Over 4 million UK visa holders have successfully created an
account to access their eVisa, according to Home Office
statistics published today. An estimated 600,000 people are yet
to switch from their physical document to an eVisa.
Securing our borders is a key part of the government's Plan for
Change and eVisas are a key part of delivering a border and
immigration system which is more digital and streamlined. This
change will enhance the experience of people using the system,
and increase the immigration system's security and efficiency.
To support a continued smooth transition to eVisas, and ensure no
one is disadvantaged, the Home Office is extending the ‘grace
period' announced in December 2024. We committed to keep this
transitional measure under review and we are extending the end
date from 31 March 2025 to 1 June 2025.
This allows people with a biometric residence permit
(BRP) or EUSS biometric residence card (BRC) that expired on
or after 31 December 2024, and who continue to hold underlying
immigration status, to continue to use their expired document for
international travel up to and including 1 June 2025.
From the 2 June 2025, expired BRPs and EUSS BRCs will no longer
be acceptable evidence of immigration status when travelling to
the UK.
Minister for Migration and Citizenship, MP said:
Today's encouraging eVisa statistics show that a significant
majority of the immigration status holders who needed to take
action have done so.
We continue to listen carefully to feedback, and our confirmation
that expired immigration documents can be used for travel until
June this year will help to further ensure the transition to
eVisas continues to be as smooth as possible.
Those yet to create an account to access their eVisa are
encouraged to do so as soon as possible, to make the most of the
benefits of using an eVisa and join the millions – including all
EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) status holders – who already have an
eVisa. It is free, and straightforward for those who hold
physical and paper documents to create a UKVI account to
access their eVisa.
People with indefinite leave to remain (ILR, also known as
settlement) who use an ink stamp or vignette in a passport to
prove their rights can continue to use their documents as they do
today, including for travel, but are encouraged to make the
switch to an eVisa to take advantage of the benefits it brings.
We had previously estimated the number of BRP holders who need to
create an account to access their eVisa at over 4 million, but
this number is hard to establish accurately given the daily
fluctuations in this data. This is because of people's leave
expiring, people leaving the country before their leave expires,
or leave being cancelled or curtailed.
Since the first eVisa statistics publication in December 2024, we
have carried out further analysis and quality assurance to
enhance our understanding of who has not yet acted, though the
data is presented in same format for clarity.
A number of people who created a UKVI account already had one
created as part of their visa application, and therefore now have
2 UKVI accounts – although only one eVisa. This should
not cause issues for those people, but it does mean that the
published data includes a number of duplicate accounts. To
maintain consistency, we are continuing to publish data on eVisa
account creation numbers, recognising that this contains
duplicates.
However, we are also clarifying our revised estimate of the
numbers of immigration status holders who still need to access
their eVisa, which we anticipate to be approximately 600,000 BRP
holders. This number will decrease as people's leave expires and
they leave the UK.
Further information can be found in our eVisa
factsheet.
