Official Statistics

Monthly monitoring of entry clearance visa applications

Updated 22 May 2024

Next update due: 13 June 2024

On 4 December 2023, the Home Office announced future changes to visa rules intended to reduce immigration and published further details on 21 December.

These changes have now come into force, following 2 sets of Immigration Rules changes released on 19 February and 14 March as follows:

• the baseline general salary to be sponsored for a ‘Skilled Worker’ visa has increased from £26,200 to £38,700, while the ‘going rate’ minimum salary specific to each job has also gone up significantly
• a list of jobs for which it is possible to sponsor someone for a ‘Skilled Worker’ visa at a reduced minimum salary has been made shorter and renamed the Immigration Salary List
• the minimum income normally required to sponsor someone for a spouse/partner visa has risen from £18,600 to £29,000
• social care workers arriving from overseas are no longer allowed to bring dependants (that is, partners and children) on their visa

The ‘Graduate’ visa, a 2-year unsponsored work permit for overseas graduates of British universities, was reviewed by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) on 16 May 2024 in their independent report, ‘Graduate route: rapid review’.

For more information please see: Changes to legal migration rules for family and work visas in 2024 - House of Commons Library (parliament.uk).

The provisional data below provides an indication of the number of people who have an intention to enter the UK for work and study reasons. Finalised statistics on the numbers of visas will be published quarterly in the Immigration system statistics release.

This release provides the latest provisional statistics. Policy changes are one of a number of factors that may have impacted visa application volumes. A comprehensive overview of visa trends can be found in the Summary of latest statistics published in the quarterly Immigration system statistics release.

Figure 1: Monthly applications for ‘Skilled Worker’ and ‘Skilled Worker: Health and Care’ visas, January 2022 to April 2024

Figure 2: Monthly applications for ‘Sponsored study’ visas, January 2022 to April 2024

It will be necessary to await the peak in student applications for the next academic year (which usually comes in August/September) before we can see the full effect of recent policy changes and any other impacts.

Table 1: Monthly applications for ‘Skilled Worker’, ‘Skilled Worker: Health and Care’ and ‘Sponsored study’ visas, from January 2022 to March 2024

		Skilled Worker		Skilled Worker - Health and Care		Sponsored study
		Main applicants	Dependants	Main applicants	Dependants	Main applicants	Dependants
2022	Jan	4,100	2,700	3,700	4,000	31,100	11,000
	Feb	4,600	3,100	4,100	4,400	9,600	6,800
	Mar	5,300	3,600	5,300	5,200	6,200	6,000
	Apr	4,800	3,500	5,000	5,200	9,100	5,200
	May	5,700	4,100	5,600	6,000	14,100	5,300
	Jun	6,700	4,800	7,100	7,300	31,500	8,000
	Jul	6,600	4,800	7,300	7,500	85,000	14,800
	Aug	6,900	4,700	8,100	8,700	144,200	23,600
	Sep	6,100	4,100	7,900	8,700	76,600	18,300
	Oct	5,800	3,900	8,000	8,300	11,300	10,200
	Nov	6,100	4,200	9,700	10,100	24,700	14,800
	Dec	5,600	3,900	9,900	10,600	46,200	19,800
2023	Jan	5,300	3,800	11,300	12,900	26,900	17,500
	Feb	5,100	4,000	13,100	14,600	5,200	7,500
	Mar	5,600	4,500	14,300	16,700	7,800	7,900
	Apr	4,700	3,900	12,200	15,100	9,500	6,000
	May	5,900	4,800	14,600	19,300	16,900	7,800
	Jun	6,200	5,000	14,600	19,300	38,900	9,100
	Jul	6,500	4,900	16,200	21,600	81,900	12,300
	Aug	6,900	4,900	18,300	23,300	147,100	25,100
	Sep	5,500	4,100	12,900	18,400	83,500	22,500
	Oct	6,400	4,900	14,400	22,700	10,400	12,000
	Nov	6,100	4,300	9,800	19,400	14,800	9,700
	Dec	6,100	5,500	6,400	21,300	30,600	8,000
2024	Jan	6,900	8,100	4,700	19,800	25,500	3,400
	Feb	6,100	6,900	3,100	16,300	3,700	1,700
	Mar	6,100	4,800	2,400	13,200	4,800	1,600
	Apr	10,100	6,500	2,200	6,400	9,600	1,600

Table 2: Monthly application comparisons for ‘Skilled Worker’, ‘Skilled Worker: Health and Care’ and ‘Sponsored study’ visas

	Skilled Worker		Skilled Worker - Health and Care		Sponsored study
	Main applicants	Dependants	Main applicants	Dependants	Main applicants	Dependants
Year ending April 2023	70,200	50,700	114,500	126,500	483,000	153,700
Year ending April 2024	78,800	64,700	119,600	221,000	467,700	114,800
Percentage Difference	+12%	+28%	+4%	+75%	-3%	-25%
Jan to Apr 2023	20,700	16,200	50,900	59,300	49,400	38,900
Jan to Apr 2024	29,200	26,300	12,400	55,700	43,600	8,300
Percentage Difference	+41%	+62%	-76%	-6%	-12%	-79%

Notes:

1. Figures are provisional management information from live operational systems drawn on the date of reporting and are subject to change.
2. Monthly figures in table 1 are rounded to the nearest 100, and totals in table 2 have been calculated using the rounded monthly figures.
3. Applications from dependants may relate to main applicants who applied in previous months. Dependants of care workers and senior care workers are still eligible to apply if their related main applicant applied prior to 11 March 2024.
4. These statistics will be updated on a monthly basis until the end of 2024, after which we will review the user need for monthly updates. The quarterly Immigration system statistics provide detailed information on visa applications and outcomes.