Home Office removes invitation requirement for eVisa applications

Guidance

Biometric residence permits (BRPs) are the documents issued to foreign nationals granted visas permitting them to stay in the UK. The Home Office are in the process of implementing a fully digital immigration and borders system, and as a result phasing out BRPs, to be replaced by a digital immigration status, or eVisa. As part of this transition, for several years now BRPs issued in respect of visas that are due to expire in 2025 or later have been issued with an expiry date of 31 December 2024. Up until recently, the advice from the Home Office to BRP holders has been to wait for further guidance on what to do to ensure that they can prove immigration status from January 2025 onwards. Earlier this year the Home Office started inviting selected cohorts of BRP holders to set up their eVisas, and now all BRP holders have been invited to do this.

What steps are BRP holders required to take?

In order to generate and access an eVisa, holders of BRPs must set up a UKVI account. They will then be required to add their eVisa to that account, which will involve confirming their identity using the 'UK Immigration ID Check' app available from the Google Play and Apple stores.

For the time being, BRP holders have been advised to keep their BRP (even after their expiry on 31 December 2024 and after they have obtained an eVisa) for their own personal records and in order to assist with future applications.

It is hoped that the process for most BRP holders will be relatively straightforward. However, a significant number of foreign nationals in the UK will need to take additional steps before being able to access an eVisa. The most significant of these groups will be foreign nationals who were granted indefinite leave to remain before the introduction of BRPs and so are only able to prove their status via a stamp or endorsement in a passport or other document. Those people - if they have not naturalised as British citizens - will first need to apply for a BRP and once that has been issued take the steps outlined above to create a UKVI account and access their eVisa.

What steps should employers be taking?

There are no mandatory steps which employers need to take at this time, other than to ensure ongoing compliance with the requirement to carry out right to work checks. Those checks already require employers to check employees' and prospective employees' digital immigration status rather than their physical BRPs. However, employers should still be aware of this change and the fact that it may be causing distress for some of their employees and/or their family members. An 'eVisas Partner Pack' has been developed with materials which employers may wish to use to raise awareness of the steps employees should be taking.

The key messages for employers to pass on to affected employees at this stage are that:

• Anyone who holds a BRP that expires on 31 December 2024 needs to create a UKVI account and set up their eVisa and does not need an invitation from the Home Office to do so
• Anyone who formerly held a BRP but has since been granted British citizenship does not need to do anything
• Anyone who holds indefinite leave to enter or remain that is not endorsed on a BRP will first need to submit a (free) application for a BRP before they can access their eVisa
• These steps should be taken as soon as possible to allow enough time for the new documentation to be reviewed before the 'cliff-edge' of 31 December 2024
• BRP holders should retain their BRP card even after obtaining their eVisa and after it expires on 31 December 2024

If you hold a BRP which is due to expire on 31 December 2024, or are an employer or education provider concerned about the impact of these changes on your foreign-national employees or students, please contact Tom Brett Young in our Employment team on 0739 314 8352, or complete the form below.