UK visa statistics.

In a couple of recent topics the success rate of visa applications in Thailand has arisen, so here are the actual figures.

Prior to 2005 the then UKBA published annual figures for each country broken down by category; but they don't seem to do that any more; just the quarterly totals per country.

To find these figures:

• click on Migration statistics;
• click on Migration Statistics January to March 2014;
• click on Immigration statistics, January to March 2014;
• scroll down to '2. Data tables' and click on data tables included in ‘Immigration statistics, January to March 2014’; or click on this link to by pass the above steps;
• click on 'Before entry data tables immigration statistics January to March 2014 volume 2' then 'Open' or 'Save' or 'Save as' depending on which you want;
• scroll down to line 33 and click on the link in column A;
• on the toolbar at the top, click on 'Data';
• click on the 'Filter' icon and this will open the quarterly figures since the first quarter (Q1) of 2005 by country;
• scroll down to line 9411 for Q1 2014 figures for Thailand.

You will see that 19,895 applications were resolved* in the quarter with a 95% acceptance rate, which compares very favourably with other countries which have a similar number of applications; not the best in the world, but certainly not the worst.

From what I can see after an admittedly quick scan of the whole of the quarter, no other Asian country had a better acceptance rate than Thailand and only two had the same; China and Singapore. Though I may have missed some; corrections welcome.

*The difference between the number of applications received and the number resolved is due to some applications submitted in the previous quarter not being resolved until this one and some applications submitted in this quarter not being resolved until the next.