Indian students and skilled workers are the most likely to get UK visa extensions.
The number of sponsored study visas given to foreign students went up by 3% in the past year, after a recent falling trend. In the year ending December 2025, 95,231 visas were given to Indians.
The UK continues to give the most visa extensions to Indian students and skilled professionals, notably those in the healthcare field. This information comes from official migration figures released by the Home Office in London on Thursday.
The number of sponsored study visas given to international students went up by 3% in the past year, after a recent falling trend. In the year ending December 2025, Indians were given 95,231 visas.
During the same time period, Indians received the most skilled worker extensions for work visas.The Home Office said that Indian citizens were the most common nationality to get sponsored study visas in the YE December 2025. They provided 95,231 visas to main applicants, which is 23 percent of the total.Indian (104,555), Nigerian (88,461), and Zimbabwean (28,914) citizens got the most health and care worker extensions in the YE December 2025.Indian (90,031), Pakistani (16,098), and Nigerian (12,485) nationals got the most skilled worker extensions in the year ending December 2025.It says that the most graduate extensions were given to people from India (90,153), Nigeria (42,220), and Pakistan (30,464) in the year ending December 2025.
The Graduate Route visa lets international students who have finished an approved UK degree stay in the Kingdom for up to two years to work or hunt for work. For those applying on or after January 1, 2027, the time limit is 18 months.
Overall, the number of Graduate Route extension grants went down by 6% in the last year. This was because the government stopped family members from joining overseas students as dependents.
The Work Rights Centre (WRC) in the UK warned that there would be a lot fewer migrant care workers, nurses, therapists, scientists, teachers, and skilled tradesmen coming to work in the UK.Dr. Dora-Olivia Vicol, the charity’s chief executive, said, “The sharp drop in migrant professionals working in UK hospitals, research institutes, and schools raises serious questions about the costs of the government’s narrow focus on reducing migration.”At a time when 25,000 nursing jobs are still open and no British worker wants to work a double shift, no hospital is likely to be happy with a 93 percent decline in overseas nurses.Meanwhile, foreign workers who can still come to work in the UK have to pay more, take longer routes to establish down, and risk being exploited by their employers because their visas tie them to their jobs. She said, “Ministers need to look at what workers and public services really need and not just the number of migrants. They need to create an immigration system that works for the people who actually use it.”
The most recent statistics from the Home Office also showed that some of the government’s tighter policies had other effects. For example, the number of persons seeking asylum in the UK fell by 4% in 2025, even though the number of people coming to the UK illegally on small boats rose by 13%.
In the past year, Indians were the seventh most common nationality to seek refuge. Pakistan, Eritrea, Iran, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria, and Vietnam rounded out the top ten.The Home Office said, “Since 1 January 2021, these nationalities, along with India, have seen a big rise in the number of work and study visas granted.” This is because of changes to the immigration system after Brexit.