The UK’s long-term net migration has fallen dramatically to 204,000 in the year ending June 2025, according to provisional data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on 27 November. This represents a two-thirds decline from the 649,000 recorded a year earlier and the lowest annual figure since the pandemic recovery period in 2021.
The ONS attributes the drop to a 61 % fall in non-EU work immigration and a 25 % fall in study-related arrivals after a raft of policy changes. Key measures included banning most international students from bringing dependants (January 2024), raising the Skilled Worker salary threshold to £38,700 in April, and abolishing the care-worker visa route and lifting the threshold again to £41,700 in July. At the same time, emigration continued to edge upward as the first large cohort of post-pandemic students left the country.
![UK Net Migration Plunges to 204,000 Following Sweeping Visa and Salary Reforms]()
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the government would “go further” and pointed to this month’s Immigration White Paper, which makes refugee status temporary, accelerates deportations and doubles the qualifying period for settlement to ten years for most workers. Business groups welcomed greater certainty on numbers but warned that repeated rule changes are creating planning headaches for employers recruiting from overseas.
For global mobility managers the new data confirm a sharply tightening UK labour market for overseas hires. Firms relying on mid-salary talent or intra-company transfers face higher minimum pay, longer routes to settlement and reduced options for dependent family members. Employers are advised to audit salary bands against the new thresholds and to explore frontier-worker permits or short-term visitor options where feasible.
Although overall numbers have fallen, the UK continues to register positive net migration, driven chiefly by high-skilled and health-care roles that still meet salary and skills thresholds. The ONS cautions that the figures are provisional and will be revised as new Home Office administrative data are integrated.
The ONS attributes the drop to a 61 % fall in non-EU work immigration and a 25 % fall in study-related arrivals after a raft of policy changes. Key measures included banning most international students from bringing dependants (January 2024), raising the Skilled Worker salary threshold to £38,700 in April, and abolishing the care-worker visa route and lifting the threshold again to £41,700 in July. At the same time, emigration continued to edge upward as the first large cohort of post-pandemic students left the country.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the government would “go further” and pointed to this month’s Immigration White Paper, which makes refugee status temporary, accelerates deportations and doubles the qualifying period for settlement to ten years for most workers. Business groups welcomed greater certainty on numbers but warned that repeated rule changes are creating planning headaches for employers recruiting from overseas.
For global mobility managers the new data confirm a sharply tightening UK labour market for overseas hires. Firms relying on mid-salary talent or intra-company transfers face higher minimum pay, longer routes to settlement and reduced options for dependent family members. Employers are advised to audit salary bands against the new thresholds and to explore frontier-worker permits or short-term visitor options where feasible.
Although overall numbers have fallen, the UK continues to register positive net migration, driven chiefly by high-skilled and health-care roles that still meet salary and skills thresholds. The ONS cautions that the figures are provisional and will be revised as new Home Office administrative data are integrated.
