Visa brake policy: Common questions

In March 2026 the government introduced a ‘visa brake’, a temporary ban on certain visa applications made from abroad for nationals of four countries: Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan. The policy is intended to reduce asylum claims from people who enter the UK on a visa and later claim asylum.

The government estimates that the visa brake will prevent around 1,400 asylum claims if left in place for 18 months.

What is the ‘visa brake’ policy?

In early March 2026, the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, announced an ‘emergency brake’ on visa applications from citizens of Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan. It applies only to applications made from outside the UK.

These restrictions came into force on 26 March 2026. From that date, citizens of these countries can no longer be granted study visas. In addition, citizens of Afghanistan are no longer eligible for Skilled Worker visas. Applications submitted after this date will be automatically refused.

The government says the visa brake is necessary to address what it describes as “widespread visa abuse”. It points to an increase since 2021 in the number of people from these countries who have entered the UK on a temporary visa and later applied for asylum.

The Home Secretary has said that the measure “is not intended to be permanent” and will kept under review. According to the Government’s impact assessment (PDF), the policy will be reviewed after an initial 18‑month period, after which the restrictions may either be extended or lifted. This is expected to allow for “sufficient time” to assess whether the policy has reduced asylum claims and to observe how the policy might have affected peoples’ behaviour.

How many people claim asylum after entering the UK on a visa?

The number of asylum claims from people who arrived in the UK on a visa or other form of immigration permission has risen sharply in recent years, as shown on the chart below.

In 2025, 39,100 people who claimed asylum in the UK had previously entered the country on a visa or other leave, accounting for 39% of all asylum claims that year. By comparison, in 2021 around 7,400 people (13% of the total) claimed asylum after entering the UK in this way.

Note: Other unauthorised routes include clandestine entry methods, for example in lorries or shipping containers, and entry without relevant documentation.

Source: Home Office, Immigration Statistics, year ending December 2025, table Asy_D01a

Work and study visas are the most common leave types held by people at the point of making an asylum claim, although increases have occurred across all the main visa routes.

How were the affected countries chosen?

The policy’s impact assessment (PDF) explains that countries and visa routes were flagged for consideration if, in the 12 months to September 2025, both of the following applied:

• At least 100 people of a particular nationality entered by the same visa route and went on to claim asylum
• Those asylum claims accounted for 15% or more of visas issued for that route (conversion rate)

The impact assessment includes figures for the nationalities and routes within scope of the policy. This data is summarised in the table below.

Visa brake threshold: visas issued and linked asylum claims, year ending September 2025

Nationality

Visa route

Visas issued

Asylum claims

Conversion rate

Afghanistan

Skilled Worker

90

110

122%

Afghanistan

Study

360

470

131%

Cameroon

Study

570

180

32%

Myanmar

Study

2,080

330

16%

Sudan

Study

260

120

46%

Source: Home Office, Impact assessment: visa brake (PDF), Table 1, p17

The assessment compares the total number of visas issued with the total number of asylum claims from people who held this type of visa over the same period. It does not track individual visa holders. This means that some asylum claims counted in this period may have been made by people who received their visas in earlier years. This explains why the conversion rate can exceed 100%, meaning more asylum claims were recorded than visas issued in the assessment year.

The impact assessment makes clear that meeting the threshold does not automatically result in a visa brake being imposed. Instead, it triggers a broader assessment, which takes into account additional factors such as “migration considerations, national security, and growth”. The government has said that if other nationalities meet the threshold in future, they would be subject to the same assessment process.

The impact assessment also provides equivalent figures for earlier years (2021 to 2024). The chart below shows the number of visas issued and associated asylum claims in each year, for nationalities subject to the visa brake.

Note: Purple columns highlight the assessment period (the year ending September 2025) used when deciding whether to apply a visa brake.

Source: Home Office, Impact assessment: visa brake (PDF), Table 1, p17

Conversion rates for the affected countries are shown on the chart below. Only Afghan nationals on study visas met the threshold in every year shown. Myanmar nationals on study visas met the threshold once, in the year ending September 2025, which was the relevant assessment period. Afghan nationals on Skilled Worker visas met the threshold in 2024 and the year ending September 2025, but not in earlier years.

Source: Home Office, Impact assessment: visa brake (PDF), Table 1, p17

How many visas and asylum claims is the policy expected to prevent?

The government’s impact assessment estimated that the 18-month visa brake will prevent 4,300 study visas from being issued to the affected cohorts, and 90 Skilled Worker visas being issued to Afghan nationals.

It estimated that, if in place for 18-months, the brake will reduce the number of asylum claims from people arriving in the UK on visas by around 1,400. This reduction comprises 1,300 fewer claims linked to study visas and 90 fewer claims linked to Skilled Worker visas.

Do the affected countries have the highest numbers of asylum claims from visa holders?

The affected countries do not have the highest overall numbers of asylum claims from people who entered the UK on a visa.

The Home Office does not publish numbers of asylum claims from visa holders for every nationality, so it is not possible to tell exactly where these countries rank. However, data on the top five nationalities is available in the asylum summary tables published as part of the department’s immigration statistics quarterly release.

This shows that, in the year ending September 2025, the nationalities with the highest number of asylum claims from visa holders were Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Nigeria and Sri Lanka. The largest number of claims linked to a single visa route (5,570) was from Pakistani nationals on study visas. These claims represented 14% of all study visas issued to Pakistani nationals in this period.

As already discussed, the government’s threshold for the visa brake is not based solely on the overall number of asylum claims from visa holders. Instead, it places greater weight on cases where such claims make up a relatively high proportion of visas issued. The impact assessment says that this approach is intended to identify “cohorts posing the most substantial risk of visa-linked asylum claims whilst still being proportionate”.

In announcing the policy, the Home Secretary similarly emphasised that nationals of Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan “present some of the highest proportions of asylum claims to visas issued”.

How has the higher education sector reacted?

In a briefing published in response to the visa brake policy, the Russell Group, an association of 24 universities in the UK, expressed concerns about the evidence base for the policy and the way it has been publicly presented. It argues that there is no clear evidence of widespread abuse of the student visa route.

The briefing also notes that there can be legitimate reasons why a student may may claim asylum, particularly where circumstances in their home country change after they have arrived in the UK.

A blog post written by the Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Sussex raises related concerns, highlighting the impact of the policy on access to education for high achieving students from conflict-affected countries, and on women in particular. It also warns of damage to the UK’s global reputation and its commitment to international development.