Accredited official statistics

Overview of the immigration system

Published 28 February 2019

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-year-ending-december-2018/overview-of-the-immigration-system

Back to ‘Immigration Statistics, year ending December 2018’ content page.

This is not the latest release. View latest release.

The Home Office ‘Immigration Statistics’ series forms part of a larger cross Government Statistical Service transformation plan to meet changing user needs, and which will begin to put administrative data at the core of evidence on migration.

‘Immigration Statistics, year ending December 2018’ provides the latest figures on persons who are subject to United Kingdom (UK) immigration controls. All data in this release relate to 2018 (1 January 2018 to 31 December 2018) and all comparisons are with 2017 (1 January 2017 to 31 December 2017), unless stated otherwise. Due to European Union (EU) freedom of movement principles, the majority of UK immigration controls relate to non-European Economic Area (EEA) nationals. Unless otherwise stated, data in this release relate to non-EEA nationals.

The Immigration Statistics release provides information on the Home Office’s operation of immigration control and related processes, including the work of UK Border Force, UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI), and Immigration Enforcement.

Figures on performance against service standards and processing times are published as part of the Home Office Migration transparency data.

The Home Office publish a range of other research on migration, available at the Migration research and analysis page on GOV.UK. Details on the developments and future plans for Home Office Immigration Statistics can be found in Developments in migration statistics. For details of other migration outputs published across government, see the About this release section.

The diagram in Figure 1 provides a high-level overview of UK immigration control for non-EEA nationals. It does not include reference to all aspects of immigration as highlighted in the chart notes.

Figure 1: Summary of UK immigration system1,2

Not supplied by author.

Chart notes:

  1. The chart excludes references to appeals.
  2. Non-visa nationals seeking to enter the UK in a visa category for longer than 6 months require a visa, whereas those seeking to enter the UK for 6 months or less do not.

Other statistical releases

At the same time as this release, the Office for Nationals Statistics (ONS) published a summary of the latest official long-term international migration statistics, in their Migration Statistics Quarterly Report.

We welcome your feedback

If you have any comments or suggestions for the development of this report, please provide feedback by emailing MigrationStatsEnquiries@homeoffice.gov.uk. Please include the words ‘PUBLICATION FEEDBACK’ in the subject of your email.

See section 7 of the ‘About this release’ section for more details.

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