My UK visa expires soon, what should I do now during the COVID-19 outbreak? [closed]
I am a Brazilian citizen actually traveling and volunteering in the UK (been here for 5 months).
I came with a normal visa plus the return ticket (in April 21st). Right now I'm in Scotland's highlands (this is relevant because I would have to travel quite a bit to get the flight). I can switch to any flight until December 31st.
My flight back goes through London, Lisboa and then Brazil. This is troublesome as Lisboa border will potentially close. I can think of 3 scenarios:
- flight goes well and get home (sounds easier than it will be)
- flight cancelled and postponed for a date after my visa expires
- Flight-on-date but I don't take the flight to take care of my health and see how this situation evolves.
The question boils down to:
- Is there any way to extend my visa or: is it too bad to stay longer and let it expires?
(I've tried to contact a few governmental entities with no response so far, which is reasonable as they might be overloaded).
Disclaimer
As I've said on the bottom of the post, I emailed the embassy. They only replied today and the link they sent points to uk advices for chinese people, and it's completely useless. As I was expecting the flight state is rather uncertain (tap air portugal). You can check the cancelled flights. I would also recommend anyone having a safe chance to go back to do it. This is not the case.
Best Answer
Many countries are advising their citizens to return home while they still can. You should make plans to leave as soon as possible. Contact your airline to arrange new flights. If that proves impossible contact your embassy and UKVI to find out what your options are. Rules can be changed at short notice in extreme circumstances. What is not possible today may be perfectly possible tomorrow. Do not just let your visa expire.
There is no mechanism to extend a Standard Visitor visa. You might be able to claim force majeure if you were trapped in the UK and had no alternative but to overstay, but currently you do have viable options to leave. As an aside, hopefully you are already aware that there are restrictions on visitors carrying out volunteering activities, see App3 (4)
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