Number of foreign students applying to bring families to UK falls 80%

The number of foreign students applying to bring family members to Britain has plummeted by 80 per cent, new figures show.

In a sign that the Government’s migration shake-up has begun to have an impact, Home Office data reveals that the first three months of this year saw 6,700 applications to bring spouses, children and other relatives here – down from nearly 33,000 in the same period last year.

Meanwhile, the number of foreign students applying for a visa fell from 39,900 to 34,000.

Restrictions which bar most foreign students bringing their dependants into Britain while they study came into force on January 1.

Across three visa categories reformed by the Home Secretary James Cleverly this year, there was a 24 per cent drop in applications overall, the figures showed.

Home Office data reveals that the first three months of this year saw 6,700 applications to bring spouses, children and other relatives here – down from nearly 33,000 last year

Mr Cleverly said: ‘Ever-spiralling numbers were eroding the British people’s confidence in our immigration system, burdening public services and suppressing wages.

‘This data shows a significant fall in numbers on the first of our measures to take effect.’

He added: ‘This does not mark the end of the road in our plan to cut migration, there is more still to come.

READ MORE – A third of foreign students seeking to stay in the UK are at just SIX institutions, figures show

‘Over the coming months, we will continue to show the pace of our progress as we deliver the control the public rightly expect.’

However, the data showed there appeared to have been a last-minute rush for visas by relatives of foreign care workers, who were barred from bringing dependants into the UK from March 11.

These figures saw an increase from 44,200 in the first quarter of last year to 49,300 this year, although the number of principal applicants fell from 38,700 to 10,200 period-on-period.

It could suggest foreign care workers already living in Britain submitted applications to bring in extra family members before the rules changed.

A third category – skilled workers – saw visa applications rise slightly.

New measures raising the minimum salary they must earn to qualify for a visa did not come into force until early April – suggesting the increase in attempts to secure a visa was triggered by people rushing to beat the new rules.

Skilled worker visas rose from 16,000 from January to March last year to 19,100 in the same period this year, while applications by their dependants jumped from 12,200 to 19,800.

Across three visa categories reformed by the Home Secretary James Cleverly this year, there was a 24 per cent drop in applications overall, the figures showed

Across all categories – skilled workers, care workers, students and all their dependants – there was a 24 per cent fall in numbers in the first quarter of this year to 139,100 compared with 184,000 in the same period in 2023.

It suggests the immigration rules changes – which were announced by Mr Cleverly in December – are likely to have an impact on overall net migration figures.

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But the full picture will not become clear until data covering the first half of this year are published by the Office for National Statistics in November.

The Home Office has estimated the changes could see net migration – the difference between immigrants arriving to live in Britain long-term and those emigrating – fall by 300,000 a year after it hit a record 745,000 in 2022.

Widespread evidence has emerged of abuse of the foreign care worker visa, including foreign nationals being granted visas to work in non-existent care homes.

The Mail revealed on Monday how tens of thousands of foreign nationals entering Britain on time-limited visas are lodging asylum claims in a bid to stay here permanently.

Leaked documents covering the year to March 2023 showed a record 21,525 claims were made by visa-holders, up 154 per cent year-on-year, while over a decade the figure was more than 102,000.

By claiming asylum people are highly likely to remain here indefinitely because the Home Office faces huge obstacles to deport them, including human rights laws.

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