UK Visas & Immigration (UKVI) has confirmed that all entrants to the second 2026 Youth Mobility Scheme (YMS) ballot for Hong Kong and Taiwan will receive outcome emails by the end of Thursday, 30 July 2026. The July ballot, which ran from 14–16 July, allocated the remaining quota after February’s draw—roughly 300 places for Hong Kong SAR passport-holders and 260 for Taiwanese nationals. Successful applicants now have 90 days to lodge their visa submissions, pay the £340 fee and attend a biometric appointment. In line with the UK’s move to digital immigration status, YMS visas issued under this round will be eVisas only—no physical vignette will be placed in passports. Applicants must therefore create a UKVI account before travel so that airlines and border officers can verify permission to enter digitally. For UK employers, the timing is critical: many candidates plan to arrive in September for graduate schemes and seasonal roles. HR teams should remind new hires that visa activation happens when they pass through the e-gates, not on the date of grant, and should schedule right-to-work checks via the online share-code portal, which will populate once the individual’s eVisa status is live. Because applicants have a 90-day window, delaying submission to maximise in-country validity is possible but must be balanced against appointment backlogs in East Asia. Unsuccessful entrants will receive a rejection email within two weeks and may try again in the first 2027 ballot expected in February. The government has already signalled that 2027 quotas for both territories will rise by 20 %, but no details have been published. Employers relying on working-holiday staff should consider contingency plans such as the Skilled Worker route or intra-company transfers if candidates miss out this year. Separately, UKVI reiterates that Japanese and South Korean nationals no longer need to enter a ballot and can apply year-round—useful flexibility for companies rotating talent from North Asia into UK operations.
