Amid overall drop, Indians still receive highest number of long-term UK visas among non-EU arrivals

LONDON: Indians continue to account for the bulk of long-term work and student visas issued by the UK to non-EU nationalities despite an overall decline in new arrivals and a corresponding increase in emigration of Indian-origin people from Britain.

Around 40,000 work, 89,000 study and 9,000 other long-term visas were issued to Indian citizens in the year ending Dec 2025, totalling 138,000 arrivals. The other nationalities in the top five were Pakistani, Chinese, Nigerian and Nepalese.

The figure constitutes a drop of 11% compared to the previous year, when 156,000 such visas were given to Indians, of which 68,000 were work and 82,000 were study visas. The decline spikes to 50% compared to the year ending Dec 2023, when 277,000 such visas had been issued to Indians, of which 132,000 were work and 136,000 were study visas.

The number of long-term UK visas being given to all nationalities is on the decline owing to policy changes brought by Labour and the Conservatives, such as stopping most overseas students and care workers from bringing family members to the UK, increasing the amount of money people need to earn to get a skilled worker visa, and closing the health and care route.

According to the Office of National Statistics, 813,000 people made a long-term move to the UK in the year ending Dec 2025, marking a decrease of 20% from the previous year and a continuation of a downward trend from its peak at 1,469,000 in March 2023, when Rishi Sunak was the country's PM.

Net migration has now fallen to 171,000 – down from the peak of 944,000 in the year ending March 2023 and nearly half the next year's figure, when it was 331,000. The home office wrote on X, "We are ending Britain's reliance on overseas labour, ensuring migrants contribute more than they take and are increasing the removal of illegal migrants and foreign criminals."

Indians were also the most common non-EU nationality to emigrate from the UK in the year ending Dec 2025, when 642,000 of them left.

Of these, 75,000 were Indian, an increase of 29% compared to the previous year. "British citizens are leaving the UK on a massive scale, driven away by Labour’s high taxes. Yet non-EU immigration, mainly from low-income counties, remains far too high," shadow home secretary Chris Philip MP said.