Round-trip flight mandatory?

Hi everyone,

I bought a one-way ticket to London from NYC (flying March 30th), planning to stay there for about 3 weeks or so. However, my other friend swears that I will have problems at the airport in London because they need to see that I have a departing flight. I'm an American citizen, and I once visited London in 2007 (round-trip) though.

Is there any truth that the return or departure flight is mandatory when entering UK from the US? I just don't know for sure when exactly I'll go back, definitely not planning on staying longer than 3 weeks.

Any advice would truly be appreciated!!

Thanks!

I will be surprised if your airline allows you to board the flight.  When I've booked one way tickets in the past, I've always been asked to show my visa at checkin so they know I won't be turned around at the border.

You could be fine, but you have a high risk of being turned away either at checkin or at the border.  A return flight is the most important thing to have.  Plus, one way flights are usually more expensive.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/343241/2014_08_Visitor_Documents.pdf

Lats year my spouse and had booked one way flights to London where we were spending a few days with friends before taking the train to Barcalona to take a transatlantic cruise back to Florida.  I am a duel citizen UK/US and my spouse is a US citizen.  When we checked in at the airport we were questioned about our visa status to enter the UK.  They needed to see documentation that showed our planned route back to the US before thay would let us board the flight.  On arrival at LHR we went through the immigration line and when we got there we had 20 minutes of questions and demands for proof that my spouse would be leaving the UK.  We had to show our booking  and payment details for the cruise we were taking and also the tickets we had bought for the train to Barcelona and details of how much money we had to cover expenses.  That was the first time we had been grilled by immigration and I hope the last.  We are a couple in our late 50's and we are not deemed to be in a high risk group, a single person on there own will raise many red flags so I would say you are going to need to show proof that you intend to leave the UK..

Thanks so much everyone.
I went ahead a bought an outbound flight to Dublin and a week later back to NYC. I hope showing the immigration a print out of these flights would be enough..

Cheers!

Hi - My husband (who is a British citizen), my daughter(who is a British citizen) and myself (US citizen) will be moving to Kent in July.  My husband has a job with a company in Kent.  I will be getting a spouse's visa (we have been married over 20 years).  I am fairly sure we will not need to purchase roundtrip tickets, right?  We can show we are relocating to the UK, and have the proper visa for the one non-British citizen in the group.  Plus all the paperwork for the job, and financials etc...

Please let me know if you think it should be ok
Barbara
 

You're correct that you can buy a one way ticket if you have the visa.  However you shouldn't buy the ticket before receiving the visa, just in case.

As others have said one way flights are often more expensive on the major airlines.   I've found icelandair and Aer Lingus price their one way tickets more cheaply.

You're correct that you can buy a one way ticket if you have the visa.  However you shouldn't buy the ticket before receiving the visa, just in case.

As others have said one way flights are often more expensive on the major airlines.   I've found icelandair and Aer Lingus price their one way tickets more cheaply.

Just be careful if flying with Aer Lingus on your first entry with your new visa.  Many Aer Lingus flights connect through Dublin which means that you will go through passport control in Dublin and not in the UK.  Having a UK arrivals stamp on that visa is so much easier for future applications than having to prove that you did actually enter the UK within the appropriate time frame.

Just be careful if flying with Aer Lingus on your first entry with your new visa.  Many Aer Lingus flights connect through Dublin which means that you will go through passport control in Dublin and not in the UK.  Having a UK arrivals stamp on that visa is so much easier for future applications than having to prove that you did actually enter the UK within the appropriate time frame.

I wonder if that will still be a problem with their biometric resident cards that foreign nationals will need to collect themselves from a UK Post Office?  In a few days time the US joins the next phase of countries whose citizens will be required to have a BRP in the UK.

UKVI will have a lot of data.
The 30 day only entry visa they issue from the start date of the visa, for the person to collect their BRP from a UK Post Office.
If they don't enter the UK within that 30 days, they will need to pay for another 30 days entry visa again to be allowed into the UK.
The rule of BRP collection required within 10 days of entering the UK or the threat of a 1k fine and removal of their visa.
BRP needs to be shown to get NHS treatment for free which is an incentive to collect asap when they arrive and more records for UKVI from data sharing now with the NHS.


With all this UKVI data recording, will entry to the UK via the Common Travel Area still be a problem for the visa holder?