The government has delayed the roll out of eVisas in the UK amid fears British citizens may not be able to access them.
British residents could be prevented from coming back into the country due to issues with the switch to eVisas, campaigners for migrant rights have warned.
The concerns come as the government delayed the rollout of eVisas in the UK, amid fears British citizens may not be able to access them.
Migration and citizenship minister Seema Malhotra told the Guardian the government was delaying the switch to a fully digital immigration system amid fears of a Windrush-style scandal.
The move came after it was reported that UK citizens living abroad had struggled to gain access to the system required to download the new eVisas and as a result may have been refused entry to the country.
Most physical documents usually used to enter the UK will no longer be valid on 31 December.
Malhotra said she had listened to concerns about the new system and as a result, the government will “allow biometric residence permits or EU settlement scheme biometric residence cards that expire on or after 31 December to be accepted as valid evidence of permission to travel until 31 March 2025”.
Extra support will be offered to airlines to help them use both the new system and the old one which will be temporarily kept in place.
But despite the delay, campaign groups remain concerned that the change in schedule will not reach overseas airport staff and border officials in time, and some British residents could be refused permission to travel and left stranded abroad as a result.
What are the new rules?
Physical records of a person’s right to be in the UK are being phased out and replaced by eVisas.
Electronic visas are nothing new in the UK and were used for the EU settlement scheme after Brexit. The big change is that eVisas are becoming the only way to access these documents, with physical copies no longer accepted.
The move doesn’t apply to a traditional passport, which people will still need to enter the country, but does impact effectively every other document that someone entering the UK may need.
This includes biometric residence permit (BRP), a visa vignette sticker or ink stamp usually put in a passport, or biometric residence card (BRC).
The eVisa will be free for all people who use them.
The aim is to reduce fraud in the immigration system and remove the risk of important documents being lost.
The eVisa will be tied to a person’s biometric information – physical features like fingerprints – to protect against identity fraud.
It will mean Border Force officers inspecting someone’s immigration status will be able to carry out checks using an online service, and visa holders will be able to access their digital record anywhere instantly.
Eventually, the government hopes to do away with passports as well and rely entirely on biometrics to manage how people enter the country.
When do the changes come into effect?
The new rules apply from 1 January. Originally all of the physical documents that were being phased out were due to expire on 31 December, but with the extension, this is no longer the case.
The government has allowed people to apply for the new eVisas since 17 April, but people applying for them from abroad have struggled to gain access to the system.
Some expired documents will still be able to be used to gain entry to the UK and all of them will be able to be used to set up an eVisa.
Malhotra criticised the previous government for setting the transition date to New Year’s Day, which is both a bank holiday and a busy day for international travel.
She told the Guardian: “I still find it staggering that the Tories chose 1 January to roll out the biggest change to immigration documents for a generation on an international public holiday – risking a cliff-edge, when hardly anyone is working.”
What do campaign groups say?
Despite the delay to the rollout, campaigners say they are still concerned people could be prevented from returning to the UK.
A letter to Malhotra from Kezia Tobin, head of policy and advocacy at the3million and Zoe Bantleman, legal director at the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (ILPA), said: “We are not confident that a temporary three-month period to 31 March 2025 will be sufficient to address the underlying issues with the current implementation of eVisas.”
In the letter they said: “We are now facing the situation where, less than four weeks before millions of physical BRP/Cs are set to expire, carriers will be informed that they may carry people whose cards have expired. Based on our previous experience, we are emphatic that this message will not filter down to every carrier, every check-in staff member and third party, and every boarding gate staff member.”
The letter explained that with transport carriers obliged to cover the cost of returning someone who is not allowed to enter the country, they would likely “err on the side of caution” if there was any confusion, and deny the person boarding.
The groups also voiced concerns about the “subjection of citizens of a further 82 countries to immigration checks at check-in desks and boarding gates around the world, at a time when the Home Office has publicly acknowledged that the eVisa rollout is suffering problems and delays for vulnerable individuals”.
