Last reviewed
In 2025, 20% of Skilled Worker visa decisions on applications made from outside the UK were refusals, and 17% of Health and Care Worker decisions. For people switching or extending inside the UK, the shares were 2.1% and 2.1%. By 2026 Q2 the outside-the-UK Skilled Worker share was 3%, down from 27% in 2024 Q4.
This is what happened to decisions in that period. It is not your chance of a visa. Every figure counts main applicants, not dependants. A decision is counted in the quarter it was made, which can be later than the quarter the application was made in.
20%
of Skilled Worker decisions on applications from outside the UK were refusals
2025. 7,932 refused, 32,410 granted.
2.1%
of Skilled Worker decisions inside the UK were refusals
2025, people switching or extending. 2,540 refused, 117,257 granted.
3%
outside the UK in 2026 Q2, the newest quarter
Provisional. Before it, the highest quarter since 2023 Q1 was 27% in 2024 Q4.
Terms used here: Skilled Worker visa, Health and Care Worker visa and Certificate of Sponsorship.
Each point is one quarter, from 2023 Q1 to 2026 Q2. One line is decisions on applications made from outside the UK; the other is decisions made inside the UK on people switching from another visa or extending. For Skilled Worker applications made from outside the UK, the share went from 3.7% in 2023 Q1 to 27% in 2024 Q4 and was 3% in 2026 Q2. The files record when decisions were made and what they were. They don't record the reason.
| Quarter | Decisions outside | Refused outside | Share outside | Decisions inside | Refused inside | Share inside |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 Q1 | 16,353 | 607 | 3.7% | 16,665 | 55 | 0.3% |
| 2023 Q2 | 15,599 | 703 | 4.5% | 14,286 | 59 | 0.4% |
| 2023 Q3 | 18,699 | 893 | 4.8% | 21,673 | 55 | 0.3% |
| 2023 Q4 | 18,350 | 1,372 | 7.5% | 25,166 | 115 | 0.5% |
| 2024 Q1 | 19,253 | 1,644 | 8.5% | 26,120 | 123 | 0.5% |
| 2024 Q2 | 21,848 | 2,719 | 12% | 25,813 | 101 | 0.4% |
| 2024 Q3 | 14,830 | 2,738 | 18% | 24,127 | 208 | 0.9% |
| 2024 Q4 | 12,299 | 3,271 | 27% | 27,903 | 232 | 0.8% |
| 2025 Q1 | 11,478 | 2,903 | 25% | 26,733 | 332 | 1.2% |
| 2025 Q2 | 10,774 | 2,058 | 19% | 28,270 | 543 | 1.9% |
| 2025 Q3 | 10,934 | 1,870 | 17% | 30,251 | 882 | 2.9% |
| 2025 Q4 | 7,156 | 1,101 | 15% | 34,543 | 783 | 2.3% |
| 2026 Q1 | 6,148 | 327 | 5.3% | 27,646 | 876 | 3.2% |
| 2026 Q2 | 6,137 | 183 | 3% | 25,011 | 503 | 2% |
| Quarter | Decisions outside | Refused outside | Share outside | Decisions inside | Refused inside | Share inside |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 Q1 | 38,826 | 1,916 | 4.9% | 22,458 | 90 | 0.4% |
| 2023 Q2 | 38,180 | 2,710 | 7.1% | 21,247 | 85 | 0.4% |
| 2023 Q3 | 47,853 | 2,782 | 5.8% | 22,894 | 115 | 0.5% |
| 2023 Q4 | 32,935 | 4,563 | 14% | 29,790 | 213 | 0.7% |
| 2024 Q1 | 12,047 | 2,991 | 25% | 30,983 | 201 | 0.6% |
| 2024 Q2 | 7,601 | 1,091 | 14% | 26,792 | 234 | 0.9% |
| 2024 Q3 | 7,654 | 1,113 | 15% | 30,276 | 302 | 1% |
| 2024 Q4 | 5,887 | 947 | 16% | 32,389 | 325 | 1% |
| 2025 Q1 | 5,397 | 929 | 17% | 34,480 | 581 | 1.7% |
| 2025 Q2 | 5,412 | 890 | 16% | 33,564 | 717 | 2.1% |
| 2025 Q3 | 3,286 | 674 | 21% | 35,546 | 1,027 | 2.9% |
| 2025 Q4 | 1,886 | 295 | 16% | 37,472 | 696 | 1.9% |
| 2026 Q1 | 1,945 | 245 | 13% | 35,241 | 1,078 | 3.1% |
| 2026 Q2 | 1,534 | 209 | 14% | 35,491 | 813 | 2.3% |
Full years only, main applicants. Inside the UK the Home Office published one combined Skilled Worker and Health and Care Worker figure until 2022, so those years are shown only for applications made from outside the UK. A small number of later decisions still carry the combined label and aren't counted.
