Residency Expired, still able to travel to UK??

Hi all,

My wife was approved LTR in the UK in August 2018, however she only spent around 3-4 months in the UK since the original application was approved and has not been in the UK at all since Jan 2020. The problem was mainly down to the whole covid situtation and as she has pre existing health issues we chose not to travel at all once the pandemic really kicked in. Her residency card expired in Feb of this year and we don't plan on re applying again until next year as our circumstances have now changed.

We plan on travelling to the UK in July for a few weeks to visit my family etc , my question is will she face any kind of problems entering the country as a tourist? Obviously her residency has expired so my assumption would be that she is good to go in as a tourist, or do we need to clarify with the home office as to why her residency has expired without us trying to renew?

Since she no longer has a valid visa to live in the UK, and as long as she is not trying to come back to live in the UK on this trip, she can just enter as a tourist.

She shouldn’t have any issues, but would just need to be able to prove the following if asked for it:
- a return ticket back to the US within 6 months
- enough money to support herself for the trip without working
Evidence of a life to return to back in the US which would prevent her from trying to stay in the UK illegally, so that would be:
- evidence of a job in the US that she has been given time off from to visit the U.K.
- evidence of a home she is maintaining and continuing to pay rent/mortgage for in the US


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Excellent, thank you for the quick response.

I was detained briefly at Heathrow when I was dating my now-husband.  I had flown in and out several times within a few months and was returning to England for a 2 month stay.  All of the travel was within 6 months of my initial entry, so it was within the immigration rules, but they were concerned about the amount of time I was spending in the UK.

I showed my return ticket to the US.  I wasn't working at the time, but told them I had a house in the US and paid over $400 per month for US health insurance. 

The officer ushered me to an adjacent seating area.  She returned about 10 minutes later to say I was free to enter, but I needed to be careful because if I continued to come for long stays it would look like I was spending more time in the UK than the US. 

ksand24 gave great advice, as usual.  Have documentation with you that you have a life in the US, you intend to return to it, and you can support yourself while you're in the UK.

It's genuinely nothing to worry about.  People leave the UK after spouse, work, student visas all the time and still come back to the UK to visit.  She's not banned from travelling here and won't have any issues.