Rulebook / Visas & entry / United Kingdom
UK Standard Visitor
- Day threshold
- 180 days
- Window
- Each single stay
- Direction
- Ceiling — stay at or below
- Counts
- Days in United Kingdom; arrival and departure days both count
- Authority
- UK Home Office
UK Standard Visitor caps your time in United Kingdom at 180 days per visit. The statute attaches its consequence at 181 days or more, so 180 is the last safe count. Up to 6 months per visit. There is no published annual cap, but frequent or lengthy visits invite refusal as a de facto resident.
Who it applies to
This matters most if you are:
- A visitor on a short-stay visa or visa waiver making several trips a year.
- A long-term traveller stitching stays together and losing track of the cumulative count.
- Anyone booking a return trip who needs to know the last day they may legally stay.
The rule — and why it exists
UK visit length. At most 180 days in United Kingdom per visit — written as <=180 / VISIT.
Why it exists: a short-stay allowance is a promise to leave. The cap, and the way it is counted, is what lets a state admit visitors without treating every visit as immigration.
Counting the days
- Count the days of each stay in United Kingdom on its own, arrival and departure days included.
- No single stay may exceed 180 days.
- Leaving and re-entering starts a new stay — but frequent or back-to-back visits invite refusal as a de facto resident.
The free calculator below counts this rule with the same engine the Dwelltime app ships.
Check it with the free tool
Examples
Example 1 — A stay of 170 days
Stays: United Kingdom 2026-03-01 → 2026-08-17. Checked on 2026-08-17.
Result: UK visit length: 10 of 180 days left (170 used in United Kingdom).
Example 2 — A stay of 185 days
Stays: United Kingdom 2026-03-01 → 2026-09-01. Checked on 2026-09-01.
Result: UK visit length: over the limit — 185 of 180 days, first exceeded 2026-08-28.
Example 3 — Two visits of 125 days each
Stays: United Kingdom 2026-01-10 → 2026-05-14; United Kingdom 2026-06-01 → 2026-10-03. Checked on 2026-10-03.
Result: UK visit length: 55 of 180 days left (125 used in United Kingdom).
Exceptions & edge cases
- National visas and residence permits. Days spent under a long-stay visa of that country are usually not short-stay days.
- Transit. Airside transit generally does not count; a day on which you cross the border does.
- Overstays. Even a single day over can mean a ban or refused entry; the engine reports the first breaching day.
Common misconceptions
- "Under 180 days means I'm safe." False — other tests can apply, and the count is only one input.
- "I can chain visits." Each visit is counted alone, but a pattern of back-to-back visits is treated as residence.
- "Arrival day doesn't count." Any part of a day inside is a day inside.
Frequently asked questions
Is the 180-day count per calendar year or rolling?
Each single stay. Each stay is measured on its own.
Do arrival and departure days count?
Yes — any part of a day counts as a day.
Where does this rule come from?
UK Home Office: Standard Visitor visa. The link is verified on every build; if it stops resolving the build fails.
This rule is tracked in 
Dwelltime
- Counts your days for this rule from the trips you record
- Shows the last safe day, or the days still needed, before you book
- Explains every counted day and every uncounted one
- Runs alongside your other visa, tax and residency rules
Sources
Related rules
- 🇬🇧Avoid UK tax residencyThe 183-day automatic UK test is only one limb of the Statutory Residence Test — ties, work and homes can make you resident on far fewer days. Use the full SRT assessment, not this counter alone.
<=182 / YEAR - 🇬🇧Become UK tax residentThe 183-day automatic UK test is only one limb of the Statutory Residence Test — ties, work and homes can make you resident on far fewer days. Use the full SRT assessment, not this counter alone.
>=183 / YEAR - 🇬🇧UK settlement — absencesNo more than 180 days outside the UK in any rolling 12 months across the qualifying period.
<=180 AWAY / 365 - 🇬🇧UK citizenship — absencesNo more than 450 days outside the UK across the five-year period, and no more than 90 in the final twelve months. Both must hold; discretion above them exists but is not a plan.
<=450 AWAY / 1826
For information only. This page is a plain-English summary of publicly available rules, not tax, legal or immigration advice. Rules change and depend on your personal circumstances — always confirm with the official source above and a qualified professional before acting.