Tuesday 13 February 2024

The Home Office currently operates a ‘hybrid’ system for evidencing UK immigration permission, whereby some leave holders hold physical copies of Biometric Residence Permits (BRPs), some only hold digital immigration permission, and others hold both physical and digital permission.

Any BRP holders with immigration permission expiring from 1 January 2025 onwards will note that their BRP has an expiry date of 31 December 2024 – this is part of the Home Office’s intentions to replace BRPs with a digital status at the start of next year. To do so, BRP holders without a UK Visa and Immigration (UKVI) account will have to create one before their BRP expires (individuals holding digital status will already hold this account and do not need to take any action). The Home Office has previously clarified that they would release further information regarding when this would be throughout 2024.

On 25 January 2024 the Minister for Legal Migration and the Border, Tom Pursglove MP, announced that the Home Office expects that any existing leave holders and applicants for leave will be able to create a UKVI account from April 2024. This will ensure that BRP holders without eVisas can gain digital status once their BRPs expire.

The Minister also confirmed that the Home Office ‘will contact customers directly via email where possible and will utilise a range of additional communication channels to inform customers of the need to take action to create an account before their BRP cards expire at the end of 2024’.

Migrants without a current UKVI account should ensure that, if necessary, they update their address as soon as reasonably practicable using the online change of address form so that the Home Office is able to contact them directly.

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If you would like to learn further about what an eVisa and UKVI account is, please refer to our previous article on eVisas and the digitalisation of the UK immigration system. We shall update our news section as more information becomes available so please see our website or sign up to our mailing list to stay informed.