The latest home office statistics

In today’s blogpost we will be examining the release of the latest Home Office figures in relation to the Tier 1 Entrepreneur and Tier 1 Investor visa categories, specifically looking at the top 10 nationalities who were granted these visas in the quarter of April to June 2015.

Before we analyse the figures for Tier 1 Investor and Entrepreneur visas two points that have grabbed the headlines today are the overall net migration figures and the number of non UK born nationals living in the United Kingdom.

The stastics confirm what many analysts have been saying for the last few weeks, net migration to the United Kingdom is at an all time high. 320,000 is the new record of net migration to the United Kingdom beating the previous high of 320,000 in 2005 by some 10,000 people. Critics argue that these figures are down to government ineffectiveness in controlling the stem of migrants from outside the EU, which is marginal at best, as well as uncontrolable EU migration to the UK. It is thought that primary motives behind this increase can be linked to a resurgent British economy and an expansion in the EU. In 2009 David Cameron pledged to bring net migration down to ‘managable’ numbers and set a target of around 100,000, however, this promise lies shattered as figures confirm a 5th consecutive rise in net migration.

Another interesting point that can be drawn from the figures is the number of non UK nationals living in the UK. This figure has now reached 8 million which is the highest number ever recorded. However, of these figures, some 3 million have British citizenship. Pressure is mounting on the government as recent polls have showed a rise in negative public opinion towards immigrants. What can be done to stem the flow of migrants remains to be seen as the freedom of movement within the EU, EU migrants far out number non EU migrants, is impossible to control.

Entrepreneur and Investor figures

The latest figures make for interesting reading. The Tier 1 routes are seen a hugh networth visas and can often be directly seen to bring economic investment to the country through the opening of businesses and investment in government bonds. Below are tables for the top 10 nationalities granted tier 1 investor  and entrepreneur visas in the second quarter of 2015. It is interesting to note what we could label ‘traditional’ or ‘historical’ countries that appear on the list like Russia and China with newer entries such as Australia and Canada.  What do you make of these latest figures? Should the Government target these countries with additional services and programs to encourage greater investment in the UK?

Investor figures