Waiting period to apply for a UK Visit Visa again

[Ne_Guy]

Greetings,

Been searching the internet but its hard to get an answer to such a complicated question. I've read a 6 month wait and i've also read, no wait 🤷♂️

So, my wife has a 2 year UK visit visa, she has one year remaining on it, it expires in March 2023. Because we usually go back to the UK during March/April period, it seems like next year she won't be able to travel since the visa runs out in March 2023.

My question is, can she apply for a new visa before the current one runs out? For example, the current visa runs out in March 2023, can she apply for a visa in January 2023 and have a new one ready by March 2023?

Hopefully i make sense and thanks in advance

[ash]

We had a similar issue but it was 12 years ago so may have changed we applied for a visa early to make sure she had a valid travel visa.
My missus had a two year visit visa and we applied before the expiry date and got a 5 year visa starting to provide overlap, I recall sending a cover letter explaining why she needed a visa due to my mother being in hospital and that we needed to be able to travel at short notice with now warning but your holiday plans should provide a reasonable excuse as well

Good luck

[Ne_Guy]

ouch..got the dates mixed up in my original post, i meant expires in March 2024 and she is looking to apply in January 2024, for a 5 year or more visa.

Anyways ash, thanks for the response. It sure seems like it was possible a long time ago, hopefully the same now too. For the past 5/6 years, we have been going back home around March/April, every year, so this should be a valid reason to get a 5 year visa and that, before the current 2 year visa expires.

Just your thoughts, you think i should just try a 10 year visa? Since its a visit back every year, that would make more sense, right? But im afraid the visa person will not give it and then my money has been wasted.

[ash]

We increased the visa duration a few times on renewal and had no problems but obviously I can't be sure if yours would succeed.
I assumed that given my wifes visa history she was a good risk and was deemed unlikely to break the Visa conditions.
We moved back to the UK in 2011 and she is now British so have not needed visa;s since then.

For clarity we were living in Switzerland/France when she applied and travelled frequently for short holidays normally staying for a couple of weeks but every few months and we also had a 500 mile round trip to get the Visa from Paris hence why we got long stay visa's easily.