The Ministry of Defence has confirmed that the annual cap for recruiting non-British Commonwealth citizens into the UK Armed Forces remains fixed at 1,350 individuals across all services, despite a significant surge in applications in recent years.
In response to a Parliamentary Written Question from Ben Obese-Jecty MP, Defence Minister Luke Pollard stated:
“An annual Basic Training Start limit for Commonwealth citizens is applied across the Armed Forces. This is currently set at 1,350 individuals per annum and distributed accordingly: a) 1,000 Army, b) 300 Royal Navy (there is no separate allowance for the Royal Marines), and c) 50 Royal Air Force.”
The figures stand in stark contrast to growing interest from Commonwealth nations. In 2023 alone, the British Army received 16,990 applications from Commonwealth citizens. However, 7,880 of those were rejected and 1,360 voluntarily withdrawn. Similar trends were observed across the other branches.
Between January and September 2023:
- The Royal Navy and Royal Marines received 3,210 applications.
- The Royal Air Force saw 2,890.
- The Army led significantly with 16,990 applications.
Despite the high volume, application success rates remain low. Since 2010, the UK Armed Forces have received more than 157,000 applications from Commonwealth citizens. The Army alone received 122,340 of these, yet over 91,000 applications across all three services were either rejected or withdrawn.
Rejections have been attributed to factors such as unmet eligibility criteria, medical or fitness standards, and failure to obtain security clearance. Withdrawals are often linked to the lengthy application process or changes in personal circumstances.
The enduring interest underscores the appeal of UK military service across the Commonwealth. However, the fixed annual cap on intakes, particularly the 50 places available to the RAF, remains a bottleneck. The MoD has not signalled any change to the cap despite the growing applicant pool.
So what was wrong with the 11/12,000 who wern’t refused or who withdrew? We are all about being “internatiional”, according to the government, accepting thousands of illegal immigrants and paying for them but cannot accept people who want to join our armed forces. Very Stupid.
Yeah, it’s a truly crazy set of circumstances. Commonwealth citizens generally hold the UK in high regard as well, with familiarity of customs, tradition and culture. It’s almost like the government doesn’t want that.
Google pay 92 every hour my last check was 8400 working 10 hours per week on the web. My more youthful sibling companion has been averaging 18k throughout recent months and he works around 24 hours per week. I cannot accept how simple it was once I attempted it out.This is my main thing……….,.,.,.. WORKSTAR1.COM
Many don’t. They see the British as their historic national oppressor. Many also are in league with our enemies. India for example is Russia’s closest buddy and Pakistan is China’s.
The Commonwealth is basically just a talking shop these days, with a sideline in trying the guilt the historic oppressor and secure more payouts.
If we are to recruit foreigners into our armed forces, using Commonwealth membership as a guiderail for who can and can’t be recruited is a very misguided policy. Restrict it to fellow members of the first world Anglosphere and Europeans.
Well we do have millions of unemployed youngsters who could apply but don’t.
Don’t be silly. Poor sods cant spell their name on the form
👍
Some where probably security concerns, but more broadly, I think there’s an argument that the army shouldn’t be majority foreign?
Better than continually shrinking, year on year Dern.
Not really. Without limiting your % of foreign soldiers you effectively end up farming out the only people allowed and equipped to do violence in the country. Mercenary Armies bring some very big drawbacks in terms of long term national stability.
A Commonwealth Brigade? Maybe.
Because you think that creating entire mercenary units would be a better idea?
Mercenary? You mean people who get paid to fight for the country of their choice. Bit like the British army really.
We already have them technically in the gurhkas
@Geoff yeah bore off, the British Army is a national force.
So it’s nasty time again is it. I’m beginning to wonder if you’re a secret click bate correspondent employed in wasting our time. Have a good day.
Oh dear your feelings are hurt? Don’t say stupid shit and deliberately misrepresent what mercenary means and I won’t have to hurt your thin skin.
Australia also recruits small numbers of foreign nationals to the ADF. Specifically citizens of the UK, Canada, New Zealand and the U.S. who have been permanent residents in Australia for 12 are eligible to enlist. Citizens of South Africa are not eligible through this pathway. This is capped at a tiny 350 personnel annually.