| Year | Granted outside | Refused outside | Withdrawn outside | Share outside | Granted inside | Refused inside | Share inside |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 35,599 | 286 | 136 | 0.8% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| 2022 | 66,119 | 1,314 | 501 | 1.9% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| 2023 | 65,426 | 3,575 | 1,139 | 5.2% | 77,506 | 284 | 0.4% |
| 2024 | 57,858 | 10,372 | 1,903 | 15% | 103,299 | 664 | 0.6% |
| 2025 | 32,410 | 7,932 | 1,292 | 20% | 117,257 | 2,540 | 2.1% |
| Year | Granted outside | Refused outside | Withdrawn outside | Share outside | Granted inside | Refused inside | Share inside |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 31,800 | 96 | 48 | 0.3% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| 2022 | 76,724 | 2,863 | 210 | 3.6% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| 2023 | 145,823 | 11,971 | 1,411 | 7.6% | 95,886 | 503 | 0.5% |
| 2024 | 27,047 | 6,142 | 608 | 19% | 119,378 | 1,062 | 0.9% |
| 2025 | 13,193 | 2,788 | 277 | 17% | 138,041 | 3,021 | 2.1% |
Decisions in 2025 on main applicants of each nationality, sorted by the number of decisions, not by the refusal share. The tables list countries with at least 50 decisions on at least one side. A share shows as n/a where that side had fewer than 50 decisions. Each country links to its own page.
Among the 10 nationalities with the most Skilled Worker decisions, applications made by people from Bangladesh were refused at 75% from outside the UK and 6.3% inside it, and applications by people from Pakistan at 63% and 5.4%. Across every nationality the shares were 20% and 2.1%.
| Country | Outside the UK | Inside the UK | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Decisions | Refused | Share | Decisions | Refused | Share | |
| India | 7,096 | 1,578 | 22% | 49,786 | 1,200 | 2.4% |
| Pakistan | 4,481 | 2,827 | 63% | 9,387 | 504 | 5.4% |
| Nigeria | 605 | 289 | 48% | 6,953 | 273 | 3.9% |
| United States | 3,150 | 30 | 1% | 3,728 | 10 | 0.3% |
| China | 1,460 | 141 | 9.7% | 4,877 | 39 | 0.8% |
| Philippines | 1,972 | 130 | 6.6% | 3,099 | 14 | 0.5% |
| Bangladesh | 1,403 | 1,056 | 75% | 3,204 | 202 | 6.3% |
| Turkey | 1,198 | 156 | 13% | 2,177 | 16 | 0.7% |
| France | 1,848 | 12 | 0.6% | 1,383 | 1 | under 0.1% |
| Sri Lanka | 888 | 545 | 61% | 2,267 | 49 | 2.2% |
| South Africa | 838 | 45 | 5.4% | 2,263 | 7 | 0.3% |
| Australia | 712 | 6 | 0.8% | 2,105 | 1 | under 0.1% |
| Italy | 1,423 | 12 | 0.8% | 1,358 | 1 | under 0.1% |
| Nepal | 512 | 267 | 52% | 1,839 | 41 | 2.2% |
| Canada | 578 | 4 | 0.7% | 1,398 | 4 | 0.3% |
