The number of visas issued to foreign nationals coming to the UK for employment, study, family or humanitarian reasons has fallen sharply, driven by a steep drop in people arriving for work.
Some 834,977 entry visas were issued in the year to June 2025 across these categories, down nearly a third (32%) from 1.23 million in the previous 12 months, according to new Home Office data.
The figures for work-related visas have nearly halved over this period, falling 48% from 545,855 to 286,071.
There were smaller drops in the number of study visas, down 18% from 530,312 to 435,891, and for family visas, down 15% from 83,912 to 70,961.
Among the resettlement categories, 14,216 visas were issued under the Ukraine schemes (down 48% year on year), 11,804 were granted to British National Overseas status holders from Hong Kong (down 47%), and 9,357 were under the EU Settlement Scheme (down 34%).
In addition, 3,640 were for dependants joining or accompanying others and 3,037 were under other settlement schemes.
The overall total of 834,977 visas is the lowest for any 12-month period since the year to September 2021, when the figure stood at 802,415.
The drop is likely to reflect changes in legal migration rules introduced early last year by the previous Conservative government, which included restricting the ability of most international students to bring family members with them to the UK, as well as banning overseas care workers from bringing dependants.
Visas issued for health and care workers and their families have tumbled from 267,348 in the year to June 2024 to 61,901 in the 12 months to this June, a fall of 77%.
The number of student dependants saw an even larger percentage drop, down 81% year on year from 94,204 to 17,804.
Dr Ben Brindle, researcher at the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, said: “The sharp fall in visas was possible because migration to the UK had previously been so high.
“It’s possible we’ll see further declines in the coming months – though probably smaller ones – as the data catches up with more recent restrictions like the closure of the care worker route to overseas recruitment.”
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the Government was “bringing legal migration back under control”, with “stronger visa controls and higher skill requirements introduced through our White Paper expected to bring those overall numbers down further.”