However citizens of countries with prior military experience, including South Africa, could be eligible through the Overseas Lateral Recruitment Scheme (OLRS) if they have specific transferable military skills, served no more than 3 years ago, have permanent residency and intend to become Australian citizens.
Recruitment from the Commonwealth is a two way street. Come on over, the weather is great!
Residents for 12 months
Well if they are from the Commonwealth, they are not really foreign, if they are from one of the realms, they are not foreign at all really, there is a reason why there is no “ambassador” to Australia for example.
To be fair having worked with many of them over the years in the army most come so they can get a uk passport and many end up with cold weather injuries or off sick for most of there service I have however served with some very capable soldiers from the commonwealth however I believe we need to have a cap so as to not have what’s happening in uk wider society and end up with clicks within the military the last thing we need in the military is to balkanise it
… Cliques…
Why not do pre admission. You have one year to hit these targets and if you do we will accept you
Given that we have shortfall in the number of troops why not simply allow extra commonwealth applications to go through to cover the shortfall in UK recruitment?
The shortfall is because the company that recruits in the uk is to slow
Why turn people away if there are unfilled vacancies? We really do excel in creating our own problems!
They turn away far more uk citizens
There have also been 10s of thousands of UK candidates who withdrew due to length of time. It’s been an excuse to keep costs down, even if Capita or now Serco manage a 100% 90-day turnaround tomorrow, the simple fact is the Governments of at least the last 15 years didn’t want personnel numbers maintained, never mind increased. They wanted the opposite and the realities that bring with it be damned. They’ve been able to blame the military, outsourced agencies, the current generation (weaker, fatter, mental health issues, other lies etc.), everything but themselves for the mess.
Hopefully significant personnel increases are identified in the SDR, with a planned 0.1% increase per year it’s unlikely we’ll see that until SDR 2030.
They turn away far more uk citizens uk recruitment is done by a private company instead of ex-veterans or serving NCOs who could tell wh0 would make a good candidate, I was one of those people in the 70s, no qualifications, but served 15yrs and became one of those NCOs who did time in a recruitment office
Yes Australia has the same problem with outsourced recruitment. Some applicants have had to wait up to 300 days for a response or offer.
Some of my best soldiers were from the commonwealth.
I can only speak colloquially, but I know a handful of young men who in the last few years have joined up with the RM. They have all commented how many Saffas there were in basic with them. Frankly I would understand recruiting from alien cultures, but SA? The more the merrier as far as I’m concerned
SA? You mean the country that produced Pro-Russian N@zi’s like Musk?
How is he a Nazi?explain
You need me to explain to you how the man who preforms Nazi salutes, complains that far right parties aren’t right enough, and spoke at an AFD rally is a Nazi? Yeah get fucked.
You do know that Musk, and SpaceX provide satellite internet service to Ukraine, don’t you? Did you also know that from 2022 to 2023, the service was provided FOC to Ukraine? (The US DOD contracted with SpaceX to continue providing service to Ukraine since June 2023.) Or are you ignoring these facts since it doesn’t fit your narrative?
Breathtakingly ignorant comment…
Breathtakingly ignorant comment…a great number of SA individuals have served and died for the UK over the past 100 years or so, some with great distinction, members of my own family included. Do not equate Musk with an entire people.
History is past, currently South Africa is aligned with Putin and produces Musk.
Like it or not they do not get an automatic pass.
The people and the government are very very different. Especially the Akrikaans and English population versus the ANC
So you’re assuming that every saffer is a white good guy who is not supporting the ANC under any circumstance…. riiiiiiiiight.
Dern, having lived there myself, I think I can safely say that SA’s alignment with Putin is mainly thanks to the ANC, as there is still a lot of friendship between them that hearkens back to the days of the Cold War. The average Joe on the street doesn’t really give 2 hoots about Putin and most don’t even know the dynamics of it. And those that do, I can assure you, will most definitely not be lining up serve the UK in any way, shape or form. In that context, I don’t think it is correct to say that because the ANC have chosen to align with Putin, this has somehow produced Musk.
