The House Workplace’s refusal to subject various proof of immigration standing exterior of its digital visa (eVisa) system might be deemed illegal in 2026 if a judicial evaluation towards the coverage is profitable.
On 31 December 2024, the immigration paperwork of hundreds of thousands of individuals residing within the UK expired after being changed by the House Workplace with a real-time, online-only immigration standing.
Whereas the division has been issuing eVisas for a number of years – together with to European Union (EU) residents who utilized to the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) after Brexit, these making use of for Expert Employee visas, and folks from Hong Kong making use of for the British Nationwide (Abroad) visa – paper paperwork have now been fully phased out.
As a substitute, individuals at the moment are anticipated to make use of a UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) digital account to generate “share codes”, which they have to use to show their immigration standing when coping with a spread of third events, together with employers and letting companies.
Regardless of persistent knowledge high quality and integrity points plaguing the system since its inception, present House Workplace coverage means the eVisa system is the one method individuals can show their lawful residence within the UK, in addition to proof their related rights and entitlements.
Because of this, a lot of people experiencing points with their eVisas have instructed legislation agency Deighton Pierce Glynn (DPG) to problem the House Workplace over the system.
“Two of our purchasers, BSC and JS … have now been appointed as Lead Claimants within the coverage problem which continues,” wrote the legislation agency in a weblog publish concerning the motion.
This [court case] is a major improvement … which can imply that people … are not left on the mercy of the eVisa system to show their lawful immigration standing within the UK Deighton Pierce Glynn
“Within the case of BSC, a recognised refugee and survivor of trafficking, the eVisa displayed her trafficking identify and date of start. The implications of this had been wide-ranging, however most importantly, they had been retraumatising, and put her vulnerable to dropping public funds she relied on to outlive.
“While for JS, a weak grownup, the eVisa incorrectly said that she had no recourse to public funds. As a consequence, she was denied entry to public funds and needed to depend on restricted asylum help funds for months longer than she ought to have. In each instances, the eVisas had been mounted months later after we issued the claims.”
DPG added that its purchasers had been granted permission to proceed with the problem in October 2025 by the Cardiff Administrative Court docket, on the premise that the grounds are debatable and that it’s within the public curiosity for the legality of the House Workplace’s coverage to be decided.
The case will probably be heard within the Cardiff Excessive Court docket on 3 and 4 March 2026.
“It is a important improvement which has taken our purchasers a step nearer to establishing a much-needed safeguard within the eVisa system, which can imply that people equivalent to our purchasers are not left on the mercy of the eVisa system to show their lawful immigration standing within the UK,” it wrote.
No options
Highlighting the House Workplace’s refusal to subject various proof of immigration standing regardless of the well-documented points people are having with the system, DPG stated the problem will concentrate on the truth that the statutory framework does, the truth is, give the house secretary the discretion to permit options the place applicable.
“Her refusal to take action is subsequently arguably illegal as it’s a fetter of her discretion and irrational,” it wrote, including that whereas the House Workplace has applied a number of “workarounds” for these experiencing points – together with methods for landlords, employers and others to confirm immigration standing utilizing the system, in addition to means to report eVisa points by way of a web-based type and helpline – such avenues are sometimes “insufficient”.
DPG stated this was largely resulting from delays on the House Workplace’s finish, “which leaves people with out proof of their lawful standing and uncovered to the complete pressure of the hostile/compliant atmosphere”.
Talking with Laptop Weekly, DPG solicitor Unkha Banda stated though the agency had been receiving a excessive quantity of referrals associated to the eVisa system earlier than the phasing out of paper paperwork on 1 January 2025, there was a notable uptick in referrals after that date as individuals began going through actual penalties of not having a working eVisa.
Banda added {that a} profitable case may “open the doorways for everybody to have the ability to profit from it”, significantly if the House Workplace is legally compelled to start out issuing and accepting various proof of standing.
“Meaning if there are issues with an eVisa that the House Workplace are taking a very long time to repair, for no matter purpose, then individuals can have one thing else to depend on, so there isn’t that hole when it comes to entry to rights and entitlements,” she stated, highlighting that the case may additionally cut back related gaps that will spring up with the federal government’s roll-out of necessary digital ID.
“Digital IDs are going to be applied for everybody, and I think about the system will in all probability be much like this, so if we will discover methods of fixing this technique earlier than it’s rolled out to 70 million individuals, it might be implausible.”
Over 10 million eVisas have now been issued, and the overwhelming majority of individuals with an eVisa proceed to make use of them with none issues House Workplace spokesperson
In early December 2025, a analysis report additionally raised issues concerning the eVisa system being a precursor of what’s to come back with digital ID, arguing that efforts to digitise the immigration system characterize a possibility to check such techniques on a precarious part of the inhabitants earlier than extending them out extra broadly.
“The House Workplace can take fast steps to cut back the nervousness that migrants are experiencing by giving them the protection of a bodily or digital backup that can enable them to show their standing in any circumstances,” stated Sara Alsherif, migrants digital justice programme supervisor at Open Rights Group (ORG), on the time, which collaborated with the authors on creating the report.
“Nonetheless, root and department reform of this technique can also be wanted, and classes should be learnt, particularly as the federal government intends to roll digital ID out to everybody within the UK.”
