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A family that is relocating to the UK on a Tier 1 (Investor) visa retains a cook and a nanny at their home on the outskirts of Moscow. The family would like to bring these along, but they are not mentioned as dependents on the T1 visa, and they are not related to the primary T1 holder.

The family contemplates eventually qualifying for British citizenship with a long-term view towards keeping two households and shuttling the domestics back and forth as needed.

Do the cook and nanny need to apply for a work permit on Tier 2 of the points-based regime? How would they qualify given that the EU has lots of people who could presumably fill those roles? Does the T1 primary need to clear the Resident Labour Market Test hurdle? Are there any other special considerations that need to be considered? Or can they simply chain together continuous visitor visas to remain in the UK?

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  • Is it even legal for a domestic to work as such in the UK on a visitor visa?
    – phoog
    Jul 2, 2015 at 17:59
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    There is a specific visa for such workers, but the intent of that visa is that the employer is also just a visitor. That is obviously not the case here.
    – ouflak ♦
    Jul 3, 2015 at 10:14

1 Answer 1

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You cannot chain together visitor visas to achieve, in effect, residence in the UK. If you have a visitor visa with a duration of more than 6 months granting multiple entries to the UK you may not remain for more than 6 months in any rolling 12 month period.

Edit: https://www.gov.uk/standard-visitor-visa/overview

"You can stay for a maximum of 6 months on each visit"

Unfortunately I cannot find a reference for my assertion about the rolling 12 month period.

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    Do you have a source / reference for this restriction?
    – Gagravarr
    Jul 15, 2015 at 8:19
  • You cannot find a reference because it doesn't exist. The 'rolling period' is something you probably read on the net written by someone who similarly did not check its authenticity.
    – Gayot Fow
    Aug 20, 2015 at 15:51
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    Irrespective of whether multiple visitor visas can be issued back-to-back, the fact remains that they would be working here. Visitor visas are issued for leisure, doing business here (ie, business meetings, or perhaps taking courses or going to conferences). They aren't to allow someone to come here and work as a domestic for someone.
    – oskarpearson
    Aug 25, 2015 at 0:42

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