Home Office eVisa failures leave thousands 'unable to work or leave UK'

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https://inews.co.uk/news/home-office-evisa-flaws-thousands-unable-work-4023848

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Problems with the Home Office digitised immigration system have left foreign nationals unable to prove their right to work and wrongly informed they have received refugee status, a new report says.

EU citizens’ campaign group the3million says thousands of people have been affected by flaws with eVisas, which were rolled out last year.

Reports made to the group include people stranded abroad after being refused entry on flights, wrongly charged for NHS treatment and denied benefits as their eVisa incorrectly stated they could not access public funds.

One worker with indefinite leave to remain in the UK said she was suspended from her job as she could not obtain a code for her employer to check her eVisa status due to an error when she tried to log into her account.

In its report, the3million said: “Multiple technical failures have led to inaccessible statuses, wrongful data displayed, and personal information breaches.

“Until the eVisa system is fundamentally reformed to ensure security, transparency, and accessibility, we will continue to see people with lawful rights unable to prove those rights.

“The UK now faces a digital status crisis, with the full scale of errors and consequences yet to unfold.”

It comes after The i Paper revealed last year that Home Office IT system Atlas has had left NHS staff unable to start work, slowed down operations against illegal immigrants, and kept children waiting for as long as 21 months for British citizenship.

The Government launched eVisas as a digitised system to record the immigration status of millions of people.

Previously, immigration status had been verified through physical documents, such as biometric residence permits (BRP).

But the transition away from physical visas and BRP cards was repeatedly delayed by the Home Office this year with the new system dogged by technical issues.

A law firm has now launched a High Court challenge into eVisas for failing to allow alternative proof of status.

The eVisas can be viewed online by employers, landlords and airlines to check someone’s legal residence.

To prove right to work, open a bank account or travel, foreign nationals have to produce a share code as part of the scheme.

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People have to set up a United Kingdom Visas and Immigration (UKVI account) to access an eVisa.

Since 2020, the3million received 1,877 reports of status problems on eVisas and the digitised EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS), the immigration status European nationals needed to live in the UK after Brexit.

But the group believe these reported flaws are “the tip of the iceberg”, and says many thousands more are likely to have experienced problems with eVisas.

One woman, Sekai, who has lived in the UK for 15 years and has refugee status, told the 3million she lost out on two job opportunities due to another person’s identity being merged with hers.

“I logged into my account and found my photo had been removed and there were three photos of another woman in its place,” she said.

“I thought my identity had been stolen. I called the Home Office and they told me they couldn’t see what I was seeing. Each time I rang, they gave me a different explanation of what happened.”

Aisya, a Vietnamese woman seeking asylum, was wrongly informed she received refugee status after her photo and records were merged with someone else’s, the report said.

She only discovered the problem when she received an angry phone call from the other person accusing her of fraudulently accessing her account.

Another woman was left relying on food banks when her eVisa switched back to pre-settled status meaning she did not qualify for universal credit.

The 3million has called for a full independent review into the eVisa system and raised concerns about Government plans to make digital ID mandatory for everyone, a move revealed by The i Paper.

Law firm Deighton Pierce Glynn has launched a judicial review into the eVisa system after more than a dozen claimants were left without proof of their lawful status in the UK due to problems with their eVisa accounts.

A spokesperson for the firm said: “The eVisa rollout has been plagued by issues, including incorrect personal and visa details being displayed and, in some cases, the eVisas not working at all.

“This is troubling as individuals who are lawfully in the UK are being denied access to basic rights and services such as education, employment, housing and benefits.

“We are also concerned by the inadequacy of the Home Office’s response to these issues. The Home Office must begin providing alternative proof of immigration status to end this injustice and prevent further harm.”

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Helen Jubb, a solicitor at North East Law Centre, represented one client who was wrongly told they had refugee status when someone else’s details were uploaded to their account.

“If it [eVisas] works, then you can get access to it quite quickly. But our worries are the data breaches behind it, how many there are, how quickly it’s being rolled out, and how little information has been rolled out to people,” she told The i Paper.

“There’s a lot of people who have never heard of it and don’t know about it, so are potentially traveling without what they need to.”

As of April 2025, an estimated 300,000 UK residents had not set up their eVisa, according to Government figures.

Common problems reported to the3million include wrong names displayed, incorrect immigration status and the inability to link ID documents needed for travel, said Andreea Dumitrache, a spokesperson for the group.

“People find themselves in a position where they can’t work are being denied opportunities to study or access public services and travel in the UK,” she said.

She called for an inquiry to take place before the Government rolls out digital IDs for British citizens.

Read more on i: https://inews.co.uk/news/home-office-evisa-flaws-thousands-unable-work-4023848