Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of alternative measures to blanket nationality-based suspensions of student visas, such as targeted enforcement measures based on individual risk assessment.

The decision to introduce the visa brakes was driven by clear evidence of high levels of visa-linked asylum claims across all four nationalities. By year ending September 2025, asylum applications by students from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan had risen to over 470% of their 2021 level. This continued and rising asylum risk from this cohort necessitated swift and decisive action through the introduction of a visa brake on a nationality basis.

The brake does not apply to those who already hold a valid Student visa, nor to applications submitted before it came into force on 26 March. In order to allow those prospective students with an offer from a licensed sponsor and a valid Confirmation of Acceptance of Studies (CAS) to apply for visas, we provided 21 days’ notice of the implementation of the visa brakes. There are no plans for any further exceptions to the brake.