Indians still receive highest number of long-term UK visas among non-EU arrivals

Key points

• LONDON: Indians continue to account for the bulk of long-term work and student visas issued by the UK to non-EU nationalities despite an overall decline in new arrivals and a corresponding increase in emigration of Indian-origin people from Britain.Around 40,000 work, 89,000 study and 9,000 other long-term visas were issued to Indian citizens in the year ending Dec 2025, totalling 138,000 arrivals.
• The other nationalities in the top five were Pakistani, Chinese, Nigerian and Nepalese.The figure constitutes a drop of 11% compared to the previous year, when 156,000 such visas were given to Indians, of which 68,000 were work and 82,000 were study visas.
• The decline spikes to 50% compared to the year ending Dec 2023, when 277,000 such visas had been issued to Indians, of which 132,000 were work and 136,000 were study visas.The number of long-term UK visas being given to all nationalities is on the decline owing...