Indian nationals topped the list of those seeking settlement and citizenship in the UK, according to official Home Office statistics released on Thursday.
The rules governing settlement rights in Britain, currently available after five years to those on eligible visa routes, are set to be doubled later this year under proposals put forward by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood.
The latest immigration data, released under the previous government, showed a 24 per cent rise in grants of Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR), also known as permanent settlement. ILR allows migrants to subsequently apply for British citizenship.
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“In the YE [year ending] June 2026, Indian nationals remained the largest nationality group granted settlement, with grants (35,384) increasing by 51 per cent compared with the previous year," the Home Office said.
“This mainly reflected the growing number of Indian nationals who entered the UK on work routes in recent years and have since completed the qualifying period of continuous residence required for settlement," it added.
Indians, with 24,851 grants, and Pakistanis, with 18,489, were also the two largest nationality groups granted British citizenship between 2025 and 2026.
“Indian and Pakistani nationals continued to account for the highest numbers of British citizenship grants, mainly through naturalisation, and consistent with longstanding settlement trends,” a Home Office summary said.
Among the other migration categories covered in this week's data, Indian nationals received the highest number of Visitor Visas, at 514,398. However, this was 9 per cent lower than the previous year.
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Indians also received the highest number of Graduate route extensions, with 64,495 grants in the year to June 2026. The figure marked a decline from the previous year, with the Graduate route available to overseas students after completing their university degrees to stay and work in the UK.
The decline in extensions has largely been attributed to an 81 per cent fall in visa grants to dependent family members following tighter rules across all student visa routes.
The data also showed a continued decline in Indian student visas. There were 82,523 grants in the year ending June 2026, down 16 per cent from the previous year. Indians were pushed to second place behind Chinese nationals, who received 86,368 student visas during the period.
“Chinese (10,716), Indian (5,218), and Nigerian (3,820) nationals were the most common nationalities extending their stay on the student route in the latest year," the Home Office said.
The statistics come ahead of changes tabled in Parliament by Mahmood that would introduce longer settlement waiting periods. Low-paid workers could face a 15-year wait for ILR, while migrants accessing taxpayer-funded benefits could have to wait as long as 20 years to qualify for settlement.
Mahmood said: “A little over two years into office and the asylum backlog is down, the number of asylum seekers in hotels is falling, illegal working arrests are at record levels, and deportations and returns are up markedly.
“This government is restoring control at our border and fairness to the migration system.”
She is expected to confirm details of the tighter rules for an estimated 1.6 million migrants already living in the UK who are due to qualify for ILR between 2026 and 2030 in the coming months.
The South Asian heritage Cabinet minister has indicated that “transitional arrangements” will apply to “borderline cases” involving foreigners who have been living in the UK for nearly five years.
