A record number of dependants were granted UK visas alongside students last year, figures reveal – more than in the previous six years combined.
Home Office statistics show that 490,763 sponsored study visas were granted to main applicants in 2022, the highest number since comparable records began in 2005.
This was 29 per cent more than the year before, and 26 per cent higher than the number granted in 2019, the last pre-pandemic year.
The student visa holders were accompanied by a record 135,788 dependants – almost nine times the number that entered the country in 2019, and more than the total for the previous six years combined.
