This release looks at how migrants’ leave status changes as they journey through the UK’s immigration system.

The report looks at the number of migrants granted leave in the UK each year, and their status at the end of each subsequent year until their journey ends. An individual’s status may be one of 3 broad categories:

• valid leave to remain: these individuals have valid leave to remain in the UK for a limited period; this may be in the category they started their journey in, or in a new category
• indefinite leave to remain: these individuals have been granted permission to remain in the UK indefinitely (for example, being granted settlement or citizenship)
• expired: these individuals leave has expired and they are required to leave the UK before their leave expiry date

This report includes analysis on the proportion of visas for which the individual is known to have arrived in the UK. Not all arrivals are recorded on the system (for example, people travelling via the Common Travel Area between the UK and Ireland may not be included in the data). Data relating to what people do when their leave expires is not included in this release, work is ongoing to resolve data issues which prevent this.