Does he neeed a visa?

Question

I have a friend coming to visit me in the U.K. soon, he holds a Guatemalan passport. We want to visit Ireland (Eire) whilst he's here & I've been told he won't need a visa. Is that correct?

Answer 1

It depends where you will be going in Ireland. I believe the Visa that will be stamped into his passport when he lands in the UK will be fine to travel anywhere within the UK (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) but if you will be venturing into Southern Ireland, you will both likely need to go through customs again and receive another Visa stamp in your passports. I should say -- you'll likely both have to go through customs and you'll go through the Residents of UK line while he goes through the other line, but neither of you will likely have to get a Visa stamp since you are already a resident of the UK and he will already have his from when he entered the UK. Travel within the UK is covered under the UK Visa and you shouldn't have any problem traveling to anywhere within the UK once you have the UK Visa stamp, which will allow a person to travel freely within the UK for (I believe) up to three months. In fact, from what I understand, there are no customs stops between borders and this was the case when we drove from England to Wales -- the crossing was just a sign on the side of the road that read "Welcome to Wales." Have fun!!

Answer 2

Contact the Irish Embassy in London

Answer 3

No if his stay is shorter than three months. However, he may be required to show proof that he has the means to pay for his keeping for the stay he declares as well as proof that he holds a ticket or the means to acquire one for his journey out.

Answer 4

Here is a wonderful website for just this kind of problem.  Enter his nationality, destination, and transit country and it will tell you if he needs a visa.

Answer 5

He probably will there was a chinese student deported from Ireland Last year because she did not have a visa she had a valid visa for the uk and was visiting friends. she was deported back to China afaik so you need to check it out.

Answer 6

As a Guatemalam passport holder he will not need a visa to enter United Kingdom or Ireland (Eire) providing his stay in the United Kingdom does not exceed 6 months and his stay in Ireland does not exceed 90 days.

Answer 7

You won't get a reliable answer here. Contact the Irish Embassy in London, as someone else has advised you.

Answer 8

He should be OK without one. If he's OK in the UK then he's OK for Northern Ireland which is part of the UK. Eire is actually the old Nationalist name for the whole of Ireland and this very subject was debated in Dail Eireann (the Irish parliament) some weeks ago. If you mean the Republic of Ireland then you should say that rather than Eire as that name is now incorrect after the Anglo-Irish Agreement of some years back.