UK Entry Clearance Visas Issued to U.S. Nationals (Work, Study, Family)

## What this measures

The number of entry clearance visas issued outside the UK to U.S. nationals in the work, study and family visa type groups in a calendar year. The UK's counterpart to Eurostat's first residence permits: the long-stay routes, excluding visitors.

## Why it matters

The United Kingdom is the largest English-speaking destination for Americans moving abroad and is outside the Eurostat count. This completes the Americans-to-Europe picture.

## How to read it

Higher means more Americans moving to the UK to work, study or join family. The series runs from 2005 (24,636 visas). It reached 32,943 in 2010, the most in records back to 2005, fell to 16,678 in 2020, and was 31,687 in 2025. Study has been the largest group in every year since 2015; work visas to Americans have fallen from 15,245 in 2014 to 11,470 in 2025 while family visas rose.

## What it does not say

Data from the first quarter of 2026 onwards are provisional and the latest complete year is revised at the next release. An outcome in a quarter may relate to an application made earlier. It counts visas issued, not arrivals, and excludes visitor visas (U.S. nationals do not need one for short visits) and the Home Office "Other" group (transit, settlement and legacy routes). Nationality is the applicant's, so dual nationals using another passport never appear.

## Source

Home Office, Immigration system statistics data tables, "Entry clearance visa applications and outcomes detailed datasets", sheet Data_Vis_D02 ("Outcomes of applications for entry clearance visas" by year, quarter, nationality, visa type group and case outcome). Nationality = United States, case outcome = Issued, visa type group = Work + Study + Family, summed over the four quarters of each calendar year; a year is published only once all four quarters are in. Palanor finds the current workbook through the GOV.UK content API every Sunday and streams it (it is about 33 MB).

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. © Crown copyright.