Feature
Visas Issued
- Data Home Office, immigration system statistics
- Covers Entry clearance visas and sponsored work visas, UK, years ending June
- Updated the latest year
Who gets a UK visa, what for, and the care worker route that rose and fell.
What visas are for
Source: Home Office entry clearance visa data. Entry clearance visas issued (applied for outside the UK), main applicants and dependants, each year ending June. A visa is not an arrival: some are never used. Extensions and switches made inside the UK are counted separately and not shown. Grant rate: visas issued as a share of visas issued or refused; withdrawn and lapsed applications are left out.
Entry clearance visas issued, by visa type, years ending June
Work visas: peak and fall
Source: Home Office entry clearance visa data, the Work visa type group, each year ending June. Dependants are partners and children, counted on the main applicant's route. Many join a worker who came in an earlier year, so dependants and main applicants in one year are not families.
Work visas issued, main applicants and dependants, years ending June
The care worker years
Line chart source: Home Office entry clearance visa data, main applicants, by quarter. The series starts in the first quarter shown, with the routes of the points-based system; earlier Tier 2 visas are not joined on. From 11 March 2024, care workers could no longer bring dependants. On 22 July 2025, overseas recruitment of care workers and senior care workers closed.
Occupation table source: Home Office sponsored work visas by occupation, main applicants only, matched to a Certificate of Sponsorship, so totals run a little below the visa figures. Figures from January 2021 to September 2024 are modelled. Not accredited official statistics.
Visas issued to main applicants, Health and Care Worker and Skilled Worker, by quarter
Family members
Source: Home Office entry clearance visa data, the latest year ending June. Many dependants join workers granted visas in earlier years, so this is not a measure of family size.
Visas issued to main applicants and dependants, by route
The jobs behind the visas
Source: Home Office sponsored work visas by occupation, main applicants only, the latest year ending June. Occupations are SOC 2020 unit groups, published from October 2024; a few small groups are suppressed and left out. Seasonal workers come for up to six months, mostly in horticulture.