***Update: I have a new post regarding transit visa here.
Yesterday we booked our tickets to Sri Lanka for the winter break. Hopefully if everything works well we'll be at Sri Lanka on December 13th. We both pretty much excited. Only problem is the long transit time we have to spend on the tour. We have 6hr transit at Chicago and bone crushing 15hr stopover at London Heathrow airport. We don't know what to do??????? Totally confused. Yesterday I talked to Pola (charith) regarding this, what he mentioned me that we can visit London on the stopover. But I have no idea what to do. Do we need transit visa for that, how much we need to pay for it? We already paid almost $3400 for the tickets, and don't wanna waste much on anything. But I'm worried about the 15hr waiting at the airport. We need to face this same transit problem on the way back. Same hours on the same places. I can remember how I spend my 6hr transit at LA on my first arrival to US, but its bearable, but 15hrs????Yesterday we booked our tickets to Sri Lanka for the winter break. Hopefully if everything works well we'll be at Sri Lanka on December 13th. We both pretty much excited. Only problem is the long transit time we have to spend on the tour. We have 6hr transit at Chicago and bone crushing 15hr stopover at London Heathrow airport. We don't know what to do??????? Totally confused. Yesterday I talked to Pola (charith) regarding this, what he mentioned me that we can visit London on the stopover. But I have no idea what to do. Do we need transit visa for that, how much we need to pay for it? We already paid almost $3400 for the tickets, and don't wanna waste much on anything. But I'm worried about the 15hr waiting at the airport. We need to face this same transit problem on the way back. Same hours on the same places. I can remember how I spend my 6hr transit at LA on my first arrival to US, but its bearable, but 15hrs????Yesterday we booked our tickets to Sri Lanka for the winter break. Hopefully if everything works well we'll be at Sri Lanka on December 13th. We both pretty much excited. Only problem is the long transit time we have to spend on the tour. We have 6hr transit at Chicago and bone crushing 15hr stopover at London Heathrow airport. We don't know what to do??????? Totally confused. Yesterday I talked to Pola (charith) regarding this, what he mentioned me that we can visit London on the stopover. But I have no idea what to do. Do we need transit visa for that, how much we need to pay for it? We already paid almost $3400 for the tickets, and don't wanna waste much on anything. But I'm worried about the 15hr waiting at the airport. We need to face this same transit problem on the way back. Same hours on the same places. I can remember how I spend my 6hr transit at LA on my first arrival to US, but its bearable, but 15hrs????Yesterday we booked our tickets to Sri Lanka for the winter break. Hopefully if everything works well we'll be at Sri Lanka on December 13th. We both pretty much excited. Only problem is the long transit time we have to spend on the tour. We have 6hr transit at Chicago and bone crushing 15hr stopover at London Heathrow airport. We don't know what to do??????? Totally confused. Yesterday I talked to Pola (charith) regarding this, what he mentioned me that we can visit London on the stopover. But I have no idea what to do. Do we need transit visa for that, how much we need to pay for it? We already paid almost $3400 for the tickets, and don't wanna waste much on anything. But I'm worried about the 15hr waiting at the airport. We need to face this same transit problem on the way back. Same hours on the same places. I can remember how I spend my 6hr transit at LA on my first arrival to US, but its bearable, but 15hrs????
I saw several posts regarding the possibility of getting 24hr transit to pass the immigration area of the London airport without visa. But I don't know whether its available for Sri Lankans. Both of us on valid F-1 student status with valid visa and I-20. Anyone with some ideas will be really appreciated. Anything to do in London Heathrow airport in this long stopover????????
4 comments:
Wow! 15hrs really sucks. I think you would need to get something called a "visitor in-transit" visa. Check out the following website (in case you already haven't). It gives you all possible scenarios so you can select which visa suits you the best:
http://www.britainusa.com/visas/showcats.asp?i=65002&L1=41000
Good luck!
You will get a 24hr transit Visa at the airport, they don't let people to stay overnight in many terminals. But the problem is after 10 pm London sleeps :). No buses and be careful everything else is so expensive, even the cheapest hotels are above 100 POUNDS per night. we had to spend around 250 POUNDS for that 15 hours(taxi food and a room in comfort Heathrow)
Since you have booked the ticket already this may not be an option. Next time You can a try a deferent air line with different stopover in Middle East. Something like Qatar air line is wonderful because with the millage of a one trip (US to SL) you can get in to their privilege club membership. With that you can get in t the privilege lodge.
If I’m in ur situation, I would rather save my money (that I can spend in Taj massage joint in SL :), grab my notebook out, get an wifi card, and waste voluble 15 hours of my life watching youtube and other crap.
Finally, could you go out?
I will stopover at London for 9 hours and want to see London.
Do I need to do visa before going there?
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