Official figures show falls in Skilled Worker and Health and Care visa applications
31 Oct 2026
Home Office figures show fewer people are applying for sponsored work visas. This is background information. It does not change visa rules, fees or settlement requirements.
The figures cover the year ending September 2026, from 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2026. They were published on 8 October 2026 and are provisional. For Skilled Worker, there were 26,400 main applications, which the release describes as "a 43% decrease from YE September 2025". For Health and Care Worker, there were 7,500 main applications, "a 63% fall from the YE September 2025".
If you are already on one of these visas, nothing in these numbers changes what you need to do. Keep checking GOV.UK for rule changes that affect your route, your sponsor and your path to settlement.
These figures were also covered in news reporting. We could not open that article, so this post relies only on the official GOV.UK release.
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