Table of Contents
- 16% Decrease in UK Student Visas in 2024!
- UK Introduces New ETA Travel Visa for Australians
- UK Universities Affected by Student Visa Restrictions
- Immigration Issues Tops British Citizens' Concerns
- UK Labour Government Focuses on Immigration Reforms
- Review of the Politics of UK’s post-Brexit Immigration
- International Students Affected by Visa Changes
- UK Digital Visas to Replace Physical Documents by 2025
- Proposed Visa-Free Travel to the UK for Thais
- Care Workers Can No Longer Bring Family Members to the UK
- The UK's Immigration Health Surcharge Increase Takes Effect
- Salary Threshold for Family members of UK Residents will Not be Increased!
- Top German Politician calls for Closer Ties between the UK and EU
- Carers from Overseas are Subjected to Exploitation
- New Increases in UK Visa Fees, from 04 October
- 66% of UK public 'dissatisfied with government’s approach to immigration'
- UK's Visa options are preventing Foreign Investors
- Increase in UK CAS and Student Visa Intake for Autumn 2023
- Businesses request Government to Re-consider Planned Increase in Skilled Worker Visa Fees
17 October 2024
16% Decrease in UK Student Visas in 2024!
There has been a significant drop in the number of international student visa applications this year, new data shows. The Home Office has recently published figures showing there were 350,700 applicants for Sponsored Study visas between January and September 2024, a 16 percent drop from the same timeframe last year. Some 49,000 fewer applications were submitted in three months according to data, specifically from July to September 2024, or 16 percent drop compared to the same months last year, Erudera.com reports. “The number of monthly applications typically peak between July and September before the start of the academic year. Between July and September 2024, there were 49,000 (16 percent) fewer applications, from main applicants, compared to the same 3 months in 2023,” Home Office said in a statement. Following the UK’s rules on international students bringing family members to the country, the number of students’ dependents also dropped between January and September this year, 85 percent fewer than the same period last year.
23 September 2024
UK Introduces New ETA Travel Visa for Australians
From January 2025, Australians headed to the UK will need to complete a new form before they fly, along with a new fee to pay. That form is called an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), which must be completed online and your application approved before you step onto your flight to the UK. The ETA is a digital visa-waiver program similar to the USA’s ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorisation) and the forthcoming equivalents for European, Thailand and Japan, and doesn’t replace a conventional visa – it’s intended primarily for tourism and business purposes. The UK ETA is already required for visitors from Gulf states including Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and is being extended globally in two stages. Travellers from most countries outside Europe will need an ETA to visit the UK from 8 January 2025, unless they are travelling on an eVisa. That long list includes Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the USA, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and South Korea, who can all apply for an ETA as of 27 November 2024. The ETA will cost £10 (A$20) – paid via a credit or debit card at the time of your online application – and permits multiple journeys to the UK for stays of up to six months at a time over two years or until the holder’s passport expires. As at 02 April 2025, citizens of most European countries will need an ETA to visit the UK.
10 September 2024
UK Universities Affected by Student Visa Restrictions
The president of Universities U.K. (UUK), which represents 141 British higher education institutions, said all its universities were "feeling the crunch" since the curbs came in last year. "There is now a clear choice: we can allow our distinguished, globally competitive higher education system to slide into decline or we can act together," said Sally Mapstone. The total income of the British higher education sector in 2022-23 was just over 50 billion pounds ($66 billion), most of it from tuition fees and grants. Typically, international students pay more in tuition fees than their domestic counterparts and have become a lucrative source of income for many institutions. But the previous government under Conservative ex-prime minister Rishi Sunak slapped restrictions on overseas student visas, banning many from bringing their families, as part of a crackdown on record levels of immigration. In the first four months of 2024, there were 30,000 fewer applications from overseas than in the same period in 2023. Universities have been warning for months about the effect on their finances, with fears shortfalls could see them slash courses and force some to the wall. Mapstone told a UUK conference in Reading that the current deficit in the sector was 1.7 billion pounds for teaching and 5 billion pounds for research. She urged "investment and support" from the government to maintain world-class teaching and research. Tuition fees paid by domestic students rose from 9,000 pounds to 9,250 pounds a year in 2017 but have been frozen since then, despite inflation.
20 August 2024
Immigration Issues Tops British Citizens' Concerns
According to the latest round of opinion polling from a leading research firm, immigration and related issues are at the top of peoples’ minds, for the first time since 2016. This result is unsurprising, given the intense focus on immigration that has re-emerged in the wake of social unrest in the country. Ipsos, who publish a monthly ‘Issues Index’ asking Britons what they think the most pressing issues are. The index for August shows that immigration is now top of the list, having jumped past such other issues as the economy, cost of living, and the country’s beleaguered National Health Service. The increase in recent months is stark. In March, immigration ranked fourth among concerns, with just under a quarter of Britons naming it the top concern. Just a few months later, it’s now over a third (34%). Just as notable is the 11% of people who said race relations was the biggest concern, while in previous months the issue was barely present, if at all. From the outside, this jump in concern over immigration and race in the U.K. might be a mystery, but few Britons will have any doubt as to what is behind it. The U.K. has experienced a month of serious social, and racial, unrest.