UK employers urged to ensure smooth digital immigration status transition

The Home Office will discontinue BRPs and implement eVisas by 31 December 2024, with both employers and employees required to ready themselves ahead of the deadline.

Shara Pledger, corporate immigration expert at Pinsent Masons, said: “While it is individuals who are responsible for switching their status to an eVisa, the primary responsibility for employers is to ensure right to work checks are kept up to date and repeated where a worker has a temporary visa.”

The Home Office has already issued eVisas to certain groups including some nationals of the European Economic Area (EEA), some non-EEA nationals who have made recent applications from inside the UK to extend, update or switch their visas, as well as some non-EEA nationals who live in the UK and have been emailed directly by the Home Office to set up their eVisas.

Many BRP holders have yet to be contacted by the Home Office to set up their eVisas. However, as of 6 August 2024, all BRP holders can set up a UK Visas and Imigration (UKVI) account and switch their status to an eVisa, whether they have been contacted by the Home Office directly or not. This can be done via the Home Office website.

Pledger said: “There are actions employers can take to encourage a smooth transition. For instance, it is important for employers to encourage staff to check and record their visa expiry dates and take steps now to set up their eVisas, whether they have been contacted by the Home Office or not. Employers should also advise staff who already have digital status to keep their ID and contact details up to date with UK Visas and Immigration. For staff who intend to travel in early 2025, employers can helpfully suggest that they check their airline’s requirements and carry alternative evidence of their UK immigration status, such as Home Office decision emails or copies of right to work checks.”

Employers that have recorded 31 December 2024 as the expiry date of a worker’s permission must complete an online right to work check before this date. It may be that the worker’s permission actually expires later, in which case no immediate action would be required. The actual expiry date must be recorded in all cases in line with the Home Office’s right to work check guidance.

Pledger said that, as with any new process, there may be teething problems which affect some workers’ ability to transition to digital status. She said, for instance, that BRP holders who do not set up their eVisa by the end of 2024 may find it difficult to evidence their status for purposes such as opening a bank account or registering with a GP.

The shift to eVisas is part of the UK’s broader digital transformation agenda. The Home Office has indicated that this is just the beginning, with plans to further enhance the digital immigration system in the coming years.