UK eVisa row: What do refugees and migrants say?

• eVisa glitches show wrong identity, immigration details
• Home Office support team slow to respond
• Migrants face increased insecurity without physical documents

LONDON – Hundreds of non-British citizens have reported problems with accessing a new online system for verifying their immigration status. 

From entire system outages, to people experiencing problems with their online UK Visas and Immigration account set-up, issues have bedevilled the scheme at every stage. 

Context spoke with migrants and refugees about the problems they experience accessing their eVisas and their concerns for the future: 

Martin Danka 

Danka is Czech and came to Britain in 2021 with his partner, who is a dual British-Hungarian citizen. 

He was granted pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme in 2024. Before that he was on a student visa and then a spousal visa, after marrying his partner in 2023. 

When he was granted pre-settled status last year, Danka's eVisa showed he was on a "dependant visa" - a status he has never held – and contained old passport details. 

In March 2025, the status on his eVisa was finally updated to 'pre-settled', but the passport details are still outdated. 

Constantly chasing the Home Office to resolve the issue with my status, I lost a lot of time that I needed for my PhD. I was really worried that I wouldn't be able to continue my studies and the university started asking more and more 'can you prove your status?' 

The fact that my passport is still not showing up is making me nervous. It's really hard to feel safe and build a new life here. It feels like I have absolutely no power, and even though I have rights, I don't have ways to access them. It was really helpful to have a physical card because I at least had some physical proof, whereas now I have nothing and if something happens in the system, there's nothing I can do about it. 

On the day that my status got fixed, there was a new bug where people's eVisas started showing other people's passport details, so suddenly, I had the correct status, but I saw someone else's passport and 'invalid country' under it. 

I would be OK with having online status, but I need to see that our data is being handled responsibly, that the system is up to date and that there is a responsive support team. But this is not the case.  

If something happens again and it takes half a year to fix it, I might not be so lucky for it to have no consequences.

Sarah Hamza 

Hamza arrived in the UK from Egypt in July 2023 with her husband and child and was granted refugee status in September 2024. 

She and her husband successfully set up their eVisas in November, but have been unable to create an online account for their eight-year-old son, who was never issued with a biometric residence permit (BRP).

The system for issuing BRPs has been discontinued entirely, and I am unsure why my son was not issued a BRP in the first place.  

We reached out to the eVisa support team and were informed that we would receive a response within 10 days. However, it has now been over a month, and we have not received any updates. Our solicitor has also tried to follow up with the Home Office, but has not received a response either. Additionally, we have submitted an application to issue him a travel document, but we have not received a reply to that either. 

We are unable to travel, and my child lacks official identification other than the Home Office decision letter, which is not always accepted, such as when moving houses, or enrolling in school. 

Jorge Gomez 

Gomez was granted asylum in 2022 after fleeing Nicaragua where he said he was being persecuted for his work as a journalist.

Before the switch to eVisas, Gomez had an online UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) account, but a technical problem prevented him from using it to prove his right to work until March 2024. 

In November, Gomez switched from his physical BRP to an eVisa, but was unable to link his travel document – issued to refugees instead of a passport – to his UKVI account, which proceeded to show as an error on his eVisa. 

The problem was resolved in February, after his story appeared in a British newspaper. 

I knew it was going digital and I was planning to go abroad to see my family in January because it was my birthday, my grandma's birthday, and my mom's birthday as well. Because it took so long to resolve the original issue with my UKVI account, I decided that I'm not going to have the same issue with switching to an eVisa. I'm going to prepare all I can.    

Stories start started coming out of people being detained or not allowed on flights, so I didn't book anything because I didn't want to run the risk. 

I'm young and I love technology, but it is actually very overwhelming creating an account and linking up your document. Other people will be struggling, they will be screwed, creating this. It's not easy. It's not intuitive either.  

I feel less secure. It's important to have a physical document because if anything happens, for example, you lose your phone when you go abroad or it runs out of battery, or you don't have any data - how can you prove your status in the UK? 

Britain managed to create a system during COVID for a QR code to prove your vaccinations that you can actually print out and see – why didn't they do that for the for the eVisa?  

(Reporting by Beatrice Tridimas; Editing by Jon Hemming)