| Germany | 1,145 | 5 | 0.4% | 778 | 1 | 0.1% |
| Spain | 973 | 5 | 0.5% | 902 | 0 | 0% |
| Russia | 408 | 12 | 2.9% | 1,415 | 3 | 0.2% |
| Malaysia | 286 | 19 | 6.6% | 1,342 | 10 | 0.7% |
| Ghana | 375 | 162 | 43% | 1,015 | 37 | 3.6% |
| Zimbabwe | 231 | 21 | 9.1% | 1,130 | 10 | 0.9% |
| New Zealand | 153 | 3 | 2% | 1,129 | 2 | 0.2% |
| Iran | 220 | 55 | 25% | 977 | 9 | 0.9% |
| Brazil | 431 | 19 | 4.4% | 746 | 1 | 0.1% |
| Egypt | 293 | 22 | 7.5% | 740 | 8 | 1.1% |
| Netherlands | 626 | 3 | 0.5% | 321 | 1 | 0.3% |
| Ukraine | 147 | 1 | 0.7% | 730 | 1 | 0.1% |
| Singapore | 223 | 1 | 0.4% | 598 | 1 | 0.2% |
| Portugal | 338 | 8 | 2.4% | 434 | 1 | 0.2% |
| Morocco | 127 | 12 | 9.4% | 627 | 8 | 1.3% |
| South Korea | 182 | 4 | 2.2% | 547 | 1 | 0.2% |
| Poland | 434 | 18 | 4.1% | 255 | 1 | 0.4% |
| Taiwan | 98 | 3 | 3.1% | 560 | 4 | 0.7% |
| Japan | 205 | 3 | 1.5% | 440 | 1 | 0.2% |
| Jamaica | 52 | 2 | 3.8% | 549 | 3 | 0.5% |
| Kenya | 116 | 16 | 14% | 480 | 9 | 1.9% |
| Greece | 246 | 3 | 1.2% | 332 | 0 | 0% |
| Belgium | 419 | 0 | 0% | 156 | 0 | 0% |
| Mexico | 132 | 3 | 2.3% | 406 | 1 | 0.2% |
| Viet Nam | 159 | 50 | 31% | 365 | 2 | 0.5% |
| Albania | 166 | 97 | 58% | 351 | 15 | 4.3% |
| Lebanon | 95 | 8 | 8.4% | 376 | 5 | 1.3% |
| Sweden | 294 | 7 | 2.4% | 175 | 0 | 0% |
| Indonesia | 97 | 3 | 3.1% | 325 | 1 | 0.3% |
| Romania | 203 | 10 | 4.9% | 202 | 0 | 0% |
| Colombia | 104 | 3 | 2.9% | 271 | 1 | 0.4% |
| Switzerland | 196 | 1 | 0.5% | 144 | 1 | 0.7% |
| Thailand | 75 | 17 | 23% | 244 | 1 | 0.4% |
| Israel | 134 | 3 | 2.2% | 173 | 1 | 0.6% |
| Jordan | 44 | 5 | n/a | 224 | 3 | 1.3% |
| Kazakhstan | 82 | 0 | 0% | 174 | 0 | 0% |
| Denmark | 182 | 1 | 0.5% | 72 | 0 | 0% |
| Hungary | 123 | 1 | 0.8% | 124 | 0 | 0% |
| Norway | 185 | 1 | 0.5% | 58 | 0 | 0% |
| Hong Kong | 76 | 0 | 0% | 139 | 0 | 0% |
| Croatia | 160 | 1 | 0.6% | 52 | 0 | 0% |
| Austria | 119 | 1 | 0.8% | 91 | 0 | 0% |
| Chile | 44 | 3 | n/a | 151 | 1 | 0.7% |
| Tunisia | 75 | 4 | 5.3% | 118 | 1 | 0.8% |
| Argentina | 56 | 2 | 3.6% | 133 | 0 | 0% |
| Mauritius | 24 | 0 | n/a | 165 | 2 | 1.2% |
| Peru | 30 | 0 | n/a | 156 | 2 | 1.3% |
| Finland | 119 | 2 | 1.7% | 65 | 0 | 0% |
| Algeria | 34 | 6 | n/a | 131 | 2 | 1.5% |
| Belarus | 31 | 1 | n/a | 127 | 0 | 0% |
| Uganda | 28 | 11 | n/a | 119 | 0 | 0% |
| Trinidad and Tobago | 23 | 2 | n/a | 123 | 0 | 0% |
| Belize | 10 | 0 | n/a | 132 | 0 | 0% |
| Serbia | 54 | 2 | 3.7% | 85 | 0 | 0% |
| Bulgaria | 96 | 3 | 3.1% | 36 | 1 | n/a |
| Afghanistan | 94 | 76 | 81% | 35 | 2 | n/a |
| Lithuania | 93 | 1 | 1.1% | 32 | 0 | n/a |
