '17 at 0:33
  • You are likely to be denied boarding. I don't understand why you're asking about a vignette transfer. Are you wondering whether it would allow you to adjust the start date of your visa? It will not, so if that's why you're asking then the vignette transfer does not apply to you. See gov.uk/government/publications/…. – phoog May 16 '17 at 1:48

You want to arrive in the UK before your entry clearance starts. Paragraph 30C of the rules sums up what can happen...

30C. An Immigration Officer may cancel an entry clearance which is capable of having effect as leave to enter if the holder arrives in the United Kingdom before the day on which the entry clearance becomes effective or if the holder seeks to enter the United Kingdom for a purpose other than the purpose specified in the entry clearance.

So the IO has the option, but not the obligation, to have you removed from port (and to fine the carrier). The outcome will depend upon your personal impact and articulation skills plus you will need to set out a tenable rationale of why it's reasonable for you to be in that situation. If the IO buys in to your argument, he can use Paragraph 31A of the rules to make a variation...


If, on the other hand, the IO concludes that you are abusing the system by attempting to get more leave that you were issued, he may let you in and then make an annotation on your computer file. The annotation would be reviewed the next time you applied for entry clearance.

The last outcome worth considering is where the carrier refuses to board you.

A vignette transfer is where someone's passport expires but there's a visa in it that is still good, so the person may opt to have the visa transferred from his old passport to his new passport. It has nothing to do with your case and they don't transfer vignettes for visitor visas of 6 months or less anyway.

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