Home Office sitting on data about scale of eVisa errors | Computer Weekly

"On 31 December 2024, the immigration documents of millions of people living in the UK expired after being replaced by the Home Office with a real-time, online-only immigration status. While the department has been issuing eVisas for several years - including to European Union (EU) citizens who applied to the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) after Brexit, those applying for Skilled Worker visas, and people from Hong Kong applying for the British National (Overseas) visa - paper documents have now been completely phased out."

"Instead, people are now expected to use a UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) digital account to generate "share codes", which they must use to prove their immigration status when dealing with a range of third parties, including employers and letting agencies. Despite persistent data quality and integrity issues plaguing the system since its inception, which have left people unable to reliably prove their immigration status when needed, the current Home Office policy means the eVisa system is the only way people can evidence their lawful residence in the UK, as well as their associated rights and entitlements."

"Unlike the old physical documents, the Home Office's eVisa system does not provide a stable record of an individual's immigration status. Instead, the system generates the status in real time every time someone needs to prove it, which is determined by trawling dozens of disparate databases to source the relevant information. Given that millions of people are now required to prove their immigration status via the system, even a 1% error rate would mean tens of thousands of people are affected at the very least."

Millions of people in the UK had immigration documents expire on 31 December 2024 after being replaced by a real-time, online-only eVisa system. Paper documents were phased out, and people must use a UK Visas and Immigration digital account to generate share codes for third parties such as employers and letting agencies. Persistent data quality and integrity issues have left people unable to reliably prove immigration status when needed. The eVisa system is now the only way to evidence lawful residence and related rights and entitlements. Unlike physical documents, the system does not provide a stable record; it generates status in real time by trawling multiple disparate databases. With millions using it, even a 1% error rate could affect tens of thousands.

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