Visa restrictions see applications fall by a third as number of students with dependents applying drops by almost 80 per cent
Key visa applications have plummeted by more than 30 per cent after the Tories introduced major curbs.
Home Office data showed the overall number of migrants and their dependants who applied for three main types of visa fell by nearly a third year-on-year.
It included a 79 per cent drop in the number of student dependants who applied for a visa after the route was restricted in January to families of research postgraduates only.
In the first five months of 2023, 46,700 student dependants applied to come here – compared with just 9,700 in the same period this year.
Home Secretary James Cleverly (pictured) said: ‘We have been clear that immigration has been too high – that’s why we’ve taken bold action to bring numbers down and today’s statistics show the plan is working’
Home Office data showed the overall number of migrants and their dependants who applied for three main types of visa fell by nearly a third year-on-year (stock photo)
The number of foreign care workers who applied to bring family members to the UK also fell from 78,600 in the first five months of last year to 61,600.
Earlier this week, the Conservative Party’s election manifesto pledged further curbs, including introducing a migration cap which would bring numbers down every year.
Home Secretary James Cleverly said: ‘We have been clear that immigration has been too high – that’s why we’ve taken bold action to bring numbers down and today’s statistics show the plan is working.’
He added: ‘Keir Starmer has no plan to reduce immigration – he only dreams of a sweetheart deal with the EU which would see us take more, not fewer, migrants.
‘He cannot be trusted to control our borders and would take us back to square one.’
The number of foreign care workers who applied to bring family members to the UK also fell from 78,600 in the first five months of last year to 61,600 (stock photo)
Overall, across the three visa routes which have been reformed, there were 207,900 applications in the first five months of this year – down from 304,700 in the same period last year.
In 2023, net migration – the difference between the number of migrants coming to live in Britain and those emigrating – was 685,000, according to estimates from the Office for National Statistics.
A top expert also said last month that reforms already introduced by the Conservatives have a ‘fighting chance’ of slashing net migration to as low as 150,000 a year.
Chairman of the Migration Advisory Committee Professor Brian Bell said they could trigger an ‘enormous’ drop in numbers coming to Britain, particularly among students.
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