UK sees 48% fall in work visas following policy changes

The United Kingdom has given out far fewer visas in the past year after new rules cut the number of people allowed to enter for work, study, family, or humanitarian reasons.

According to new data from the Home Office, 834,977 visas were granted in the year ending June 2025. This is a 32% drop from the 1.23 million issued the year before.

• Work visas recorded the biggest fall, dropping by 48% from 545,855 to 286,071.
• Study visas went down by 18%, from 530,312 to 435,891.
• Family visas also fell by 15%, from 83,912 to 70,961.

In humanitarian categories:

• 14,216 visas were given under the Ukraine schemes (48% less than last year).
• 11,804 visas went to Hong Kong residents with British National Overseas status (down 47%).
• 9,357 were issued under the EU Settlement Scheme (down 34%).
• 3,640 visas went to dependants, while 3,037 were granted under other settlement schemes.

This is the lowest number of visas issued since September 2021, when 802,415 visas were granted.

The fall is linked to changes made by the previous Conservative government. These included stopping international students from bringing family members and banning foreign care workers from bringing dependants.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the new Labour government’s actions have been vital to fixing what she called a “broken immigration and asylum system.”

She explained that in the last 12 months the government has:

• Increased the return of failed asylum seekers by more than 30%.
• Cut asylum costs by 11%.
• Reduced the asylum backlog by 18%.
• Prepared plans to reform the asylum appeal system and end the heavy use of asylum hotels.

She added that legal migration is now “back under control” with a 48% fall in work visas this year, and said even tougher rules in the coming White Paper would reduce the numbers further.