Visa validity

Start and end dates: your window of permission

A visa is valid from its start date to its end date. You cannot rely on it before the start date, and it gives you no permission after the end date. The length of that window depends entirely on the route you applied under.

For a Standard Visitor visa, gov.uk states you "can usually stay in the UK for up to 6 months." Long-term Standard Visitor visas can be granted for 2, 5 or 10 years, but each still allows "a maximum of 6 months on each visit" — so the visa's overall validity and the length of any single stay are two different things worth checking separately.

Conditions apply for the whole validity period

A visa is not just a permission to be in the UK — it comes with conditions that say what you can and cannot do (for example, whether you can work or study, or must leave at the end of your visit). Those conditions apply throughout the visa's validity, not just on arrival.

gov.uk is explicit that switching your document to a digital eVisa changes nothing about your permission: updating an existing physical document to an eVisa "does not affect your immigration status or the conditions of your permission to enter or stay in the UK."

• Standard Visitors, for example, must show they will "leave the UK at the end of your visit" and cannot "make the UK your main home" through frequent or successive visits.
• Breaching your conditions is a separate issue from your dates — you can be within your visa's validity and still be in breach if you do something the conditions do not allow.

Vignettes and eVisas: two ways your validity is shown

A vignette is the visa sticker placed in your passport. An eVisa is the digital equivalent: gov.uk describes it as your online immigration status, held in a UKVI account, from which you "view your eVisa and get a share code to prove your immigration status."

The UK has been moving from stickers and physical documents to eVisas. Whether you were issued a vignette, an eVisa, or both depends on when you applied. Either way, the underlying permission — and its start and end dates — is the same thing shown in a different form.

The short travel vignette: travel first, then confirm your status

For some longer grants, applicants have historically been given a short-validity entry vignette in the passport (commonly 90 days) whose job is simply to let you travel to the UK within that window. After arriving, you use your UKVI account / eVisa to access and prove your full permission for the rest of its validity.

The important point is that this travel vignette is only a doorway. Your actual leave — and the end date that matters for how long you can stay — is your eVisa or full grant, not the 90-day travel sticker. Check your eVisa is correct before you travel.

• gov.uk advises you "must check that your UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) account and eVisa details are correct before you travel" and must travel with a passport or travel document added to your UKVI account.
• A separate share code you generate to prove your status for travel is "valid for 90 days" and "can be used more than once" — this is a proof-of-status code, not the same thing as a 90-day entry vignette.

When does the clock start? Deferring the start date

The start date is usually tied either to the date the decision is made or to a travel date you indicate on your application form, so your permission does not run down while you are still arranging travel. Home Office guidance indicates the start of entry clearance can be deferred up to a maximum of three months from the application. Because the precise rule varies, treat the dates printed on your own grant or shown in your eVisa as authoritative.

Overstaying begins the day permission ends

Once your visa's end date passes without you having left or obtained new permission, you no longer have leave to be in the UK — you are overstaying, from the very first day after your permission ends. Overstaying can have serious consequences for future applications and your ability to remain lawfully.

The practical takeaways: know your exact end date, remember that a long-validity visa can still cap each individual visit (as with the 6-month-per-visit visitor visas), and if you want to stay longer you generally need to apply before your current permission expires rather than after.