News Alert | eVisa Postponement

As part of the Home Office’s digitisation of the UK Immigration System they have rolled out a digital visa scheme, requiring all those in the UK with paper documentation – including BRP cards –  evidencing their UK status to move to a digital, eVisa. To date, over 3 million people have taken action to link an eVisa to their online Home Office account.

Now, with a number of issues having arisen with the transition, the Home Office have announced plans to postpone the 31 December 2024 cut-off for using a BRP card to board a plane, train or ferry for the UK to 31 March 2025 on a provisional basis.

What issues have arisen?

The Home Office had announced that all impacted individuals would be contacted, however communication to this cohort commenced and then discontinued by September 2024. As such individuals who had relied upon being prompted by the Home Office were not and so a number of applications to link eVisas may still be pending.

For individuals with older evidence of their UK status, for example an endorsement in a passport or a letter from the Home Office conferring status, the transition to the digitised eVisa status has not, in all cases, been smooth as a further step to enrol biometrics has been required to-date.

IT errors on the platform continue to occur, ranging from incorrect statuses being reflected on people’s Home Office accounts to photographs of individuals not appearing on Home Office accounts. Most importantly, general access to the platform for UK residents overseas is now reportedly a struggle, leading to concerns that, at best, the digitised system will lead to long delays at ports and UK residents being unable to return to the UK as status cannot be proven at the border.

Postponing the end of BRP/BRC cards

The pushing back of the date at which BRP cards (and EUSS based family member BRC cards) can be used to 31 March 2025 will help ease delays at the border and at ports enabling individuals to use their BRP card as evidence of UK residence beyond 31 December 2024.

This does not solve any of the other issues the platform and scheme are experiencing, however, and does introduce some new issues:

• For some, advice from the Home Office has been consistent that BRP cards will not be required beyond 31 December 2024. For those that have already departed the UK for long winter breaks without their card, reliance on the card to return will not be possible.

• BRP cards from 1 January 2025 do not reflect a valid end date of leave. As such this statement will lead to potential abuse at the border with individuals with BRP cards being boarded with carriers before 31 March 2025. This will put additional pressure on UK Border Agents and most likely push delays to airports as people return to the border with expired documents.

• The new Electronic Travel Authorisation (“ETA”) scheme is now being phased in and a list of 48 countries’ nationals will require electronic permission to arrive in the UK as a visitor from 8 January 2025, joined by European countries in Spring 2025. This leaves carriers and border agents with additional pressure checking documents and digital statuses across two new digital schemes, before adding that one such scheme will not follow the anticipated process until, potentially, 1 April 2025.

Look Ahead to 2025

Further issues are likely to arise in the early stages of 2025 in respect of right to rent and work evidence. For those individuals whose online status experiences the issues outlined above (photographs failing to appear on the account, status incorrectly reflected), right to rent and work delays and errors are likely to arise.

A postponement to the rollout applying from 1 January 2025 may offer some temporary comfort for those individuals who have not yet transitioned to an eVisa status as well as those whose statuses are reflecting inaccurate information (as a BRP card can continue to be used for a short period).

However, the nature of this postponement is likely to allow some to fall through the cracks and solves none of the other issues currently being experienced with the eVisa scheme. Furthermore, this type of corrective action will create tiers of travellers and status holders, with some able to more easily travel to the UK compared to others, which could lead to action against the Home Office.

If you believe these issues may impact you or your employees, please do not hesitate in contacting your Magrath Sheldrick LLP representative who can assist you further.

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