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I'm an Australian citizen who is planning to take part in an exchange to France in Janruary of next year for six months. Following the University exchange I would like to partake in a year long working holiday in the United Kingdom under the Tier 5 Youth Mobility Programme.

My question is whether or not there would be an issue with the two visas overlapping as I would need to obtain both before my departure in December. Therefore, they would overlap for approximately six months. Would either authority be bothered by this?

To make clear, the respective visas validity would be as follows: French Student visa: Jan '16 - Jun '16 UK T5YM: Jan '16 - Jan '18 (valid for 24 months) .

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    I don't see why it would be a problem but why do the visa need to overlap?
    – Gala
    Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 8:48
  • @dirty-flow because one can only apply for the WHV whilst in Australia, it's a shame that I wasted six months of the visa but it's better than the $2,000 flight back to Australia and then returning back! Thanks for your response though!
    – James
    Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 9:59
  • @James I think you wanted to ping Gala and not me, I only edited your post.
    – Dirty-flow
    Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 10:00
  • Yes, I thought about that but I don't think it should be a problem for the consulate/high commission to issue a visa whose validity starts a few months later (if not the full six months then probably three or so thus limiting the overlap). In practice, I would get the French visa first and then simply write a cover letter explaining your plan when applying for the UK visa. I can't promise that it will work but I can't see any reason why not or any issue with overlapping visas if that's what you get at the end of the day. But I obviously don't know for sure, otherwise I would write an answer.
    – Gala
    Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 12:52
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    @James You're overthinking this. The UK does not care what other foreign visas are running concurrently. Lots of people have YMS or blue card simultaneously. Not a problem.
    – Gayot Fow
    Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 17:01

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As Gayot Fow has very correctly stated in the comments, every country has its own visa system and could really care less what any other country is doing with theirs, with a very few very notable exceptions. You could have ten concurrent visas from ten different countries. As long as you've got the appropriate visa to enter the UK, that's really all the Border Patrol will care about.

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