Make every number traceable

Definitions before trends

Before comparing two numbers, check what they count. This page explains the measures, which comparisons are useful and how to find the original official tables.

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Eight distinctions that matter

This collection covers verified public data for seven major talent schemes. Chart filters, detailed records and downloads preserve these distinctions.

Calendar year

A calendar year runs from 1 January to 31 December. A launch year includes only launch to year-end, with the launch date noted; TTPS in 2022 covers only 28–31 December.

Financial year

A financial year spans two calendar years, for example 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025. Original dates are retained and filtered separately from calendar years. Matching start-year labels do not mean matching periods.

Interim period

This includes half-years and other explicitly published intervals. Each record displays its exact dates. A half-year is not directly comparable with a full year, and unpublished monthly changes are not estimated from an interim total.

Multi-period cumulative

These counts cover the cumulative interval specified by the source, rather than any individual year within it. Intervals can overlap with other records and must not be added together as new cases.

Applications received and approved

Receipts are counted by receipt period and approvals by decision period. Earlier applications may be approved later, while cases may remain pending, be withdrawn or be refused. The ratio is not a success rate for one application cohort.

QMAS selection, quotas and visas

“Quota allotted / successful selection” preserves the official historical measure for cases passing selection. It is not the annual quota ceiling. Visa or entry-permit issuance is another measure, and actual arrivals are different again.

Initial applications and extensions

Initial applications seek admission under a scheme; extensions seek a longer permitted stay. The stages are separated. Extension counts divided by past initial approvals do not establish retention, nor do they represent permanent-residence outcomes.

Zero, missing values and coverage

Zero is shown only when the source reports zero. Missing values are not filled with zero or interpolated. Schemes and stages can have different earliest verified years. Collected coverage does not claim an exhaustive archive.

Collection and verification

Sources checked on 2026-11-14. This is a reviewed snapshot, not a live connection to government case-processing systems.

Applications received and approved in a year are not necessarily the same cohort. Decisions may fall in a later year, so approvals divided by receipts is not an individual approval rate.

Source definitions are preserved. QMAS quotas allotted / successful selection cases, application approvals, visas issued, actual arrivals and extensions of stay are distinct measures and must not be combined.

Annual series use calendar years. A launch year covers the period from launch to year-end and is identified in its note. Current in-year figures are marked partial and must not be compared directly with full years.

Values not located in the cited official material remain missing, not zero. Verified coverage differs by scheme. This GEP series starts in 2003; that is not a claim that the policy began in 2003.

GEP totals for 2003–2007 sum the employment and investment rows in the same official table, with the calculation shown for each value. Later figures use directly reported totals. Dependant and permanent-residence cases are not added to principal-applicant figures.

Only one primary record is retained for each scheme, stage, measure and period; newer official open data take precedence for overlapping years. The 2026 first-half page provides approval/selection totals only; application receipts are not inferred.

Scheme rules, scope and assessment arrangements have changed over time. Changes in volume alone do not establish that an application route has become easier or guarantee any individual outcome.

Extensions of stay are separate from initial admission applications. Approvals may relate to applications received in another period, so approvals divided by applications in the same period are not a cohort approval rate.

Calendar years, financial years, partial periods and cumulative periods must not be summed or combined into a single annual series. Financial-year records retain their actual April start dates; partial periods are not annualised.

Not-applicable, unpublished and unavailable periods remain missing rather than zero. Figures limited to first extensions or top-tier subsets are not mixed into scheme-wide totals.

The 2025 TTPS extension table includes advance applications received in November–December 2024. It is retained as a cross-year record, separately from the February 2026 cumulative snapshot and financial-year figures.

How to verify a record

Choose the scheme, stage and period in the detailed table, then open the official link for that row. Use the catalogue’s original table location to check the row, column, period and footnotes. The CSV retains source URLs, table locations and bilingual notes for your review.

Primary sources

Official source catalogue

31 table-level references. One page may contain several schemes or tables, so this count is not the number of unique web pages. Table locations retain the source language.