UK visa issuance continues to fall, down 19% in 2025, government data shows
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The data released on Feb 26 showed 168,000 work visas were issued in 2025, down 19 per cent on 2024 and 50 per cent on 2023.
PHOTO: REUTERS
LONDON – The number of work visas issued by Britain in the year to December 2025 fell by 19 per cent from the previous year, government data showed on Feb 26, reflecting the ongoing impact of tighter visa rules.
Successive governments have sought to introduce tighter controls on visas to limit legal migration, and to take action to stop immigrants arriving illegally by small boats and deport those who do make it to the country by such means.
The Labour government is trailing Mr Nigel Farage’s populist Reform UK party, which campaigns on an anti-migration platform
The data released on Feb 26 showed 168,000 work visas were issued in 2025, down 19 per cent on 2024 and 50 per cent on 2023.
The fall included a halving of the number of visas issued in the health and care sector and a 36 per cent decline in the number of other skilled worker visas.
That continues a trend seen in data released by the Office for National Statistics in 2025, which showed long-term net migration to Britain fell by more than two-thirds in the year to June.
There were 46,497 detected arrivals via illegal routes, up 7 per cent. Of these arrivals, 89 per cent were in small boats.
In the period, 100,625 people claimed asylum, 4 per cent fewer than the previous year. The number of forced removals from Britain rose 21 per cent to 9,900. REUTERS
