Telling The Truth

Home Office Immigration Statistics Released: Year ending March 2022

This a quite a long and tedious read with lots of figures thrown at you but when you study the numbers of people coming into our country, both legally & illegally, the numbers are overwhelming. After Malta, we are the second-most densely populated country in Europe.

First, we’ll take a look at how many people the government let into our country legally via the visa route.

WORK VISAS

There were 277,069 work-related visas granted in the year ending March 2022. This was a 129% increase in the year ending March 2021

STUDY VISAS

In the year ending March 2022, there were 466,611 Sponsored study visas granted (to both main applicants and their dependants), 58% (+170,368) more than in the year ending March 2020. Chinese nationals were the most common nationality making up 25% of visas & the largest increase in study grants awarded went to Nigerian students.

FAMILY VISAS & PERMITS

There were 301,830 visas and permits granted for family reasons in the year ending March 2022, 90% more than the year ending March 2021

205,889 dependants of people coming to the UK on other types of visas, up 171% in the last year.

51,148 EUSS family permits were issued in the year ending March 2022 to family members of people from the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, or Liechtenstein.

EXTENSIONS TO STAY

There were 401,963 applications to extend a person’s stay in the UK.

ASYLUM

There were 55,146 asylum applications (relating to 65,008 people) in the UK in the year ending March 2022, the highest number of applications for almost two decades (since 2003).

75% were granted asylum at the initial application stage.

Of the top ten nationalities applying for asylum, half have a grant rate above 80% (Iran 88%, Eritrea 97%, Syria 98%, Afghanistan 91%, and Sudan 95%)

66% of asylum applications were males aged 18 to 49

There are currently 109,735 asylum seekers awaiting a decision as of the end of March 2022.

We currently have 85,007 people in the asylum system who are receiving accommodation, subsistence (cash support) or both.

The UK received the fourth-largest number of asylum applicants in Europe.

AGHAN RESETTLEMENT SCHEME

More than 7,000 people have been relocated under the scheme so far

UKRAINE SCHEME

By 31st March 2022, a total of 60,482 applications have been received

BNO HONG KONG SCHEME

There have been a total of 92,299 grants of out of country visas made between 31st January 2021 and 31st March 2022, and a total of 21,443 grants of in-country visas made between 31st January 2021 to 31st March 2022.

SETTLEMENT

There were 111,760 decisions on applications for settlement in the UK.

CITIZENSHIP

There were 180,493 applications for British citizenship.

196,085 grants of British citizenship were awarded.

IMMIGRATION DETENTION

At the end of March 2022, there were 1,440 people in immigration detention.

24,918 people left detention in the year ending March 2022 which is 93% more than the previous year. Just under three-quarters (73%) had been detained for seven days or fewer.

RETURNS

In 2021, enforced returns from the UK decreased to 2,761 and the majority were EU nationals & returns of foreign offenders.

Should anyone wish to look at a more detailed breakdown of the figures here’s the link to the Home Office statistics.

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