Sri Lanka among top 5 nationalities granted dependant visas to UK

Sri Lanka is among the top 5 nationalities granted dependant visas to the UK.

The number of visa grants for people to come and live in the UK has more than doubled from over half a million in 2019 to 1.3 million in 2022, Migrant Watch UK reported.

“One telling aspect of the figures is the huge rise in the number of family members of those on study visas who are coming here; remember that all of those coming have full access to the labour market with no pay thresholds or job offer requirements,” Migrant Watch said.

In 2022, more than one fifth (22%) of all sponsored study related visas granted were to dependants of students (135,788), compared to 6% (16,047) in 2019.

Nigeria had the highest number of dependants (60,923) of sponsored study visa holders in 2022, increasing from 1,586 in 2019.

Indian nationals had the second highest number of dependants, increasing from 3,135 to 38,990. There were almost 120,000 dependant visas granted to the top 5 nationalities (Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka) in 2022.

“These figures show absolutely no sign that the government are responding to public opinion and getting a grip of immigration.?At just over a quarter of a million, the number of work visas issued in 2022 is almost double that of 2019. Student arrivals, meanwhile, were nearly half a million in addition to over 600,000 international students already enrolled here.?This government will pay a heavy price for failing yet again to control and reduce immigration; despite their repeated promises,” Alp Mehmet, Chairman of Migration Watch UK said.

There were more study dependants from Nigeria in most recent year than study visa main applicants from that country: 59,074 main applicants but 60,923 dependants!

Meanwhile, the total number of work dependants has also risen and now stands at 155,343. This was more than two and half times (+180%) the number of grants in 2019.

Remarkably a record number of study visas (main applicants and dependants) plus a record number of work visas means these two categories now stand at a million grants on their own ? before you even add in over a quarter of a million refugees who have immigrated here from Hong Kong, Afghanistan and Ukraine as well as 50,000 or so family migrants. (Colombo Gazette)