Responding to the problems raised by the judicial evaluation, a House Workplace spokesperson stated: “Over 10 million eVisas have now been issued, and the overwhelming majority of individuals with an eVisa proceed to make use of them with none issues.
“They can’t be misplaced, stolen, or tampered with, and supply a safe digital method to show somebody’s proper to work or enter this nation lawfully. We stand able to help any customers who encounter difficulties creating or utilizing their eVisa accounts.”
Lengthy-standing eVisa points
Laptop Weekly beforehand reported, in January 2025, that regardless of repeated warnings from civil society and migrant help teams, which began as early as October 2021, individuals had been already having bother proving their immigration standing whereas travelling again to the nation, simply two weeks after the UK’s formal transition to the eVisa system.
Whereas teams like ORG and the3million have straight proposed options to the House Workplace, equivalent to the usage of QR code or “secure token” techniques, the division’s eVisa coverage crew insisted way back to December 2023 that it might not “compromise on the real-time facet” of the eVisa checks, as “any examine of a person’s immigration standing should be carried out in actual time to mirror the present immigration standing held” on its techniques.
“As we warned, individuals are having issues utilizing eVisas to journey again to the UK,” stated the ORG on the time. “We requested the House Workplace to make the straightforward change of permitting individuals to have a QR code. This might be saved or printed with out having to depend on a flawed online-only system.
“Many refugees are nonetheless ready for his or her eVisas,” it stated. “With out them, they can’t work, arrange a checking account, hire someplace to dwell or declare advantages. The House Workplace must kind out this mess urgently.”
The House Workplace additionally states within the eVisa phrases and situations that it’ll take no legal responsibility for any issues or disruptions, and direct or oblique losses, when utilizing a UKVI account – together with for “any info that’s misplaced or corrupted whereas knowledge is being transmitted, processed or downloaded from the UKVI account” – which ORG stated implies the division “is already conscious of the various technical points with the eVisa scheme and is pre-emptively defending itself towards professional authorized claims”.
ORG and others have stated the usage of eVisas needs to be seen within the context of the UK’s “hostile atmosphere” strategy, which is meant to make life within the UK as troublesome as potential for individuals selecting to dwell there.
For Banda, the truth that the House Workplace has recognized about all of those points with digital-only visas for therefore lengthy, with out taking significant motion to resolve them, is “fairly regarding”.
She additionally stated that regardless of DPG and lots of different organisations attempting to get a way of how widespread the issue is, the division is refusing to offer figures on the variety of individuals reporting points or how lengthy it takes on common to get issues solved.
Provided that hundreds of thousands of individuals at the moment are required to show their immigration standing by way of the system, even a 1% error price would imply tens of 1000’s of individuals are affected on the very least.
Laptop Weekly contacted the House Workplace about error charges with the eVisa system, however acquired no on-the-record response.
‘A hostile and unresponsive paperwork’
In June 2025, individuals experiencing technical errors with the House Workplace’s eVisa system instructed Laptop Weekly concerning the psychological toll of not having the ability to reliably show their immigration standing within the face of a hostile and unresponsive paperwork.
Talking on situation of anonymity, these affected variously instructed Laptop Weekly that the whole expertise had been “anxiety-inducing,” and described how their lives had been thrust into “uncertainty” by the transition.
Every additionally described how the “inordinate quantity of stress” related to not having the ability to reliably show their immigration standing had been made worse by an absence of responsiveness and assist from the House Workplace, which they accused of basically leaving them within the lurch.
In a single case that was reported to the Data Commissioner’s Workplace (ICO), the technical errors with knowledge held by the House Workplace had been so extreme that the ICO discovered there had been a breach of UK knowledge safety legislation.
Based on Banda, whereas purchasers are instructed to report their points to the House Workplace first earlier than DPG takes them on, except the case is especially pressing, the overwhelming majority are given imprecise responses with out time frames.
“More often than not, by the point the case will get to us, nothing has modified, however we discovered that when we become involved and begin sending pre-action letters, then they begin fixing the eVisas,” she stated, including that typically purchasers’ eVisa points are being resolved after a case has already been issued.
On the authorized recourse obtainable to individuals as soon as their issues have been mounted, Banda famous that whereas a judicial evaluation can solely be taken ahead if the problems are nonetheless energetic, these affected can nonetheless make civil claims for compensation in the event that they had been negatively impacted within the interim by, for instance, dropping out on employment or being denied advantages.
“In instances the place we ship pre-letters after which the House Workplace fixes it, you may’t then go to court docket,” she stated. “Or, for instance, for those who go to court docket and so they repair it earlier than the decide seems to be at it, then the federal government would begin arguing that the entire case is tutorial as a result of the eVisa has been mounted.”
It ought to be famous that even when individuals’s eVisa points are resolved as soon as, Laptop Weekly has heard issues that, due to how the system is ready as much as trawl dozens of disparate authorities databases in actual time, each time a standing is required, the identical individuals may as soon as once more discover themselves with out entry to a working eVisa.
In a follow-up Freedom of Data request to the ICO concerning the quantity of eVisa-related knowledge safety complaints made previously yr, the regulator stated that looking by way of the roughly 425 instances linked to the House Workplace in that point would exceed the associated fee restrict.
The ICO added that it doesn’t document the requested info in a method that’s simply reportable, that means it might be required to manually search a whole lot of information to determine the knowledge requested.
