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Albanians were approved for only 65.5% of visa applications in Britain, compared to 95% for Serbs.

2026-08-14 12:57:18Aktualitet SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

Albanians were approved for only 65.5% of visa applications in Britain, compared

Albanians have faced significantly harsher outcomes in the British visa system compared to other Western Balkan nationals, even though irregular migration flows from Albania to the United Kingdom have shrunk significantly after peaking in 2022.

This is one of the main findings of the report " Asylum and Visa Applications from Albania: United Kingdom Trends and Insights ", compiled by Said Morina Beka and Uran Ferizi, which analyzes data from the Home Office and the Oxford Migration Observatory for the period 2018-2025.

The report is part of a research series by the Albanian Embassy in London, but the authors clarify that the analysis is independent and does not necessarily represent the official position of the Embassy or the Albanian Government.

In eight years, Albanian citizens submitted more than 211,000 applications for British visas, more than half of all applications from the Western Balkans. Only 65.5 percent of Albanian applications resulted in a visa being granted, compared to around 90 percent for the other five countries in the region.

The gap becomes even more apparent when comparing countries: the approval rate ranges from 74 percent for Kosovo to 95 percent for Serbia.

The rejection figures also show the same difference. In the period 2018-2025, 34.5 percent of Albanian applications were not approved, compared to 10.4 percent for the rest of the Western Balkans.

Albania recorded around 73 thousand rejections, while the other five countries together recorded around 21 thousand, despite the fact that the total number of applications was similar: 211 thousand from Albania versus 201 thousand from other countries.

The report summarizes this contrast with the phrase “Safe country, difficult visa”, contrasting Albania’s treatment as a safe country with the significantly stricter outcomes of Albanian applicants in the British visa system.

The authors also make a significant calculation: if Albanian applications had been rejected at the same rate as those from the other five Western Balkan countries, about 51 thousand out of 73 thousand rejections would not have occurred.

They caution, however, that this is an arithmetic illustration and not a conclusion that Albanian applicants and those from other countries were in identical conditions.

The published data does not provide information on the quality and purpose of the application or the background of the applicants. According to the report, there is currently no published explanation for the size of the gap.

The situation has improved in recent years. The approval rate for Albanians increased from 65 percent in 2024 to 76 percent in 2025, the highest level of the analyzed period.

However, the gap with the other five countries remained at 14 percentage points, while their combined rate remained close to 90 percent.

This picture is set by the authors in the face of the drastic decline in irregular immigration. In 2022, 12,658 Albanians were recorded arriving by dinghy, while in 2025 the number dropped to only 255, even fewer than the 815 cases recorded in 2021.

Albanian asylum applications also fell from over 17,000 in 2022 to 1,816 in 2025. The authors consider the 2022 wave an exceptional and short-lived episode and not a permanent change in Albanian immigration to Britain.

The report raises, however, a question about the relationship between legal and irregular routes. It says that persistently low visa approval rates may have fueled the perception that regular routes to Britain were virtually closed, particularly for young people.

The data support the existence of a link between limited access to legal channels and irregular migration, but the authors are cautious: they do not prove that visa refusals caused irregular migration.

In conclusion, the report emphasizes that the majority of Albanians in the United Kingdom live, study and work legally.

The 2022 wave, according to the authors, was the result of a combination of economic conditions, immigration networks, political responses and migration opportunities created at that time, and not a sustainable feature of Albanian immigration to Britain.


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