How long you can stay in the UK depends entirely on the permission you hold. A standard visitor gets up to six months per visit. A Skilled Worker can stay up to five years before extending. A partner on the family route reaches indefinite leave to remain after five years. Each visa category sets its own ceiling, and the date shown on your permission is the one that counts.
Visiting the UK
If you come as a standard visitor, the maximum is six months per visit. That applies whether you needed a Standard Visitor visa in advance, an electronic travel authorisation, or nothing at all before travelling.1GOV.UK. Visit the UK as a Standard Visitor: Overview An ETA costs £16 and is valid for up to six months; travellers from Europe, the United States, Australia, Canada, and certain other countries typically need one rather than a full visa.2GOV.UK. Get an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) to Visit the UK: Overview The six-month limit is the same for everyone entering as a visitor.
Long-Term Visitor Visas
If you visit regularly, you can apply for a long-term Standard Visitor visa valid for two, five, or ten years, costing £475, £848, and £1,059 respectively. The longer validity saves you from reapplying each trip, but it does not increase how long you can stay. Each visit is still capped at six months.3GOV.UK. Visit the UK as a Standard Visitor: Apply for a Standard Visitor Visa – Section: Long-Term Standard Visitor Visas
Frequent Visits and the “Living Here” Problem
There is no formal rule limiting you to six months in any twelve-month period as a visitor. But immigration officers look at how often you visit and how long you stay each time. Official caseworker guidance instructs officers to assess whether a visitor “will not be living in the UK or making the UK their home through frequent and successive visits.”4GOV.UK. Visit Caseworker Guidance (Accessible) If you fly in for five or six months, leave briefly, and come straight back, that pattern will raise red flags, and you can be refused entry even though no single visit broke the rules. Spending more time outside the UK than inside it between visits makes your travel pattern far easier to defend.
Work Visas
Skilled Worker Visa
The Skilled Worker visa is the main route for people with a job offer from a UK employer. It lasts up to five years before you need to extend, and there is no cap on how many times you can extend as long as you still meet the requirements. The exact length of your initial visa depends on your certificate of sponsorship and the duration of your employment. After five continuous years on this route, you can apply for indefinite leave to remain.5GOV.UK. Skilled Worker Visa: Overview – Section: How Long You Can Stay
Global Talent Visa
If you are a leader or emerging talent in academia, research, arts, culture, or digital technology, the Global Talent visa lets you live and work in the UK for up to five years at a time. There is no limit on total time in the UK, and you choose how long each extension lasts, from one to five years. Depending on your field, you may qualify for permanent residency after three years rather than five.6GOV.UK. Apply for the Global Talent Visa: Overview
Graduate Visa
The Graduate visa is a post-study route for international students who completed an eligible UK degree. If you apply on or before 31 December 2026, the visa lasts two years, or three years if you hold a PhD or other doctoral qualification. From 1 January 2027, the standard duration drops to 18 months.7GOV.UK. Graduate Visa: Overview Finishing a course in late 2026? Applying before that deadline gives you an extra six months of post-study work time.
Student Visas
A Student visa runs for the length of your course, plus a short buffer. If you are 18 or over and studying at degree level, you can stay in the UK for up to five years total. Below-degree-level courses have a shorter limit of two years.8GOV.UK. Student Visa: Overview – Section: How Long You Can Stay These are maximum ceilings, not guaranteed durations. Your actual permission will match your specific programme plus any permitted pre-course or post-course time.
Family and Ancestry Routes
Spouse and Partner Visa
If you are joining a British citizen or settled person as their partner, the standard route to permanent residency takes five years. Your initial visa is granted for roughly 33 months when applying from outside the UK, or 30 months if you apply from inside. You then extend for a further 30 months, bringing your total to five years on the route. After that, you can apply for indefinite leave to remain. A shorter two-year route exists for partners of certain people with refugee status or humanitarian protection.9GOV.UK. Indefinite Leave to Remain if You Have Family in the UK: Apply as a Partner (Family Visa)
UK Ancestry Visa
Commonwealth citizens with a grandparent born in the UK can apply for the Ancestry visa, which grants five years of permission to live and work without restriction. After those five years, you can either extend for another five years or apply for indefinite leave to remain.10GOV.UK. UK Ancestry Visa: Overview One point that trips people up: you cannot switch into an Ancestry visa from another visa while inside the UK. You have to apply from outside the country.
Time Abroad Counts Against You
Being allowed to stay in the UK for five years is not the same as being allowed to leave and come back freely. Almost every route to indefinite leave to remain requires continuous residence: you must not spend more than 180 days outside the UK in any rolling 12-month period during your qualifying years.11GOV.UK. Immigration Rules Appendix Continuous Residence Break that limit, and your continuous residence clock can reset, pushing your ILR eligibility date back significantly.
Limited exceptions apply. Absences that do not count against the 180-day limit include time spent assisting with an international humanitarian or environmental crisis, travel disruption caused by natural disasters or armed conflict, and compelling compassionate circumstances such as a life-threatening illness of a close family member.11GOV.UK. Immigration Rules Appendix Continuous Residence These exceptions require evidence, so keep documentation of anything that forces you to stay abroad longer than planned.
What Happens If You Overstay
Staying beyond your permitted date is one of the most consequential immigration mistakes you can make. The penalties escalate sharply based on how you leave:
- Voluntary departure at your own expense: a 12-month ban on re-entry.
- Voluntary departure at public expense within six months of being notified of removal liability: a 2-year re-entry ban.
- Voluntary departure at public expense more than six months after notification: a 5-year re-entry ban.
- Enforced removal: a 10-year re-entry ban.
These are mandatory refusal periods, meaning the Home Office must refuse any visa application you submit during the ban.12GOV.UK. Mandatory Refusal Periods Limited exceptions exist for people applying for partner or family visas, and for anyone who was under 18 at the time they overstayed. For most people, even a short overstay followed by voluntary departure triggers a year locked out of the UK.
If your visa is approaching its expiry and you need more time, apply to extend before it runs out. The date on your permission is the one that counts, and you can check it any time through your UK Visas and Immigration account, where your eVisa shows your permission type and expiry.13GOV.UK. eVisas: Access and Use Your Online Immigration Status