Visa applications for key routes to UK drop by 37% in a year

The number of migrants applying for key visa routes to the UK has dropped by more than third in a year, data shows.

Applications covering a total of 772,200 people were submitted across the main visa categories in the year to March 2025, down 37% from nearly 1.24 million in the previous 12 months.

The decline is likely to reflect changes in legal migration rules introduced early in 2024 by the previous Conservative government, including a ban on overseas care workers and students bringing family dependents, and a steep rise in the salary threshold for skilled workers to £38,700.

The figures have been published by the Home Office and cover the main worker, study and family visa categories.

The drop has been driven by a sharp fall in applications by foreign health and care workers and their family members, which decreased by 78% from 359,300 in 2023/24 to 80,700 in 2024/25.

There was an even steeper fall in applications by family members of those wanting to come to the UK on a sponsored study visa, down 83%, though the number of main applicants for this visa dropped by just 11%.

The previous government introduced a change in January 2024 that stopped students bringing family members apart from those studying postgraduate research courses or those with government-funded scholarships.

Researcher at the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, Dr Ben Brindle, said: “The tightening of immigration rules under the previous government has led to a sharp decline in visa applications over the past year.

“This was driven primarily by a fall in applications from health and care workers and students’ family members – most of whom now cannot come to the UK.

“Main applications from health and care workers also fell, possibly reflecting fewer vacancies and government focus on exploitation in the sector.

But Dr Brindle said that applications from migrants recruited for jobs outside health and care had fallen less than expected, and that with the increase in salary thresholds “it appears that many employers are simply paying workers more”.

But the decrease, he said, could also be likely driven by employers adjusting to the higher salaries threshold by filling job roles through other means or by leaving them unfilled altogether.

The number of main applicants for skilled worker visas dropped by 16% year on year, while applications for their dependents decreased by 13%.

Dr Brindle added: “It’s important to remember, however, that the fall in applications was possible because the number of people coming to the UK since Brexit has been so high.

“Despite these declines, applications from non-EU citizens remain well above pre-Brexit levels. As of mid-2024, overall net migration was also still much higher than it had been pre-Brexit.”

Key visa routes to the UK are the categories of skilled worker, health and care worker, sponsored study, family, seasonal worker and the youth mobility scheme.