Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Tier 4 student visa holders were waiting for their biometric residence permit to be processed as of 21 October 2022; and what the average wait was for a biometric residence permit for a Tier 4 student visa holder in the latest period for which data is available.

The waiting times for biometric residence permits (BRP) are dictated by the BRP production and delivery processes.

We aim to deliver a BRP within 7 working days of the immigration decision. BRPs are produced at the secure delivery facility (Driver and Vehicle Licencing Agency (DVLA)) within 48 hours of the production request being made and are collected by our secure delivery partner the same day. Our secure delivery partner (FedEx) aims to attempt to deliver the BRPs within 48 hours of receipt of the BRPs. This equates to a minimum of 5 working days from date of production request being made to delivery of the BRP. We have added an additional 2 working days to the timeline advised to applicants to allow us to resolve any production issues.

In September, DVLA produced all BRPs within 48 hours of the production request, with 91.1% being produced within 24 hours. In September FedEx attempted to deliver 99.88% of BRPs within 48 hours.