Having signed a two-year contract with Newcastle in April 2007, he started the 2007–08 season on loan with the recently relegated Northampton Saints.

[3] Visser made his competitive debut in the English Premiership on 8 September 2006 against Worcester, coming on as a substitute and scoring the winning try.

With Edinburgh, Visser also reached the semi-finals of the 2011–12 Heineken Cup, scoring four tries in total during the competition, and was selected for the third consecutive season to the RaboDirect Pro12 Dream Team.

World Rugby eligibility rules state that a player may play for a country's national team after 3 years of residency.

Two tries in the defeat of Italy in August 2015 helped Visser clinch a place in the 31-man squad for the 2015 Rugby World Cup.