| Syria | 34 | 14 | n/a | 89 | 2 | 2.2% |
| Myanmar | 19 | 5 | n/a | 102 | 0 | 0% |
| Azerbaijan | 30 | 0 | n/a | 87 | 0 | 0% |
| Iraq | 34 | 12 | n/a | 77 | 2 | 2.6% |
| Sudan | 29 | 4 | n/a | 82 | 1 | 1.2% |
| Cameroon | 26 | 12 | n/a | 83 | 4 | 4.8% |
| Georgia | 29 | 1 | n/a | 78 | 1 | 1.3% |
| Uzbekistan | 20 | 5 | n/a | 82 | 1 | 1.2% |
| Czech Republic | 53 | 3 | 5.7% | 32 | 0 | n/a |
| Cyprus | 28 | 0 | n/a | 55 | 0 | 0% |
| Zambia | 13 | 2 | n/a | 67 | 0 | 0% |
| Botswana | 9 | 2 | n/a | 70 | 0 | 0% |
| Latvia | 63 | 2 | 3.2% | 15 | 1 | n/a |
| Ecuador | 18 | 1 | n/a | 57 | 0 | 0% |
| Malawi | 9 | 1 | n/a | 59 | 1 | 1.7% |
| Palestine | 11 | 0 | n/a | 52 | 0 | 0% |
88 countries. Scroll the table to see them all.
Among the 10 nationalities with the most Health and Care Worker decisions, applications made by people from Bangladesh were refused at 55% from outside the UK and 2.6% inside it, and applications by people from Pakistan at 34% and 2.5%. Across every nationality the shares were 17% and 2.1%.
| Country | Outside the UK | Inside the UK | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Decisions | Refused | Share | Decisions | Refused | Share | |
| India | 4,169 | 1,013 | 24% | 44,248 | 975 | 2.2% |
| Nigeria | 1,719 | 207 | 12% | 35,299 | 1,119 | 3.2% |
| Zimbabwe | 748 | 118 | 16% | 12,586 | 187 | 1.5% |
| Pakistan | 2,068 | 702 | 34% | 7,048 | 174 | 2.5% |
| Philippines | 739 | 29 | 3.9% | 8,063 | 19 | 0.2% |
| Ghana | 463 | 74 | 16% | 7,366 | 247 | 3.4% |
| Bangladesh | 448 | 246 | 55% | 3,422 | 89 | 2.6% |
| Sri Lanka | 583 | 101 | 17% | 2,786 | 30 | 1.1% |
| Egypt | 617 | 5 | 0.8% | 2,232 | 0 | 0% |
| Nepal | 293 | 50 | 17% | 2,014 | 44 | 2.2% |
| Kenya | 226 | 56 | 25% | 1,960 | 47 | 2.4% |
| Malaysia | 320 | 6 | 1.9% | 1,079 | 0 | 0% |
| South Africa | 190 | 14 | 7.4% | 826 | 10 | 1.2% |
| Sudan | 222 | 8 | 3.6% | 736 | 0 | 0% |
| Australia | 231 | 6 | 2.6% | 577 | 1 | 0.2% |
| Iran | 275 | 4 | 1.5% | 460 | 1 | 0.2% |
| Uganda | 49 | 14 | n/a | 667 | 13 | 1.9% |
| Myanmar | 96 | 1 | 1% | 610 | 0 | 0% |
| Canada | 183 | 4 | 2.2% | 522 | 0 | 0% |
| Jamaica | 24 | 4 | n/a | 592 | 2 | 0.3% |
| Zambia | 39 | 5 | n/a | 547 | 6 | 1.1% |
| Jordan | 104 | 3 | 2.9% | 445 | 0 | 0% |
| Cameroon | 35 | 12 | n/a | 508 | 18 | 3.5% |
| Greece | 180 | 1 | 0.6% | 291 | 0 | 0% |
| United States | 130 | 3 | 2.3% | 339 | 0 | 0% |
| Turkey | 129 | 4 | 3.1% | 292 | 0 | 0% |
| Iraq | 79 | 2 | 2.5% | 301 | 0 | 0% |
| Trinidad and Tobago | 66 | 2 | 3% | 292 | 0 | 0% |
| Italy | 133 | 4 | 3% | 208 | 0 | 0% |
| Singapore | 39 | 2 | n/a | 227 | 0 | 0% |
| Palestine | 27 | 0 | n/a | 225 | 0 | 0% |
