"formal visit" is a correct and usable phrase in written English.
It can be used to refer to any visit with a formal purpose, such as a diplomatic meeting or a business visit. For example, "The Prime Minister will be making a formal visit to the United States soon."
The announcement came following the first formal visit here by a Libyan foreign minister since 1969.
Was it a fit of the jitters on his first formal visit to the White House?
The trip would have been the first formal visit to Taiwan from a mainland official since 1949.
A UN special rapporteur cannot carry out a mission (ie a formal visit) to a state without being invited.
The Beat heroes' first meeting was, prosaically, at breakfast-time; they discussed poetry for hours and later paid a joint formal visit to Burroughs to see what they could learn.
In Nasiriya, in southern Iraq, where there has also been fighting between Mr. Sadr's supporters and government troops, a bloc of members of Parliament representing him made a formal visit and drafted a memorandum of understanding between the sides.
Nowadays presidents, their families and foreign digs, as the agents call foreign dignitaries, are constantly visiting the city for everything from formal visits to shoppertunities.
When the family moves back to New Orleans for the winter, Edna must resume her bourgeois life, which includes much entertaining and formal visiting.
Sensing the benefits of a less formal visiting experience, Hill devised half-term family days, extending two-hour visits to more than five hours for up to 35 selected inmates.
These days, Rosie and Ms. Calmenson go on formal visits no more than several times a month, usually to hospitals, nursing homes, schools for handicapped children; almost as much time is spent brushing her long hair and brushing her teeth.
We are not set up to accommodate formal visits from prospective students, but can, on a limited basis, accommodate requests from applicants for brief meetings with faculty with whom they are interested in working.
