On 6 August 2024, the Home Office of the United Kingdom announced that all current biometric resident permit (BRP) card holders can now apply for their electronic visas online. The eVisa is replacing the hard copy BRP cards that were issued in the past.
Before, only BRP card holders who received a personal invitation from the Home Office or those whose visa application approval email included specific instructions to do so were eligible to apply for an eVisa.
An eVisa is an online record of the holder's immigration status and the conditions of their permission to enter or stay in the U.K. A U.K. Visas and Immigration (UKVI) account must be created to be able to access an eVisa. Please note that updating one's physical document to an eVisa does not affect immigration status or the conditions of permission to enter or stay in the U.K.
Once the eVisa is issued, holders will in the future be able to use their eVisa to travel to the U.K. together with a current passport, which must be registered to the UKVI account. Until the end of 2024, eVisa holders will need to continue to carry their physical document when traveling, if they have one.
For further details on how to create a UKVI account and subsequently apply for an eVisa, please see the Home Office's instructions.
In addition, employers should review their right-to-work processes with regard to those employees who were verified through 31 December 2024, but whose underlying permission extends beyond that date.
For More Information
If you have any questions about this Alert, please contact Jet J. Stigter, Nic Hart, any of the attorneys in our Immigration Law Group, any of the attorneys in our Employment, Labor, Benefits and Immigration Practice Group or the attorney in the firm with whom you are regularly in contact.
Disclaimer: This Alert has been prepared and published for informational purposes only and is not offered, nor should be construed, as legal advice. For more information, please see the firm's full disclaimer.