Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the transition to the eVisa system in January 2025; and what consideration they have given to postponing it.

eVisas have been rolled out incrementally and with support available to help customers make the transition away from physical documents. eVisas have been tried and tested over several years, and millions of people in the UK already use them to prove their immigration status and their rights.

In addition, while we encourage all BRP holders to switch to using their eVisa via their UKVI account before their BRP expires, if a customer has not created a UKVI account by 1 January 2025 and their BRP has expired, they will be able to do so quickly and easily next year, using their expired BRP if needed.

We have also listened to concerns about the risk to customers who are travelling after 31 December, where their underlying status has not expired, but their BRP card has expired. In order to smooth the transition to eVisas, we have announced that we will allow carriers to accept a BRP or EUSS BRC expiring on or after 31 December 2024 as valid evidence of permission to travel with a valid passport until at least 31 March 2025. People travelling in the early part of the year are therefore advised to continue carrying their expired BRP, as this will add to the range of checking options already available to carriers.

For many people, the expiry of BRPs at the end of this year will have no impact. A person’s immigration status will not be affected by this change, and most people don’t need to prove their immigration status on a day-to-day basis.