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I am travelling to Nigeria on British Airways from America on 18th December with a stop over for 15hrs waiting before my content flight at Heathrow Airport on 19th December, 2017, can I get a transit visa for sight seeing.?

Dirty-flow
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user69894
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No. A transit visa is only available if you are in transit within that, you going sight seeing would be in breach of the visa conditions. See this link for more information.

A transit visa will allow you to change airports within the UK, example would be if your flight arrives at Gatwick but your next flight takes off from Heathrow. A transit visa would allow you to leave Gatwick and travel to Heathrow, it would not allow you to stop in London to see some sights.

You could apply for a Visitor in Transit Visa. This will allow you to leave the airport and return again a few hours later. However, if you are from the USA then you might not need a visa at all. The UK and US have a "special relationship" which should allow you entrance to the UK for up to 6 months without a visa.

I suggest you take this short quiz and see what options you are given.

Kevin Anthony Oppegaard Rose
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    I think most people would call the "Visitor in Transit" visa a transit visa. – DJClayworth Nov 03 '17 at 13:27
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    @DJClayworth it does not matter what "most people" would call something. This site is about facts and the fact is that a "Transit Visa" is not the same as a "Visitor in Transit Visa". – Kevin Anthony Oppegaard Rose Nov 06 '17 at 06:11
  • There's something called a "Visitor in Transit visa" and something called a "Direct Airside Transit Visa". Are you somehow claiming that leaving out the first two words in the former term is more wrong than leaving out the first two words of the latter? Or are you claiming there is something called just "transit visa" that is neither of those two? – hmakholm left over Monica May 05 '19 at 14:07
  • @HenningMakholm this answer is nearly two years old. It could be out dated. But the quick answer to your question is YES. A "Visitor in Transit" is not the same as a "Direct Airside Transit". This is very obvious if you think about it logically, you only enter a country if you pass through passport control, if you are a "Direct Airside Transit" then you are not passing through passport control. – Kevin Anthony Oppegaard Rose May 10 '19 at 10:01
  • In that case you need to provide some support for your claim, other than bare assertions. Just because DATV and VITV are different things (which is true) doesn't mean that the meaning of the words "transit visa" excludes VITV. That is not obvious at all; on the contrary it looks very obviously FALSE to me. – hmakholm left over Monica May 10 '19 at 10:47
  • @HenningMakholm there are links to click on. Everything is justified. Do some research. – Kevin Anthony Oppegaard Rose May 12 '19 at 08:35
  • @KevinAnthonyOppegaardRose: My research says that there is no reason at all to claim that that a Visitor in Transit visa is not a "transit visa", and that you're therefore wrong when you make sweeping claim about "transit visas" that are only true for Direct Airport Transit visas but are false about Visitor in Transit visas. – hmakholm left over Monica May 12 '19 at 11:11
  • This is itself might be an honest --- and minor -- mistake in drafting the answer, but your rude reply to DJClayworth when he pointed out the error was absolutely uncalled for. – hmakholm left over Monica May 12 '19 at 11:25
  • @HenningMakholm Checked these two links https://www.gov.uk/transit-visa/visitor-in-transit-visa and https://www.gov.uk/transit-visa/direct-airside-transit-visa one is valid only if you are not passing through UK passport control - ie flying from Ontario Canada to Paris France via London Gatwick South Terminal, white the other is valid if you need to pass UK passport control, is the same flight but flying into Heathrow Terminal 3 and out of London Gatwick South. – Kevin Anthony Oppegaard Rose May 12 '19 at 13:27
  • To reiterate: You wrote: This site is about facts and the fact is that a "Transit Visa" is not the same as a "Visitor in Transit Visa". This is wrong. A "transit visa" can mean either Visitor In or Direct Airside. None of the pages you have pointed to contain or imply any claim whatsoever that that the term exclusively means Direct Airside. – hmakholm left over Monica May 12 '19 at 13:48
  • And it is perfectly legitimate to get a VITV when there is no change of airport/terminal involved -- for example, as here, for an overnight layover where you'd want to go out and sleep at a hotel. – hmakholm left over Monica May 12 '19 at 13:51
  • @HenningMakholm You are using a stupid argument. "You said the stairs were blue but they were actually sky blue so you are wrong". Its stupid. Stop it. There are TWO types of transit visa as proven by my links to UK Government websites. I will not argue anymore with an ignorant fool like yourself. – Kevin Anthony Oppegaard Rose May 12 '19 at 16:05
  • If you now finally agree that there are two types of transit visa, then I think you owe DJClayworth an apology and a retraction of your attack on him. – hmakholm left over Monica May 12 '19 at 16:09