UK C Visit Visa 2026: Type C Multiple Entry & 180 Days Rule

Your visa says C VISIT and MULT and you want to know what you are actually allowed to do. The C is a category code, the MULT means unlimited entries while the visa is valid, and the "180 days a year" rule everyone repeats does not exist in the Immigration Rules or in Home Office guidance.

Visa Endorsements

C Visit and MULT on a UK Visa: What the Endorsement Means

What the C in C Visit Means

C VISIT is the endorsement the Home Office prints on the vignette for a visitor. The letter identifies the category of permission, not a class of visa you can apply for. There is no "C visit visa" application form. You apply for a Standard Visitor visa, covered in full here, and the sticker in the passport comes back reading C VISIT.

Why the Letter Causes Confusion

Two reasons. Travellers who have held Schengen visas recognise "Type C" from a different system and assume the rules carry across. And older UK endorsements used a longer set of category letters, so search results still describe categories that no longer appear. The current endorsement simply tells a Border Force officer what permission you hold.

MULT: What Multiple Entry Actually Gives You

MULT on the vignette means the visa is not spent on first use. Between the valid-from and valid-until dates you may enter the UK any number of times. Each arrival starts a fresh period of permission, normally up to six months, granted by the officer at the border.

What Unlimited Entries Does Not Give You

Guidance is explicit that a long-term holder's reason for visiting is likely to change over two, five or ten years, and that this is permissible provided each visit is for a permitted activity. You do not need the same purpose you gave on the application form. If a sporting event you named is cancelled and you come for a holiday instead, that is allowed.

The 180 Days Rule That Does Not Exist

Home Office caseworker guidance states in terms that there is no specified maximum period a person can spend in the UK in any given period, such as six months in twelve, provided each individual visit does not exceed the maximum for that visit. No rule caps visitor days per rolling year. The figure repeated across forums is imported from other countries' systems.

What Is Assessed Instead

Caseworkers and border officers look at the shape of your travel, not a running total. The number of visits over the past twelve months and the length of each. Whether you spend more time here than in your own country. Whether trips home exist only to reset the clock. Where your long-term commitments and tax registration sit.

How the Clock Works at the Border

Each entry starts a new period. The officer may grant less than six months where some concern remains but the rules are met — a shorter grant is the alternative to refusal, not a penalty. The date you must leave by is the date given on entry, not the visa expiry date, and the two are frequently different.

If the Visa Expires While You Are Here

A long-term visa expiring mid-visit does not end your permission, but it does cap it. Where you arrive in January on a visa expiring in February, you can apply to extend as a Standard Visitor for up to six months from arrival, provided you apply before the original permission expires. Our page on extending a visit inside the UK covers the fee and the limits.

Single Entry Versus Multiple Entry

Most visit visas are multiple entry. Guidance directs officers to issue the visa applied for unless there are grounds not to, and an Entry Clearance Officer must obtain a manager's authority before issuing a single-entry visa or a visa shorter than the one applied for.

When Single Entry Is Issued

Two consequences worth knowing. Where a shorter visa is issued than the one applied for, the decision must be explained in a covering letter returned with the passport — so you should be told why. And no refund, full or partial, is available for the difference. Approved Destination Status visas for Chinese tour groups are the standing exception: they are single entry by design.

Children and Long-Term Visas

A child granted a long-term visa has it limited to six months past their eighteenth birthday. A fourteen-year-old buying a ten-year visa gets roughly four and a half years of validity for the ten-year fee. The maths rarely works. Our guide to visit visas for children sets out the rest.

UK C Visit and Schengen Type C Are Different Systems

The UK is not in the Schengen area and never has been. A Schengen Type C visa carries a genuine 90-days-in-180 limit enforced across the member states. UK visitor permission carries no equivalent counting rule. Days spent in France do not consume UK days, and days in the UK do not consume Schengen days.

The similarity in labelling is coincidental. Applying the Schengen calculation to a UK visa produces two errors: refusing a legitimate trip because a calculator says the allowance is spent, and assuming an entitlement to six months that a border officer is not obliged to grant.

Visit Categories and Their Stay Limits

Permitted Stay by Visit Purpose

The eleven and twelve-month categories are separate applications, not extensions of a standard visit. Details sit on our pages covering visits for private medical treatment and marriage visitor visas. The long-term options are compared on our two, five and ten-year visit visa page.

Applying, and What the Vignette Will Show

There is no separate route to select. You complete the standard visit application, choose the validity period you want, and pay the corresponding fee. Our walkthrough of the visit visa application form and our supporting documents guide cover what the caseworker will be reading.

Processing and Priority

Standard visit decisions target around three weeks. Priority adds £500 for a five working day target and super priority £1,000 for the next working day; both are targets, not guarantees, and neither improves the decision. See our pages on priority services and what happens after biometrics, and on chasing a delayed decision.

Overstaying, Refusal at the Border, and Re-Entry

Holding a multiple-entry visa does not guarantee entry. A Border Force officer can refuse permission and cancel the visa where the intention no longer matches a permitted activity, where baggage suggests work or residence, or where the travel pattern shows the UK has become the main home.

Overstaying carries a re-entry ban whose length depends on how you left and at whose cost. Voluntary departure at your own expense within a short window carries the shortest consequence; removal at public expense the longest. Our pages on refusal grounds, reading a refusal letter and reapplying after a refusal deal with the aftermath.

You Cannot Switch Out of a Visit

Visitors cannot switch into work, study or family routes from inside the UK, with narrow exceptions. Someone who wants to settle applies from abroad on the correct route — the spouse route or the adult dependent relative route as applicable. Repeated visits are not a substitute, and a refused family application in the history makes later visit applications harder.

Sources: Appendix V of the Immigration Rules on GOV UK, the permitted activities appendix and the Home Office visit caseworker guidance, version 17.0 published 25 February 2026. Figures verified 22 August 2026.

Frequently Asked

C Visit and Multiple Entry Questions