H1 visa holder - 2 return flights instead of multicity flight

I am planning to travel to India from the US via London. I am an H1 holder with a valid visa stamp.

Now instead of booking a Multicity ticket SFO->LON->BOM->SFO, I am planning to book 2 return flights: SFO<->LON and LON<->BOM, as this is much cheaper.

The only thing here is that I will need to make sure that I have enough time while coming back in London as I will need to check-out and check-in again.

Could someone please suggest if this is doable and any other complications that may arise due to my visa status? Would the US immigration be done at the London airport itself?

Thanks.

international-travel h1b-visas

Best Answer

There are no connection guarantees

It's cheaper for a reason. If anything goes wrong with the first flight, or if you are delayed in immigration, you miss and forfeit the second flight and are stuck in the UK.

For instance, "I have onward travel" is part of how you convince UKVI that you are only transiting and not looking to immigrate. If you say "here's my onward travel" and its depart time is 20 minutes from now, she'll say "you won't make that". Now it looks like you are stuck in the UK. Now you have to convince her you have the means and will to pay top dollar for a last minute LON-SFO flight.

So your best bet, since you find visiting London appealing, is to plan a day or two stopover in London. Then if your first flight is a total snafu and they get you into London 24 hours late, you have recovery time to make the next. At this point, UKVI will hopefully be comfortable with this, since you did it once before and did leave as agreed.