It called for the government to “urgently consider pausing the ETA rollout for all countries beyond the six to which ETAs have already been rolled out”.
Monique Hawkins, policy and research officer with the3million, told the Observer that the current system is “not fit for purpose”, while Josephine Whitaker-Yilmaz, from migrant rights charity Praxis, told the newspaper: “These are the kinds of administrative errors that can push families over the brink into poverty, or even on to the streets.”
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Residents could be barred from UK due to eVisa confusion, say rights groups
Border control at Gatwick airport. There are concerns that news of the delay to eVisas will not reach overseas airport staff and border officials in time.Migrant rights groups have warned that British residents could still be barred from returning from abroad because of the switch to digital visas, despite the government extending the deadline by three months.
The Home Office announced last week that the transition to eVisas as the accepted proof of British residency rights would begin at the end of March 2025, ditching the original 31 December deadline with just weeks to go after the transition was dogged by technical problems.
While the delay has been mostly welcomed, there are widespread concerns that the change in schedule will not reach overseas airport staff and border officials in time, with British residents potentially refused permission to travel and left stranded abroad as a result.
“Based on our previous experience, we are emphatic that this message will not filter down to every carrier, every check-in staff member and third party, and every boarding gate staff member,” the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (ILPA) and EU citizens’ rights group the3million said in a letter to the Home Office after the delay was announced.
Under government rules, if a transport operator carries a passenger to Britain who is then not allowed to enter the country, the operator must cover the cost of taking them back. “Carriers, being commercial organisations, are risk averse,” the letter said. “Therefore, unless they have received confirmation from UK authorities that someone has permission to travel, they will very likely err on the side of caution and deny that person boarding.”
“We are concerned these measures are kicking the can down the road and will not be enough to avoid travel chaos,” Monique Hawkins, policy and research officer with the3million, told the Observer. “We need reassurances that no one who gets stuck abroad through no fault of their own will have to carry the financial, emotional and disruptive burden of it. It cannot be left to individual people to convince airlines to let them travel on expired documents, the responsibility needs to firmly sit with the government.”
The eVisa system has already been introduced for EU citizens in the UK. “We’ve seen how technical errors push people into losing job opportunities and tenancies, being refused access to services and having difficulties travelling,” said Hawkins. “It’s clear the current system is not fit for purpose.”
The government has launched a round-the-clock “support hub” for transport operators wanting to check a passenger’s immigration status, but the “resolution centre” helpline for passengers operates only during British daytime and often has wait times of more than an hour.
The Home Office says 3.1 million people have so far accessed their eVisas this year by opening an online UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) account, but has not said how many still need to do so. After the extended deadline, the old biometric residency permits (BRPs) will no longer work as proof of immigration status, although passport ink stamps and visa vignettes – which predate BRPs – should still be valid.
Campaigners say the eVisa rollout has been beset by technical problems. “We’ve seen government departments denying parents access to child benefit because they’re ‘not ready to accept eVisas’, and high street banks refusing to accept them as proof of status,” said Josephine Whitaker-Yilmaz of migrant rights charity Praxis. “These are the kinds of administrative errors that can push families over the brink into poverty, or even on to the streets.”
Some people have encountered technological obstacles to accessing their eVisa, such as not having a smartphone or a regular email account.
“Sometimes, even when people successfully create a UKVI account and receive the confirmation email, they still can’t access the eVisa because of technical issues,” said Sara Alsherif, programme manager with Open Rights Group. “There were problems where people could see their old application, not their new one. Some of these problems persist, including linking the refugee travel document to the eVisa.
“The Home Office’s delay will not fix the problems. In fact, it created additional problems and leaves many people without clear guidelines, especially after announcing that they would stop issuing new BRPs. That means that people have nothing to prove their right to work, rent, or re-enter, and the Home Office has left them in darkness.”
