From tomorrow, 1st January 2025, most non-British children who live in the UK will need an e-visa to prove their immigration status.
Previously, migrant and refugee children, young people and families could rely on a Home Office-issued biometric residence permit (BRP) to prove their status. Under UK law, status must be proved in order to work, rent a home, receive medical treatment in a hospital, hold a bank account, get a driving license, or claim benefits, as well as when travelling in and out of the UK. However, the change from a system of physical documents to an online system has been rushed, includes no meaningful transition period, and is likely to cause serious problems for individuals at the start of 2025.
Rushed timescales
Timescales for this change were established five years ago, when BRPs began to be issued with the same expiry date: 31st December 2024. This meant that regardless of whether or not the new system for checking and proving immigration status in the UK was completed, people would cease to be able to use their BRPs to prove their status from that date. In spite of this, the roll-out of applications for the online account that would enable people to view and prove their status digitally did not open until 6th August 2024, leaving less than five months for the UK’s more than 10 million migrants and refugees, and all of the UK’s employers, landlords, bank staff and civil servants who must conduct checks by law, to learn about the change and take action to be able to use the new system.
Because of the hard 31st December deadline, there has been no meaningful transition phase. The Home Office has not published data on how many people can now practically rely on e-visas, and how many people have not yet engaged with the new system.
Last-minute changes
On 4th December 2024 the Home Office released a statement and supporting document acknowledging issues with the e-visa roll-out and outlining several small mitigations, mostly in relation to international travel. None of the changes related to proving rights within the UK. The changes include:
- Being able to travel using an expired BRP to enter the UK between 31st December 2024 and 30th March 2025, so long as the person has leave to remain in the UK
- Introducing a specific 24/7 passenger helpline to help those who are travelling after 31st December 2024 and who are experiencing issues verifying their status
The likely impact
Some groups are much more likely to have issues with e-visas than others. Anyone waiting for the renewal of a visa has continuing rights in the UK while the Home Office makes a decision, but the e-visa system is not working for many. Refugees, who are less likely than other groups to have an alternate ID document and who may have more support needs, may also be disproportionately affected. We also have concerns that children may be disproportionately affected, as each child needs their own online account and we fear that many parents do not yet realise that they need to take action on behalf of every child.
Although the Home Office has made efforts to automate some processes, such as checks of permission to claim benefits, receive medical treatment, or travel, we are concerned that issues with the databases underlying these automatic processes have not been resolved in time. This means that there are likely to be system glitches such as statuses not appearing or appearing incorrectly. These issues are so common that the Home Office has introduced a webform for reporting errors on e-visas.
The system of checks in some areas, such as when claiming benefits, is so well-established that changes to those systems are proving difficult, and there have already been reports of people who should be in receipt of benefits having their benefits curtailed or refused due to a lack of recognition of e-visas.
Where systems to check and prove are not automated, for example in banks, colleges, universities, and local authorities or others providing free childcare provision, the public awareness task remains enormous, and many people expected to check immigration status on a regular basis seem unaware of the imminent change. There are concerns that this will mean people are denied access to banking, further or higher education, childcare support or other necessities.
The Home Office has explicitly denied any liability for loss associated with problems viewing and proving status through the e-visa system.
There is also a significant concern that this change will lead to people falling out of status in the UK and becoming undocumented. Before this change, people tended to use their BRPs to know when their permission to be in the UK, which was often granted for irregular periods of time, would expire. This means that many refugees and migrants including many children may now be unaware of when their permission to remain in the UK expires, and could therefore fail to take action in time to remain lawfully present in the UK.
Rosalind Compton, Legal and Practice Development Manager at Coram Children’s Legal Centre, said:
For a decade, refugee and migrant children, young people and families have had to prove their status in the UK in order to access many of the things we take for granted, like renting a home. The mismanagement of the e-visa roll-out is likely to have serious consequences. Children, young people and families with every right to live in the UK should have been thoroughly supported to make this change, and instead vulnerable people are going to bear the consequences of a digital roll-out which has been rushed and poorly thought-through.