I don’t think SAs should get an automatic pass, all applicants should be vetted as is the responsible thing to do. But a great many who do apply are those who already have ancestral/familial links with the UK and I don’t think one should be so ready to generalise without understanding the political dynamics of SA and the actions of one man.
Norton: I am not generalising South Africans, nor am I saying they should be banned from serving entirely. I am pointing out that it is a country that is far from stable, far from universally pro-Britain or even pro-West, and that there needs to be a limit on how many of them are allowed into the Armed Forces. And if you think that nobody who wants to do a nation harm would sign on to work from the inside, or even if the idea of a cap was dropped that there couldn’t be concerted efforts through the ANC by, for example, Moscow to undermine the UK, you’re in for a rude shock.
So his logic goes; Russel Brand is from Essex, so all Essex Boys must be pervs…
Jamie Oliver and Olly Murs are from Essex so they must be sx offenders. Keanu Reeves’ mother is from Essex so I wonder if he is also. Well that’s if we follow his logic
Cool now what’s actually being said, as opposed to your shitty strawman:
“South African’s are great, we should have as many of them as possible.”
“No, South Africa produces enemies of the state like Musk and their current government which is pro-Putin, we should retain caps on the numbers of them and do thorough security checks before letting ones we know have no questionable sympathies in.”
I serve alongside alot of these soldiers and what I find absolutely disgusting is the fact that alot of them have been living separate from their partners and children for years, having to travel once a year or sometimes every couple of years depending on deployments to see them because they cannot bring them over until they earn a certain amount and can afford to pay for visas etc.
Leading to depression and marriage breaking down not to mention the children suffering from not having both parents around.
It seems it would be cheaper and faster to come via calais for a better life.
This is appalling treatment of soldiers regardless of the country they are from if you serve king and country you should be treated better.
One of the supposed consequences of the ‘end of empire’ is that we can’t draw on the manpower of a large portion of the globe. In reality though, we can (as evidenced by the sheer number of Commonwealth applicants), but deliberately choose not to do so. It seems the government perceives that a pretense of abject helplessness is in the national interest. I tend to disagree
The RN need to up the cap for no other purpose than rugby.
The number of people here who don’t get the idea that countries should cap the number of foreign soldiers in it’s forces should be limited is astounding. Not all commonwealth countries are friendly, not everyone in a commonwealth country can be counted to be loyal to the UK, and there are absolutely actors out there that would happily try to gain control over parts of the armed forces if they could.
Completely agree. I worry about the naivety of it.
We’ve seen how foreign governments can easily apply pressure to the families of their nationals resident in the UK and elsewhere (mainly thinking about the Chinese here). So even if we could guarantee that the loyalty of foreign personnel was as strong as UK born personnel, there is a massive vulnerability due to blackmail being easier for foreign governments to undertake on their families who are much more likely to live abroad.
A single infiltrator could wreak havoc if they had the chance. Whether that is intelligence leakage, or deliberate sabotage of high value assets such as lighting a fire on a ship, or damaging £100m fighter jets; even less obvious but potentially just as damaging discrete but regular removal of the odd bolt or other piece of equipment. Based on the potential risk, I’m not surprised the RAF and RN have lower limits, given that they have fewer but higher value assets.
Indeed, although the individual threat isn’t really something I think is managed by caps. That’s background screening and security checks. Caps is more about grey zone stuff, and ensuring the loyalty and integrity of the armed forces in the medium to long term.
I do but 8000 were rejected. Okay, but what happened to the rest?
I’m in agreement. I’ve no issues with the cap, and there are plenty of areas that I suspect would be uk nationals only anyway.
How does a capping prevent enemies of uk not joining the MOD ??? Despite the number if an enemy of the state wants to join he wud still do. I believe it shd be more of Identity of the Army must be majority English that make sense in any state but this enemy or that it’s just a bumbling around the bush to justify the unjustifiable. SA aligning with countries like Russia or putting runs back from the period when the west were supporting apartheid regimes and demonised the majority south africas, the soviet union helped them with training and weapons for resistance .that they have never forgotten thus why now even musk hates his own country it has nothing to do with hating uk
Maybe bother reading and you’ll get your answer. For example the point above where I outright said it isn’t a way of stopping individuals? Or was that too hard got someone who thinks that the English are the only native Brits….
