The Home Office is replacing physical immigration documents with a digital proof of immigration status – an eVisa for customers already living in the UK, and for new visa applicants too.
What is an eVisa?
• An eVisa is an electronic record of a person’s immigration status. It removes the need for physical documents such as the biometric residence permit (BRP), passports containing a visa vignette sticker or immigration ink stamps, or the biometric residence card (BRC).
• All BRP holders should visit www.gov.uk/guidance/online-immigration-status-evisa now to create a UKVI account to access their eVisa. Holders of other physical immigration documents, including passports containing vignette stickers or ink stamps (for those who hold indefinite leave to enter or indefinite leave to remain), and BRCs, can also find information here on what they need to do to create a UKVI account to access their eVisa.
• Legacy document holders with settled status, including holders of passports containing ink stamps or vignette stickers are encouraged to make a ‘No Time Limit’ application at the Immigration Service website, which currently provides successful applicants with a BRP with which they can prove their rights. They will be able to use this BRP to create a UKVI account to access their eVisa.
• Later this year, the No Time Limit process will provide successful applicants with a UKVI account and access to their eVisa, rather than providing a BRP.
• As physical documents that evidence immigration status expire, customers who have created a UKVI account will be able to use the view and prove service to prove their status securely with third parties, such as employers or landlords (in England), and view their immigration status
eVisa key messages
• eVisas are a key part of delivering a border and immigration system which will be ‘digital by default’ by 2025, a change that will enhance the customer experience, deliver excellent value, and increase the immigration system’s security and efficiency.
• Customers in the UK who currently use a physical immigration document, such as a biometric residence permit (BRP), or legacy paper document such as a passport containing an ink stamp or a vignette sticker will now need to take action to create a UKVI account to access their eVisa
• It is free, and straightforward for customers who hold physical immigration documents to create a UKVI account to access their eVisa. Details of how to do this are available at www.gov.uk/evisa.
• Updating from a physical document to an eVisa does not affect a customer's immigration status or the conditions of a customer's permission to enter or stay in the UK.
• Those who check immigration statuses can already accept a 'share code' to check someone's status using the relevant online services including employers (the right to work check) and, in England, landlords (the right to rent check).
• Others can check an individual's immigration status using a share code provided by the individual being checked using the 'check immigration status' service.
• When presented with a legacy immigration document, like a passport containing an ink stamp, those checking status can direct the individual whose status they are checking to www.gov.uk/evisa for details of how to access and use their eVisa.
Anyone with a UK visa who is already in the UK, will need to visit www.gov.uk/guidance/online-immigration-status-evisa to find out what you need to do to create a UKVI account to access your eVisa. (Nothing changes for British and Irish citizens. You will continue to prove their right to work as they do now, by showing their British or Irish passport.)
Help with your UKVI account or eVisa
If you require assistance with your UKVI account or eVisa or would like any further information about how to register, please contact PBIC.
PBIC is our partnering agency, for Bedford Borough Council’s Homes for Ukraine Scheme:
PBIC Bedford
Telephone: 01234 328100
Email: info@pbic.org.uk