| Botswana | 30 | 5 | n/a | 220 | 1 | 0.5% |
| Guyana | 11 | 0 | n/a | 236 | 1 | 0.4% |
| New Zealand | 56 | 1 | 1.8% | 169 | 0 | 0% |
| China | 28 | 1 | n/a | 193 | 2 | 1% |
| Spain | 72 | 0 | 0% | 125 | 0 | 0% |
| Mauritius | 35 | 5 | n/a | 156 | 0 | 0% |
| Portugal | 44 | 1 | n/a | 135 | 0 | 0% |
| Albania | 31 | 3 | n/a | 144 | 8 | 5.6% |
| Syria | 31 | 4 | n/a | 140 | 0 | 0% |
| Malawi | 11 | 3 | n/a | 154 | 1 | 0.6% |
| Lebanon | 31 | 0 | n/a | 133 | 1 | 0.8% |
| Taiwan | 86 | 0 | 0% | 71 | 1 | 1.4% |
| Brazil | 35 | 0 | n/a | 110 | 0 | 0% |
| Romania | 47 | 3 | n/a | 72 | 0 | 0% |
| South Korea | 16 | 0 | n/a | 93 | 1 | 1.1% |
| Germany | 40 | 1 | n/a | 64 | 0 | 0% |
| Bahrain | 18 | 1 | n/a | 85 | 0 | 0% |
| Libya | 17 | 2 | n/a | 85 | 0 | 0% |
| Sierra Leone | 10 | 3 | n/a | 91 | 3 | 3.3% |
| Gambia | 11 | 2 | n/a | 69 | 2 | 2.9% |
| Morocco | 14 | 3 | n/a | 64 | 3 | 4.7% |
| Tanzania | 9 | 3 | n/a | 69 | 1 | 1.4% |
| Hong Kong | 19 | 0 | n/a | 53 | 0 | 0% |
| Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | 2 | 0 | n/a | 61 | 1 | 1.6% |
| Barbados | 5 | 1 | n/a | 54 | 0 | 0% |
| Saint Lucia | 5 | 0 | n/a | 54 | 0 | 0% |
| Ukraine | 4 | 1 | n/a | 50 | 1 | 2% |
58 countries. Scroll the table to see them all.
A share describes the decisions on the applications people of that nationality made, with the employers, jobs and documents they applied with. It isn't a judgement about a nationality, and it isn't your chance of a visa.
Decisions in 2025 on main applicants of every nationality. The Graduate visa is applied for inside the UK only, and the Seasonal Worker visa from outside only, so each shows n/a on the other side.
| Route | Outside the UK | Inside the UK | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Decisions | Refused | Share | Decisions | Refused | Share | |
| Skilled Worker | 40,342 | 7,932 | 20% | 119,797 | 2,540 | 2.1% |
| Health and Care Worker | 15,981 | 2,788 | 17% | 141,062 | 3,021 | 2.1% |
| Senior or Specialist Worker | 12,544 | 82 | 0.7% | 8,130 | 2 | under 0.1% |
| Scale-up Worker | 100 | 3 | 3% | 211 | 1 | 0.5% |
| Global Talent | 3,929 | 26 | 0.7% | 5,757 | 13 | 0.2% |
| High Potential Individual | 1,889 | 22 | 1.2% | 141 | 6 | 4.3% |
| Graduate | n/a | n/a | n/a | 168,961 | 2,631 | 1.6% |
| Youth Mobility Scheme | 21,609 | 434 | 2% | 7,825 | 5 | under 0.1% |
| Seasonal Worker | 39,312 | 588 | 1.5% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Creative Worker | 9,238 | 3,234 | 35% | 445 | 6 | 1.3% |
| Charity Worker | 2,656 | 1,194 | 45% | 26 | 0 | n/a |
Read the figures above with these limits in mind.
