Home Office data · updated quarterly
Post-Soviet Visa Atlas
Who is leaving the former USSR for Britain. In four years the country swapped its seasonal-worker supplier: Ukraine issued nine visas in ten — now Central Asia gets almost four in five.
01 the story · the seasonal scheme changed nationality
Seasonal worker visas by nationality
Home Office · Vis_D02 · visas granted · main applicants · 2019 — Q1 2026
① 2021
Britain expands the scheme after Brexit: the quota grows to 30,000. Two-thirds of visas go to Ukraine.
② 2022
War. Operators shift recruitment to Central Asia — Ukraine's share falls from 67% to 21% in a year.
2026 — Q1 only · issuance always peaks in Q2
2019
2 493visas a year
🇺🇦 Ukraine 91%Central Asia 0.2%
2019
The pilot. 2,493 visas, nine in ten to Ukrainians.
2021
The scheme grows to 30,000 places after Brexit. Ukraine peaks: 19,894 visas — two-thirds of the scheme.
2022
War. Operators redirect recruitment: Ukraine's share falls from 67% to 21% in a single year.
2024
The handover is complete: almost four in five visas go to Central Asia.
2025
Scheme record: 38,805 visas. Kyrgyzstan is #1 with 12,650. Ukraine: 530.
2026
13,978 visas in Q1 — on pace for a new record. The peak is always in Q2.
data: Home Office, Vis_D02 · main applicants
91% → 1.4%
Ukraine's share of seasonal visas, 2019→2025
0.2% → 78.4%
Central Asia's share — four countries
×16
scheme growth: 2,493 → 38,805 visas a year
02 the atlas · 12 countries, all immigration
Flows to Britain · 2025
node size and flow width = people, including dependants · click for the country page
people in 2025 vs 2024
— a borderless scheme: countries sit by their capitals, arcs lead to London
— a live flow map · pick a country in the tiles below ↓
Central Asia5 countries
Caucasus3 countries
Eastern Europe4 countries
03 who gets the most · 2025
1🇺🇦 Ukraine mostly humanitarian schemes17 1162🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan 12 8723🇺🇿 Uzbekistan 7 5154🇰🇿 Kazakhstan 7 3225🇹🇯 Tajikistan 5 9436🇷🇺 Russia 3 1587🇲🇩 Moldova 2 2718🇦🇿 Azerbaijan 1 3149🇬🇪 Georgia 48910🇧🇾 Belarus 24711🇹🇲 Turkmenistan 20012🇦🇲 Armenia 165
Visas ≠ applications. We show visas granted. Far more people apply to the seasonal scheme than receive a visa — applications and quotas are different numbers.
Table: people by year
| Country | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan | 261 | 121 | 501 | 4 582 | 8 202 | 9 996 | 12 872 | 4 541 |
| 🇺🇿 Uzbekistan | 997 | 478 | 1 537 | 5 653 | 5 546 | 7 446 | 7 515 | 2 290 |
| 🇹🇯 Tajikistan | 111 | 52 | 1 126 | 4 044 | 5 826 | 6 051 | 5 943 | 1 964 |
| 🇰🇿 Kazakhstan | 3 647 | 1 387 | 1 936 | 4 460 | 6 665 | 7 371 | 7 322 | 2 242 |
| 🇹🇲 Turkmenistan | 253 | 40 | 50 | 125 | 164 | 127 | 200 | 34 |
| 🇦🇲 Armenia | 371 | 153 | 205 | 246 | 270 | 210 | 165 | 28 |
| 🇦🇿 Azerbaijan | 1 213 | 508 | 717 | 1 014 | 1 171 | 1 223 | 1 314 | 113 |
| 🇬🇪 Georgia | 854 | 462 | 389 | 968 | 556 | 498 | 489 | 43 |
| 🇺🇦 Ukraine | 9 837 | 10 367 | 24 271 | 217 421 | 44 298 | 20 108 | 17 116 | 3 890 |
| 🇲🇩 Moldova | 2 181 | 1 229 | 3 169 | 3 924 | 3 017 | 2 633 | 2 271 | 699 |
| 🇷🇺 Russia | 25 900 | 8 760 | 8 593 | 8 784 | 6 999 | 4 214 | 3 158 | 412 |
| 🇧🇾 Belarus | 1 321 | 711 | 1 604 | 809 | 496 | 378 | 247 | 48 |
* 2026 — Q1 only
Source
Home Office, Immigration system statistics, dataset Vis_D02. GOV.UK ↗
The atlas's metric
People — main applicants and dependants, by visa group: work, study, family, other. Visitors are excluded.
Update schedule
Every quarterly release. Current: year ending March 2026 (21 May 2026). Next: August 2026.
Data
CSV on every page · schema.org Dataset · citation markup.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.