Foreign nationals arriving in UK on work visas down by nearly a third

The number of visas issued to foreign nationals coming to the UK for employment fell by nearly a third last year, driven by a sharp drop in people arriving as a skilled worker or for a job in health and social care.

Some 261,112 work-related entry visas were granted in 2025, covering both main applicants and dependants such as family members, according to figures published by the Home Office on Thursday.

This is down 29% year on year from 368,139 in 2024, and is less than half the number that were issued in 2023 (613,627).

The downwards trend reflects the impact of policy changes introduced by the previous Conservative government and continued by the current Labour administration.

These changes began in January 2024 when most overseas students were no longer able to bring family members to the UK.

From March 2024, care workers could no longer bring family members with them to the country and from April 2024. the salary threshold was increased for people wishing to come to the UK on a skilled worker visa, along with the income threshold for a family visa.

The Labour Government introduced additional changes to migration rules in July 2025, including ending overseas recruitment for care workers and raising the salary threshold again for skilled worker visas.

The latest figures show there were 13,286 health and care worker visas issued to main applicants in 2025, down 51% year on year from 27,047 in 2024 and 91% below the 145,823 issued in 2023.

Health and care visas issued to dependants have also fallen steeply, with 35,444 in 2025, a decrease of 58% from 83,426 in 2024 and down 82% from 202,334 in 2023.

The Home Office said there was a “marked fall” in the second half of 2025 in the number of health and care visas issued to workers in a caring personal service occupation “following the end to overseas recruitment of care workers”.

Visas issued to nursing professionals fell 73% from 6,494 in 2024 to just 1,777 last year, and were 93% below the 26,141 granted in 2022.

This “may be attributable to the end of the centrally supported nurse international recruitment programme and changes in demand for international staff”, the Home Office added.

Increases to the skill level requirements introduced by the Government in July 2025 mean more than 100 occupations are no longer eligible for the skilled worker visa route.

This is likely to have contributed to a 44% fall in skilled worker visas issued to main applicants, which stood at 32,511 last year, down from 57,858 in 2024 and a drop of 50% from 65,426 in 2023.

Dependants covered by skilled worker visas fell 29% last year, from 57,154 in 2024 to 40,741 in 2025.

Dr Dora-Olivia Vicol, chief executive of the Work Rights Centre charity, said: “The sharp decline in migrant professionals coming to work in UK hospitals, research institutes and schools raises serious questions about the costs of the Government’s narrow focus on reducing migration.

“No hospital is likely to welcome a 93% drop in overseas nurses, at a time when 25,000 nursing vacancies remain unfilled, and no British worker will want the pressure of working a double shift.

“Meanwhile, the migrant workers who can still come to work in the UK face higher costs, longer routes to settlement, and risk labour exploitation by arriving on visas that tie them to employers.

“Ministers must look at what workers and public services really need, and go beyond the narrow focus on migrant numbers to design an immigration system that works for the people who actually use it.”