FOI release

SIA licensing of foreign nationals

Published 22 May 2025

Request

Visa requirements in SIA licence applications

Can foreign nationals apply for and be granted an SIA licence? If yes, what are the visa or residency requirements?

Statistics of foreign nationals who are SIA licence holders

Please provide a simple summary table or spreadsheet that shows the number of SIA licence holders in the UK, grouped by:

1. Nationality
2. Visa or residency status (if not British)
3. Those who entered the UK as asylum seekers (otherwise, illegal immigrants)

Response

Visa requirements in SIA licence applications

This information is exempt from disclosure under section 21(1) FOIA 2000 because it is available to you by other means. Please see page 6 of our licensing criteria, Get Licensed.

Statistics of foreign nationals who are SIA licence holders

Nationality

This information is exempt from disclosure under section 21(1) FOIA 2000 because it is available to you by other means. The SIA publishes data on licence holder demographics every month: SIA licence holders - GOV.UK.

Please select the month you are interested in. A spreadsheet will open, and you can then select the ‘Nationality’ tab.

Visa or residency status (if not British)

Please see the CSV file called ‘Foreign nationals statistics’.

The criteria for this spreadsheet is active licence holders who are not British, Irish, or have a UK passport number registered on their SIA account.

We keep a licence holder’s right to work status under review throughout the 3-year length of an SIA licence. Therefore, some licences are currently subject to revocation action because the visa status has changed since the licence was granted. All licences reported under the row title ‘Change in visa status (licence being reviewed)’ are in the process of being revoked.

There are also other categories of visa such as ‘tier 2’, ‘skilled worker’, and ‘work permit’ where some of the licences are currently subject to revocation because they have a restriction on the right to work that was not in place at the time the licence was granted.

Those who entered the UK as asylum seekers (otherwise, illegal immigrants)

There are 14,552 active licence holders whose right‑to‑work status is recorded as ‘discretionary leave’ (a classification often granted to refugees or other humanitarian cases). This status does not necessarily indicate illegal entry; some individuals may have entered the UK legally and later applied for asylum.

The criteria for this figure is again, active licence holders who are not British, Irish, or have an UK passport number registered on their SIA account.

The SIA only license people who have the right to work in the UK. The SIA does not license ‘illegal immigrants’.

Somebody who has entered the UK and sought asylum in the UK is not, by legal definition, an illegal immigrant. An illegal immigrant is somebody who knowingly enters the UK and does not have the requisite leave to do so. For further information on what constitutes the legal definition of illegal immigration, please go to section 24 of the Immigration Act 1971, which is here: Immigration Act 1971.

The 1951 Refugee Convention protects people fleeing persecution.  The definition of an asylum seeker, or someone seeking asylum, is a person who has left their country, often suddenly, because they are faced with persecution, war or violence and cannot get protection there. Once an asylum seeker has been officially granted asylum, they are then legally recognised as a refugee.

[Ref: FOI 0524]