In 2025 the Home Office revoked 3,100 sponsor licences, a record for the whole observation period. The worker's permission is cut back along with the licence, though nothing about it depended on the worker.
On paper, much works well once you hold a work visa. A partner can work straight away with almost no limits, there is no separate income threshold for the family, only one-off maintenance funds of £285 for a partner and £315 for the first child, and school is free. There are no mandatory integration courses while you live there, and no degree recognition is needed for the visa. Entry, though, is expensive and narrow: the salary threshold is above both of our reference profiles, and government policy is openly aimed at cutting migration.
The main pressure runs through employers. In 2025 the Home Office revoked 3,100 sponsor licences, a record since data began in 2012, 1,516 of them in the fourth quarter alone. When a licence goes, the worker's permission is cut to 60 days although they did nothing wrong. For 470 revocations in adult social care alone the government put the number of affected workers at up to 39,000, and two thirds of all revocations hit construction, retail and hospitality.
The second source of trouble is digital status. eVisa failures mean people with valid permission are denied boarding on flights to the UK, and in one case a wrongly cancelled eVisa ended with a court order to let the person return. Since 31 December 2025 a residence card alone no longer proves the right to work or rent; you need an online share code.
If you lose your job there is a window, but a short one: your permission is cut to 60 days, in which you must find a new sponsor and file a new application. Practitioners report that in 2026 the Home Office curtails noticeably faster than before. If you file an extension on time, you may keep living and working until the decision.
Day to day, the friction is with banks: the law requires them to check immigration status, traditional banks want proof of address, and newcomers find it easier with neobanks such as Monzo and Starling. There is no state address registration.
The index score ignores nationality. This is what changes for citizens of specific countries.
No visa needed for trips of up to 6 months, but you need an electronic travel authorisation (ETA) costing £20. For living and working there, the same Skilled Worker route.
Live, work and study in the UK without immigration permission under the Common Travel Area. The Youth Mobility Scheme is open only to a limited list of countries.
People holding permission under one of the Ukraine schemes can extend it free of charge for 18 months and, from 8 April 2026, for a further 24 months, up to three and a half years in total. You can work, study and claim benefits, but the scheme does not lead to settlement: it is temporary sanctuary.
When we checked on 9 August 2026 we found no direct nationality restrictions on the Skilled Worker visa. Threshold, fees and procedure are the same as for everyone.
The place interval 35-52 shows where the country lands when the data is nudged and the index is recalculated. One place of difference in the table means nothing; a difference of a league means something.
The thin mark on each bar is the average across 97 countries
The strongest category here is Family rights: 100 out of 100, against a 97-state average of 72.2. The weakest is Pressure on newcomers: 23 against 65.2. Above the world average: 5 out of 7.
All 97 states are calculated for one applicant: 35 years old, income of $2,500 and $3,856 a month before tax, passport not counted, the most accessible route that is actually in use.
Your passport, your income and your family do not change the table. They change which of its lines apply to you. A different income makes entry read differently, a family makes the family category read differently, and your passport makes everything read differently.
The standard is 3 weeks from outside the UK, counted from your biometrics appointment, and 8 weeks inside the UK. For an extra fee you can get a decision in 5 days or 1 day.
Practically no: there is no remote work or self-employment visa. Global Talent is meant for exceptional people, and Innovator Founder needs an innovative project and an endorsing body's approval.
A fee of £819 or £1,618 depending on length, plus £1,035 a year in health surcharge per adult. A five-year visa for a family of three costs £19,084, three quarters of it in health surcharge.
Yes. If you are dismissed or your employer loses its licence, your permission is cut to 60 days and you need a new sponsor within that time. A record 3,100 licences were revoked in 2025, and workers lost status through no fault of their own.
Indefinite leave to remain after 5 years for now, citizenship usually after 6 with the Life in the UK test and B1 English; dual citizenship is allowed. The government is preparing a 10-year baseline, and from 26 March 2027 settlement requires B2 English.
Family and daily life rules are convenient, but the state is deliberately cutting migration: a high salary threshold, expensive fees and record sponsor licence revocations. A worker's status here depends on the company more than on the worker.
97 states, 26 indicators, seven categories, 2,522 scores. Every score has a source and a source class: primary means the texts of laws and government portals; reliable secondary means reports by international organisations, tax reviews by audit firms and specialist legal publications; weak means community posts and single secondary sources. The classes add up to a confidence level for the country, and a country with low confidence gets neither a score nor a place.
Every indicator is scored against a fixed ruler, not against its neighbours. Adding new countries therefore does not move the old ones, and a change in a score means a change in policy and nothing else.
A high place does not mean a good country. It means one thing: the state machine treats newcomers predictably and by the rules. Living there may be expensive, dull or hot; that is not our question.
Checked 01/10/2026. Facts come from the country's index card and official websites.
We make mistakes and we will go on making them: policy changes faster than any database. Our answer is not a pose of infallibility but a visible trail of corrections. Every correction is published: what it was, what it became, the source and the reason for the error. The corrections log opens with the second issue, together with the first block of changes.