Indians get largest share of U.K. student, skilled worker and visitor visas: official data

India displaces China to become the country with the highest number of sponsored study visas in the U.K. for the first time since the year ending June 2011

Indian citizens received the largest share of U.K. student, skilled worker and visitor visas for the year ending June 2022, as per official data published by the British government on Thursday. This data comes as British visa applicants have faced severe delays in the adjudication of their applications, owing to an increase in the number of applicants as travel recovers post-pandemic and the prioritisation of visas for Ukrainians.

As per the data, 1,17,965 students received student visas in the year ending June 2022, up 215% from 2019. India has displaced China to become the country with the highest number of sponsored study visas in the U.K. for the first time since the year ending June 2011. Indian and Chinese nationals get just under half of all sponsored study visas.

Indians received 1,02,981 work visas in the year ending June 2022, an 80% increase compared to the year ending December 2019, just before the pandemic began. Nigeria, the Philippines, Zimbabwe and the United States followed India (in that order) for work visas. Forty-six percent of worker (formerly, ‘skilled worker’) visas went to Indians.

Indian nationals received 28% of visitor visas in the year ending June 2022, moving ahead of China, which was the largest recipient pre-pandemic. (China has extensive quarantine requirements for individuals entering or re-entering the country). More than 2,58,000 Indians received tourists visas — but this was still down 50% from the 2019 calendar year. The largest fall over the same period was for Chinese nationals (6,12,495 or 95%).

“India first again. I’m delighted that Indian nationals were issued the largest number of U.K. study, work and visitor visas in the year ending June 2022. More strength to the unique living bridge that connects our people,” British High Commissioner to India, Alex Ellis, said in a statement on Thursday.

“As this shows, we’re experiencing unprecedented demand for visas. I encourage students starting courses soon to apply as early as possible.” Mr. Ellis said. On August 12, he had posted a message on Twitter, apologising for the delays and acknowledging that they were “causing a lot of problems”. In that message, Mr. Ellis had said Britain was training more people to work on visa applications and keeping open priority visa channels.