Guidance

Transit: caseworker guidance

Immigration staff guidance providing an overview of the different ways individuals can transit through the UK and definitions of key terminology.

• From: UK Visas and Immigration
• Published: 16 January 2018
• Last updated: 25 March 2026
  Show all updates

  1. 25 March 2026

     Guidance updated: addition of Annex A (replica of Immigration Rules Appendix Visitor: Transit Without Visa Scheme).

  2. 11 November 2025

     Updated guide to reflect changes from Part 9: grounds for refusal to Part Suitability.

  3. 15 March 2023

     Amended to clarify that both Transit visit visas and Direct Airside Transit visas are issued on Category D vignettes.

  4. 11 January 2023

     Version 6.0 of guidance added. Includes updated hyperlinks to the Immigration Rules and internal Home Office guidance products and additional information about how Transit visit visa applications are streamed.

  5. 1 December 2020

     Added the updated Transit caseworker guidance.

  6. 23 August 2019

     Updated transit guidance document

  7. 5 April 2019

     Updated guidance.

  8. 16 January 2018

     Updated guidance

  9. 16 January 2018

     First published.

Documents

Transit caseworker guidance

PDF, 630 KB, 39 pages

Details

UK Visas and Immigration guidance for staff about the 4 ways people can seek to transit the UK.

It covers:

• transit visitors

• standard visitors and marriage or civil partnership visitors wishing to transit

• transit without visa (TWOV) scheme

• direct airside transit

It is based on the:

• Immigration Rules

• Immigration (Passenger Transit Visa) Order 2014 (as amended)

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