Scotland asks the UK for three visas of its own. Every request since 2018 failed.
The Scottish Government published proposals on 29 August for a Scottish Visa, a Rural Visa and a Scottish Graduate Visa.
What happened
The Scottish Government publishes proposals for a Scottish Visa, a Rural Visa and a Scottish Graduate Visa, and invites the UK Migration Minister to discuss them.
Business Minister Tom Arthur published the paper on . He has invited the UK Migration Minister to talks, so that the immigration system fits Scotland’s needs. The paper warns that closing the visa route for adult social care workers puts staffing at risk in rural and island communities. Sending the plans was one of the government’s promises for its first hundred days.
The Scottish Visa would be an extra route inside the UK system. Holders would need a Scottish tax code and would have to live in Scotland. The Scottish Government, not an employer, would put applicants forward. It could last five years and three months, giving a clear path to indefinite leave to remain, the right to settle in the UK for good.
The case rests on population figures from National Records of Scotland. Populations fell in 20 of Scotland’s 32 council areas between mid-2024 and mid-2025. At mid-2025, 21.0 per cent of people were 65 or over, up from 16.3 per cent twenty years earlier. The share aged 0 to 15 fell from 18.2 to 15.8 per cent.
Only a UK minister can create a Scottish visa. Immigration is a reserved power, kept by the UK Parliament, so the paper is a request rather than a plan. That makes it easy to follow: the request is published, dated and specific, and so will the answer be, whenever it comes.
Sources: Scottish Government (2)
The Pattern
We found four earlier Scottish requests since 2018 with a UK answer. Each time the Scottish Government sent the UK Government a formal plan for a Scotland-only migration route, or for migration powers to be handed to Scotland. We asked whether a Scotland-only route came into being within 18 months. The paper is not counted.
Show the other 2 cases
The Read
History says no Scottish visa is coming soon. None of the four earlier requests since 2018 led to a Scotland-only route. The main reason has not changed: a visa tied to where someone lives needs a way to check that they stay there. The August paper’s answer, a Scottish tax code as proof of living in Scotland, is the same one offered in 2020.
The record is small, and three of the four answers came from Conservative governments. The one test of a Labour government is 2025. That request got no direct answer, and four months later a UK white paper cut the graduate route to 18 months instead of extending it.
A UK publication that deals with how residence would be checked, rather than with the idea itself, would change the picture. A written UK reply by looks unlikely on this record. The 2020 and 2022 plans drew spoken positions and no documents, and an invitation to talks is easier to accept in a meeting than in print.
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