Home Office under pressure as applications for one type of visa skyrockets
Thousands of extra applications for Skilled Worker visas made their way to the Home Office in April as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak vows to cut immigration ahead of the election.
The Government could soon come under more pressure for its record on immigration after visa applications for Skilled Workers spiked.
Official Government statistics published on Thursday show that the monthly number of Skilled Worker applications increased to 10,100 in April, having remained at approximately 6,000 a month since January 2022.
In May 2024, the figure did move back down to 6,900, closer to the monthly average.
The Government has brought down the number of some other visa applications, including those for Health and Care Workers.
Between February 2022 and August 2023, this figure jumped from 4,100 to 18,300 monthly applications. But, as of May 2024, the UK received 2,900 applications.
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Applications for dependants on the Health and Care Worker route peaked at 23,000 in August 2023, but have now come down to 5,900 in May 2024.
There is also expected to be a big rise in Sponsored Study visa applications in the summer, something that usually happens before the academic year commences in September.
In 2023, they peaked in August with 147,000 applications.
It is not clear how many will be sent in 2024, but so far this year there has been an 11 percent decrease compared with January-May in 2023.
The number of applicants for dependants of students dropped by 79 percent when compared with figures from January-May 2023.
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New rules came into effect in January 2024 which prevent students from bringing dependants, except those studying postgraduate research courses or courses with government-funded scholarships.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has not had much success in lowering overall immigration to the UK despite making it a pillar of his pitch to the British people.
Launching his manifesto earlier this week, Mr Sunak vowed to “halve migration as we have halved inflation and then reduce it every single year”.
On Channel crossings, the Tory manifesto says: “We will run a relentless, continual process of permanently removing illegal migrants to Rwanda with a regular rhythm of flights every month, starting this July, until the boats are stopped.
“If we are forced to choose between our security and the jurisdiction of a foreign court, including the ECHR, we will always choose our security.”
Last week, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer also vowed to slash “sky-high” net migration.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The government has implemented a series of measures to bring visa numbers down.
“The latest monthly statistics show a 30% decrease in applications across key visa routes in the first five months of this year, compared to the same period in 2023.”
