EU countries issued 3.9 million first residence permits to non-EU citizens in 2025, up 10.1% on the year before.
A first residence permit is an authorisation for a non-EU citizen to live in an EU country for a specific reason for the first time, Eurostat informed in a release on Friday.
Work was the most common reason for new permits, accounting for 1.3 million approvals — 33.6% of the total.
Family reasons followed with 1.1 million permits (28.1%), while 0.9 million (22.8%) were granted for other reasons, including international protection.
Education accounted for the remaining 0.6 million permits (15.5%).
Compared with 2024, employment-related first permits rose by 16.1%, while family permits increased by 14.1% and education permits by 9.0%.
The “other reasons” category was the only one to fall, down 0.9%.
Ukrainians, Indians and Moroccans received the most first permits
Ukrainian citizens received the largest number of first residence permits in 2025 at 335,100, followed by citizens of India (227,600) and Morocco (202,100), Eurostat said.
By the end of 2025, there were 27.8 million valid residence permits held by non-EU citizens across the EU.
Family reunification was the most common reason for permits in force, accounting for 32.4% of the total.
Moroccan citizens held the highest number of valid permits at the end of 2025 at 2.2 million, followed by Turkish citizens (2.0 million) and Ukrainian citizens (1.7 million).
