From 3 March 2009 onwards, Jamaican nationals in transit through the UK will be required to obtain a transit visa before they travel to the United Kingdom. 

Travellers will need to apply for one of two visas:

• a Visit-in-Transit Visa if seeking to enter the United Kingdom in transit with a connecting flight within 48 hours; or
• a Direct Airside Transit Visa (DATV) for anyone remaining airside to take a  same-day, same-airport connecting flight to another destination. 

Applications for Transit visas and DATVs are made in the same way as every other type of visa.  Applications in Jamaica must be made at the WorldBridge Visa Application Centre located at 34 Trafalgar Road, Kingston and should be submitted a minimum of five days before travel. 

Additionally, a visa requirement will be introduced for nationals of Bolivia, Lesotho, South Africa, Swaziland and Venezuela wanting to visit the UK.  However, Venezuelan nationals travelling on new machine-readable Venezuelan passports will be exempt from the new requirement.

All travellers affected by this decision will need to apply for a visa to travel to the United Kingdom, and provide fingerprints, before they are given the clearance to travel to the UK.

There will also be a lifting of the visa requirement applicable to Taiwanese nationals visiting the UK.

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