The number of migrants applying for key visa routes to the UK has dropped by more than third in a year, it has been revealed.
Applications for a total of 772,200 people were submitted across the main visa categories in the year to March 2025.
This is down 37% from nearly 1.24 million compared to the previous 12 months, Home Office data published on Thursday showed.
The decline has been put down to changes introduced in early 2024 by the previous Conservative Government, which were aimed to bring down record levels of legal migration.
They included a ban on overseas care workers and students bringing family members to Britain with them, and a steep rise in the salary needed for skilled workers to £38,700.
Key visa routes to the UK are defined as skilled worker, health and care worker, sponsored study, family, seasonal worker and the youth mobility scheme.
The latest figures cover the main worker, study and family visa categories.
The drop has mainly been driven by a sharp fall in applications by foreign health workers and their family members, which decreased by 78% from 359,300 in 2023/24 to 80,700 in 2024/25.
There was an even steeper fall in applications by family members of those wanting to come to the UK on a sponsored study visa.
This was down 83%, though the number of main applicants for this visa route dropped by just 11%.
Researcher at the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, Dr Ben Brindle, said: “The tightening of immigration rules under the previous government has led to a sharp decline in visa applications over the past year.
“This was driven primarily by a fall in applications from health and care workers and students’ family members – most of whom now cannot come to the UK.
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“Main applications from health and care workers also fell, possibly reflecting fewer vacancies and government focus on exploitation in the sector.”
Unison’s head of social care Gavin Edwards said the restrictions are behind the fall in the number of applicants in the social care sector.
“Workers who come here from overseas are propping up the social care sector, which still faces a huge recruitment crisis,” he said.
“Reforms are needed urgently so the Government has control over visa sponsorship.
“This would stop unscrupulous employers from threatening staff with dismissal or deportation.”
The call comes as the Government announced changes to care worker recruitment that came into force this week.
The new rules aim to tackle the reliance on overseas labour in the sector, as well as exploitation.
Dr Brindle said that applications from migrants recruited for jobs outside health and care had fallen less than expected, and that with the increase in salary thresholds “it appears that many employers are simply paying workers more”.
The number of main applicants for skilled worker visas dropped by 16% year on year, while applications for their dependants decreased by 13%.
Dr Brindle added: “It’s important to remember, however, that the fall in applications was possible because the number of people coming to the UK since Brexit has been so high.
“Despite these declines, applications from non-EU citizens remain well above pre-Brexit levels. As of mid-2024, overall net migration was also still much higher than it had been pre-Brexit.”