The share is the number of refusals out of all the grants and refusals the Home Office decided in a period. It describes the applications people made, with the employers, jobs and documents they applied with, and it says nothing about any one application.
Nothing here means a sponsor, a job offer or an occupation code makes a grant certain, and nothing here means a nationality makes a refusal likely.
The Home Office says that an outcome in a given quarter may relate to an application raised in a previous quarter. A refusal share is a figure for the period the decisions were made in. It isn't the success rate of the people who applied in that period.
For Skilled Worker applications made from outside the UK, the share went from 3.7% in 2023 Q1 to 27% in 2024 Q4 and was 3% in 2026 Q2. The files record when decisions were made and what they were. They don't record the reason. Rules changed over the same period and the Home Office applied more scrutiny to employers in the health and social care sector, and these figures can't show whether either changed the shares.
Figures from 2026 Q1 onwards are provisional. In 2026 Q2 the Home Office found a small number of test records in its extensions data, under 1% of cases since about 2022, and says they are unlikely to have changed the published figures much. It also says the extensions figures may change in future quarters while its casework systems change. The next release is due on 26 November 2026.
A share is shown only where there were at least 50 decisions on that side in the year. Below that, one decision moves the share by two points or more.
Source: Home Office, Immigration system statistics, year ending June 2026, published 27 August 2026: table Vis_D02, entry clearance visa outcomes, for applications made from outside the UK, and table Exe_D01, extensions of stay, for applications decided inside the UK. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
The refusal share is refusals divided by refusals plus grants, for main applicants, in the period the decision was made. The entry clearance file labels a grant "Issued"; this page says granted for both files. Withdrawn and lapsed applications are left out of the share.
Quarters are shown from 2023 Q1 and years from 2021. A year is shown once all four quarters are published. Figures from 2026 Q1 onwards are provisional. Next release: 26 November 2026.
Data tables: Immigration system statistics data tables on GOV.UK.
In 2025, 20% of decisions on Skilled Worker applications made from outside the UK were refusals (7,932 of 40,342), and 2.1% of decisions on applications made inside the UK (2,540 of 119,797). In 2026 Q2, the newest quarter, the outside-the-UK share was 3%. The two Home Office data tables used here give counts rather than rates, and these shares are worked out from them.
The files don't say. People applying inside the UK already hold a UK visa, and many are extending a job they already have. Those applications differ from the ones made from abroad, so the two figures describe two different groups of applications.
Nationality isn't a requirement of the Skilled Worker visa. The files don't record why the shares differ. A share describes the applications people of that nationality made, with the employers, jobs, salaries and documents behind them, and what happened to them in 2025. It can't tell you what will happen to yours.
For Skilled Worker applications made from outside the UK, the share went from 3.7% in 2023 Q1 to 27% in 2024 Q4 and was 3% in 2026 Q2. The files record when decisions were made and what they were. They don't record the reason. Rules changed over the same period and the Home Office applied more scrutiny to employers in the health and social care sector, and these figures can't show whether either changed the shares.
No. Every figure counts main applicants. Dependants are published in the same Home Office files and aren't shown here.
Refusals divided by refusals plus grants, for main applicants, in the period the decisions were made. Withdrawn applications are shown in the tables for applications made from outside the UK and left out of the share. A share is shown only where there were at least 50 decisions.
From two Home Office tables in its immigration system statistics, year ending June 2026: entry clearance visa outcomes (Vis_D02) for applications made from outside the UK, and extensions of stay (Exe_D01) for applications decided inside it. They are published every three months. The next release is due on 26 November 2026.