{"id":457451,"date":"2026-03-04T17:47:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T17:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/457451\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T17:47:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T17:47:08","slug":"united-kingdom-suspends-granting-of-study-visas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/457451\/","title":{"rendered":"United Kingdom suspends granting of study visas"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Our visa system should not be abused. That is why I am taking the unprecedented decision to deny visas to citizens who seek to exploit our generosity,” said British Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, quoted in a statement from the Home Office<\/a>. The decision will take effect on 26 March, the ministry specified.<\/p>\n

The announcement comes at a time when Keir Starmer’s Labour government has promised to reduce legal and illegal immigration, amid the rise of the anti-immigration Reform UK party.<\/p>\n

Asylum applications in the UK reached a record high in 2024 (108,138 applications) before declining slightly in 2025 (100,625).<\/p>\n

London justifies the decision by stating that asylum applications from people who entered the country legally have “more than tripled since 2021,” reaching almost 133,760.<\/p>\n

Applications from students from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar, and Sudan increased by 470% between 2021 and 2025, according to the Home Office. Skilled work visas for Afghans will also now be denied.<\/p>\n

According to the Home Office, “drastic measures are necessary,” given that financial support for asylum seekers costs British taxpayers “more than \u00a34 billion” (\u20ac4.6 billion) annually.<\/p>\n

In November, the Labour government announced a sweeping reform of asylum policy to discourage migrants from crossing the English Channel in small boats.<\/p>\n

The reform, whose provisions still need to be voted on in Parliament, stipulates, in particular, that refugees must wait 20 years before they can apply for permanent residency.<\/p>\n

Since 2 March, refugee status in the United Kingdom has been granted to all new applicants for a renewable period of 30 months, instead of the previous five-year term.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“Our visa system should not be abused. That is why I am taking the unprecedented decision to deny…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-457451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}