UK Transit Visa - Still Confused!

Q: My husband and I will be travelling to the United States and Canada in July with British Airways and will be transit at Heathrow for about seven hours. We have been advised by some travel agents that we do not need a UK transit visa as we have USA and Canadian visas. We are confused and concerned and would greatly appreciate your advice. It would be absolutely disastrous if we were refused entry on the aircraft because we did not apply for the UK transit visa. - Catherine Sun

A: This issue has been causing a great deal of confusion for many travellers in recent months. But we have a final answer on this - from the regional operations manager for the UK Border agency, Mr Andy Newlands. Writing to this column in January, he explained that while South Africans generally required a visa to transit the UK, they were exempted from obtaining transit visas for British airports if they held visas for one of four countries - the United States, Canada, Australia or New Zealand. Other requirements were that they had confirmed air tickets for their destination and did not remain in transit for more than 24 hours. Other South Africans who did not meet the above requirements needed transit visas, even if they did not pass through Immigration control and were catching a flight from the same airport. But his explanation means good news for you - you do not need a transit visa.