The UK Standard Visitor "180-Day Rule"

Standard Visitor rules allow stays of up to 6 months per visit, which is where the "180-day rule" shorthand comes from. There is no published rolling formula; what the UK assesses instead is the pattern your visits make.

Last verified: August 2026

In short: a Standard Visitor can stay in the UK for up to 6 months per visit. There is no published rolling window and no "180 days per year" rule; the popular "6 months in 12" shorthand does not appear in the Immigration Rules. Alongside each stay's length, Border Force and caseworkers assess whether you are a genuine visitor, so visits that add up to living in the UK can be refused even when no single stay exceeds 6 months.

Limit: Up to 6 months (about 180 days)
Window: Per visit, from the day you arrive
Also assessed: Genuine-visitor pattern across visits
Rolling formula: None published, no "6 months in 12" rule

The rule

The UK's visitor limit is a per-visit allowance, not a rolling window. Under the Standard Visitor route, each visit carries its own permission to stay:

Up to 6 months per visit. The Immigration Rules state the maximum directly; longer grants exist only for narrow cases (up to 11 months for private medical treatment, up to 12 for academics under specific provisions).
No rolling formula. The often-quoted "180 days per year" or "6 months in any 12" test is not in the rules; the UK runs no Schengen-style 90/180 calculation.
The genuine-visitor test sits on top. Every entry must satisfy an officer that you intend a genuine visit and will leave at the end of it. The day count alone does not settle that.

How to count it

Count from the day you arrive. Arrival day counts as a day in the UK.
Leave within 6 months of that date, or by any earlier date attached to your permission.
Keep a dated record of every visit over the previous 12 months; that pattern, not a formula, is what gets assessed at your next entry.

Example. You enter the UK on 10 March as a Standard Visitor.

Your permitted stay runs up to 9 September, 6 months from arrival. You leave in June and return in October: the new visit carries its own up-to-6-months allowance, but the officer at the border sees both trips when judging whether you are still genuinely visiting.

Leaving and coming back

Because there is no published formula, the pattern of your visits does the work a formula would. The caseworker guidance tells decision makers to weigh the number and length of visits over the previous 12 months, the gaps between them, whether you spend more time in the UK than in your home country, and whether successive visits amount to living in the UK through repeat entries. Three assumptions cause most of the trouble:

"Leaving resets a fresh full stay." The next entry is judged against your wider pattern, not in isolation.
"A long-term visit visa settles it." Long-term visit visas still permit only genuine visits, not de facto residence.
"Only long trips matter." Many short trips with brief absences can read as living in the UK just as easily as one long stay.

Beyond the day count

The ETA is a pre-travel permission to board, not a stay allowance; the 6-month framing and genuine-visitor test apply to the stay itself regardless. Spending many days in the UK can also make you UK tax resident under a separate set of rules with its own article: see the UK Statutory Residence Test.

Official source: "Standard Visitor: up to 6 months" per the Immigration Rules Appendix V: Visitor (V 17.2), with the genuine-visitor pattern factors set out in the visit caseworker guidance linked above.

AtlasDays tracks the UK visitor limit automatically

The UK Standard Visitor preset applies the rule as written, "Standard Visitor rules allow stays of up to 6 months per visit," counts each stay privately on your iPhone, and keeps the dated visit history the pattern assessment is built on.

Get AtlasDays on the App Store

FAQ

Is there a 180-days-per-year rule for UK visitors?

No. The published rule is up to 6 months per visit; no "6 months in any 12" formula appears in the Immigration Rules. A pattern of visits that adds up to living in the UK can still lead to refusal.

Does leaving the UK reset your 6 months?

Each new visit carries its own allowance of up to 6 months, but re-entry is a fresh assessment: officers weigh your visits over the previous 12 months, the gaps between them, and whether you spend more time in the UK than at home.

Does an ETA let you stay longer in the UK?

No. The Electronic Travel Authorisation is permission to travel to the UK, not a stay allowance. Visitors with an ETA are still subject to the Standard Visitor rules, including the up-to-6-months limit and the genuine-visitor test.