Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average waiting time is for (a) Skilled Worker visas, (b) study visas, (c) family visas, and (d) visitor visas.

The Home Office is currently prioritising Ukraine Visa Schemes applications in response to the humanitarian crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We are communicating directly with customers to explain applications for study, work and family visas are taking longer to process at this time.

Current average processing times:

Standard visitor visas - 6 weeks

Student visas - 4 weeks

Work visas - 6 weeks.

Spouse visas – up to 24 weeks

As the number of outstanding applications from Ukraine has reduced significantly decision makers are being returned to their normal work, with a focus on reducing processing times for visit and work visas being the initial priority.

Data is not published on the number of applicants which wait more than 100 days for a decision on their application. The transparency data does, however, include a range of processing data and the latest data can be found at: Migration transparency data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)