Hey. My friend will be travelling to the united states tomorrow from Cape town. We haven't met for years. He will be transiting at london Heathrow terminal 3 for four hours. Is it possible for him to obtain a transit visa at the Heathrow airport? Thanks

Welcome to FT!

Depends on the nationality of the passport your friend will be using and other particulars. Here is the UK government's visa, transit without visa, etc. requirements page.

https://www.gov.uk/government/public...ional-carriers

Hey, and welcome to FT!

If he needs a visa and it's hard to obtain one on such short notice, you can buy a refundable ticket to anywhere for a flight that departs from the same terminal as his flight to the U.S. on that day. He can transfer to that terminal via the airside bus if necessary. Meet there, hang out, drink coffee, whatever. Use an airline lounge if one of you has access to it. (If you "buy' a business or first class ticket, you will.) Then walk out of the secure area, phone the airline or go to one of their landside service desks, and get your money back.

If anyone asks you why (which they won't, refundable means just that) you can say that you were sitting in the terminal with a friend and lost track of the time, you got a call that your meeting in Chicago was cancelled, or your gerbil died and you can't bear the sorrow must stay in London to console his widow.

FT is not the place to obtain visa advice. Check with official sources.

Your friend would normally likely stay airside and not formally enter UK.
Your friend should check before the flight is a transit visa is required for an airside transit and/or a visa is needed to enter UK and meet you land side.
If will depend on the passport held and more.

Or the post above, he could meet you at T3 airside if you have an international flight. Has some risks.

I don't think making up convoluted lies is terribly good advice in this case. The OP's friend might just end up going down a bad rabbit hole with UK Border Force.

1. The OP's friend will not make up any stories or do anything different from what he would have done had the OP been in Beijing that week. He will go his normal way and meet up with the OP in the same terminal he would have gone to in any case.

2. In my personal experience (I did this once, though not at LHR, to get to a lounge where there was an FT gathering) and that of everyone else I've discussed it with, the chances of being asked why the refund is being requested are zero. Airlines process thousands of refunds on refundable tickets every day: after all, most people buy them precisely because they know there is a good chance that the trip won't happen. Agents don't care why a person wants one and don't want to waste time in irrelevant chit-chat. A passenger doesn't have to give, or to have, a reason. He or she is entitled to a refund, asks for it, and gets it. That's that. I added possible cover stories in a (perhaps misguided) attempt at humor, not because there would be any need for one. (If one is needed, use the one about consoling your gerbil's widow. That will end the discussion.)