Immigrants must travel a lengthy and costly visa process, which has been dubbed "racist" after research revealed that the majority of applicants who feel compelled to do so are persons of colour.

Hundreds of thousands of people who are ineligible for other immigration schemes due to insufficient funds or professional qualifications apply for the "10-year route" visa. Many people hold low-paying professions like caregiving or cleaning. It takes five years to settle in the UK using other popular options.

There are 218,110 persons on the 10-year route, according to freedom of information data that the nonprofit organisation Ramfel was able to get.

According to a Guardian study of the statistics, the majority of non-white populations were found in all but one of the top 10 countries where people felt compelled to take this course. Nigeria, Pakistan, India, Ghana, and Bangladesh were the top five. In all, 86% of the users travelling this route were from Asia or Africa, while 6% were from Europe.People seeking to gain a visa via the 10-year route must renew their leave to remain with the Home Office every 30 months, meaning four renewals. The fee for each renewal is £3,850. The Home Office can grant a fee waiver but many requests are refused.

According to a 2023 report on the 10-year route by the legal advice and support service Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit (GMIAU), the thinktank the Institute for Public Policy Research and the charity Praxis, the most common way of covering the fees was to borrow money, with many people remaining in debt afterwards and struggling to pay for basic living costs.

A 41-year-old woman from Ghana said she was struggling with the 10-year route. She has a British child, who was born in 2017, and was granted leave on the 10-year route in 2018 after applying.

But she was several weeks late in applying to renew her leave in March this year and has become an overstayer awaiting a new decision from the Home Office.

Because of her late application, she has lost the years accrued and has to restart the 10-year route from day one. “This immigration route is brutal. It makes me feel like I’m in a prison. I want to go to university and qualify as a nurse but I can’t do that until my immigration status is sorted out. The government should at least change this route to five years not 10,” she said.

A GMIAU spokesperson said: “These numbers confirm what people on the 10-year route already know: it is a racist policy. People are being driven into debt, forced to choose between paying thousands of pounds in visa fees to keep their legal status and keeping their families fed and warm.

"Anyone should not wait to settle for ten years. It is far too long." The path needs to be abandoned. Capping the duration of all settlement routes at five years would be a wise place to start.

"The 10-year route is an enduring legacy of the hostile environment," stated Ramfel's Nick Beales. The racial motivation behind this policy, like that of many other Conservative initiatives from this era, is evident, with African and South Asian citizens being disproportionately forced to travel this difficult and frequently cruel path in order to get permanent immigrant status.