July dates for the 2025 India Young Professionals Scheme UK visa ballot – how to apply

UPDATE 8 July: Dates announced for Taiwan and Hong Kong YMS ballots. Details here.

16 June 2025

The dates for this year’s second and last ballot to apply for the India Young Professionals Scheme visa have been announced today.

The next India Young Professionals Scheme ballot will open at 1:30pm India Standard Time on 22 July 2025, and close at 1:30pm India Standard Time on 24 July 2025.

How does the Young Professionals Scheme work?

Eligible Indian nationals aged 18 to 30 have the chance to enter a ballot to live, work and study in the UK for up to two years. As part of the UK and India’s free trade agreement negotiations, it was announced that 3,000 applicants from India will be able to come to the UK on the Young Professionals Scheme (YPS).

Most of the places were allocated after the first ballot in February, with the remaining ones given to eligible entrants to the second ballot in July at random.

YPS applicants are subject to extra “country-specific eligibility requirements” that other Youth Mobility Scheme bilateral agreements don’t entail.

You can read about the requirements and countries participating in other Youth Mobility Scheme (YMS) visa agreements here.

This is a non-sponsored route. So employers do not need a sponsor licence to hire people on the YPS visa.

As part of the free trade agreement we are expecting the governments of the UK and India to announce further immigration pathways, though immigration routes as part of free trade agreements are usually limited in time and limited to applicants from overseas service suppliers providing services to a sponsor under contracts covered by international trade agreements.

Who is eligible to apply for the India Young Professionals Scheme visa?

Applicants must first enter and be selected in the India Young Professionals Scheme ballot before they can apply to the scheme.

To be eligible for an India Young Professionals Scheme visa entrants must:

•        be an Indian national or citizen between 18 and 30 years old
•        be at least 18 years old on the date you plan to travel to the UK
•        have a qualification at bachelor’s degree level or above (Regulated Qualifications Framework level 6, 7 or 8)
•        have £2,530 in savings to support yourself in the UK
•        not have any children under the age of 18 who live with the entrant or who they are financially responsible for
•        entrants can’t apply if they have already been in the UK under this scheme or the Youth Mobility Scheme.

How to enter the Young Professionals Scheme

The link to enter the scheme will appear on the UK Home Office website here for the 48 hours from 1:30pm India Standard Time on 22 July 2025 to 1:30pm India Standard Time on 24 July 2025. There were problems entering last year due to the volume of people on the website, so be sure to enter in good time.

Applicants will need to provide their:

• name
• date of birth
• passport details
• a scan or photo of your passport
• phone number
• email address

Successful entries will be picked at random. Results will be emailed to ballot entrants within two weeks of the ballot closing.

What happens when you succeed in the Young Professionals Scheme visa ballot?

Successful entries will be invited to apply for a visa and will have a deadline of 90 days from their email invite to apply online and pay the visa application fee (currently £319) and immigration health surcharge (currently £1,552 for the two-year visa), so do check your junk email.

Within the 90 days, they will also need to prove identity by using the ‘UK Immigration: ID Check’ app to scan their identity document and creating a UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) account online or with a biometric check of fingerprints and photograph taken at a visa application centre. This depends on where applicants are from and what kind of passport or identity documents they have.

Once they have applied online, proved identity and provided documents, YPS applicants should receive a decision on their visa application within around three weeks.

How much does the Young Professionals Scheme application cost?

The ballot is free to enter. If successful in the ballot entrants do not need to tell the UK Home Office if they choose not to apply for a visa. If picked in the ballot, the visa application fee is £319, plus there is a £1,552 healthcare surcharge which is compulsory to be able to use the UK’s health service over the two years of the visa. Visa applicants will need to demonstrate £2,530 in personal savings to be eligible for a YPS visa.

What does a Young Professionals Scheme visa allow?

Successful applicants will be given a visa for 24 months. People on the scheme can enter, leave and re-enter the UK any time during the period.

Those on the scheme may study (for some courses they may need an Academic Technology Approval Scheme certificate) and work in most roles, be self-employed, even set up a company so long as premises are rented, equipment is not worth more than £5,000 and there are no employees. They may not work as a professional sportsperson, extend their stay, receive public funds or bring any family members to the UK on the visa.

How do UK nationals apply for a visa for India under the Young Professionals Scheme?

The scheme is a reciprocal agreement with eligible UK graduates aged 18 to 30 able to travel and work in India for two years through the scheme. There is no ballot for British graduates applying to the scheme and they can apply at any time. The fee is £720 and details can be found on the High Commission of India website here.

What other UK visas can I apply for?

You can find out more about personal immigration routes here and work immigration routes here. Most involve sponsorship. Our experts at Vanessa Ganguin Immigration Law are highly regarded in legal guides for our work across all UK immigration options.