Are you also seriously too thick to get why soviet sympathies don’t equate to anti western sentiment!?
Why the fcuk can our government not just make national service compulsory for the layabouts who have no intention of working. And wrong attitudes can be broken down and soldiers built, it’s what our military does best. Either be in further education, work, or be conscripted.
Because conscription creates a very specific kind of army that doesn’t align with the kind of force the UK needs.
Why do we seem to determined to ignore the people who want to help us, while focusing our resources on those who are only here for the money?
I believe it’s naive to think that all applicants are motivated by loyalty to the UK in the same way that domestic recruits are. Many will be influenced by the legal right to residency in the UK following service, the relatively high salary they may receive compared to opportunities in their home countries, and undoubtedly our enemies will try to exploit this route using agents (they’d be foolish not to).
That being said, the general consensus is obviously that the vast majority of those who do end up serving make a great contribution. But it only takes a small number, even just one, for this contribution to be outweighed by hostile acts.
Bingo!
The desire to gain residency in the uk was and is a major driving factor for commonwealth soldiers. Back in the late 90’s early 00’s many were recruited, for a numbers boost but also by Blair to increase diversity in the military. Most done the bare minimum then got out and applied for residency/citizenship. It was denied to many because even though they had done the 5 years in country serving in the military they either didn’t have ILR or more importantly a job or a place to live, both of which was supplied by the military and lost once you leave.
Would be interesting to see how this rejection rate compares to UK applicant rejection rates. Anyone got those figures available?
I’m sure it also varies significantly between officer and enlisted recruitment.
Given the pressing need for personnel—it’s important to reconsider some of the current recruitment policies.
One significant barrier is the residency requirement, which mandates individuals to have lived in the UK for 3 to 5 years before they can apply. This policy inadvertently excludes many skilled, motivated, and willing candidates who may not yet meet this criterion but are ready to serve and contribute meaningfully to national defence.
If the goal is to address the shortfall effectively, it would be wise to revisit and remove these restrictions, or at the very least, reduce the duration significantly. By opening the doors to a broader and more diverse pool of applicants, including recent arrivals and Commonwealth citizens, the UK armed forces can harness untapped potential and strengthen their ranks in a time of need.
Folks seem to be a bit analy retentive about Saffas for some reason. Name me one member of the UK armed forces that would say that we’ve got far too many Gurkha’s serving. Every squaddie you speak to would take ten thousand more of those guys in a heart beat. Every ex-squaddie would volunteer to help build them and their loved ones houses up and down the country for them to retire into once they’d done there 22.
If that’s a comment about me, I am talking about Saffas because every time this subject comes up there’s comments about how we need as many of them as we can get and why we should just open the army to them. If we got the same comments about other commonwealth countries my argument would still be a cap.
I would say the same about the Gurkhas btw, and I’m a squaddie, so that proves your statement wrong in a heartbeat.
With a ongoing personnel shortage severely effecting our armed forces, and at a time of increasing international tension to put it mildly, this self- imposed limitation on our ability to recruit adequately beggars belief. The Army I understand has failed to reach it’s recruitment targets for years now – this while routinely rejecting substantial numbers of perfectly decent Gurkha Regiment candidates every year. I take it that this Regiment has historically earned itself a fighting reputation that only a fool would dare question. I don’t doubt for one moment that the RN and RAF would also benefit from a increased inflow of qualified Commonwealth recruits – the pay on offer must be attractive to many in the Commonwealth one would have thought.
Is the rationale behind this utter nonsense a political need to appease Daily Mail types on immigration numbers?
The international tension created by the West… 1999, bombed Serbia because of an internal terrorism problem. 2001, invaded Afghanistan because of a false flag op in America. 2003, invaded Iraq on a lie.. bombed, invaded and destroyed Syria, Libya, Somalia, Yemen all based on lies, deceit and a disastrous foreign policy set to embroil the West in population replacement, division, fear and poverty.. it’s working that international tension
Once they start dying in Odessa that will dry up.
There’s better pay in the Russian army and less chance if being killed
Those lads and lasses from the Commonwealth are the ONLY recruitment… Checkout Catterick!