Biometric residence permits expired on 31 December 2024, and UK immigration status now lives online as an eVisa — accessed through a free UKVI account, proved with share codes, and checked digitally by employers, landlords and carriers. The system works well until it doesn't: account lockouts, unlinked passports and border questions all have fixes. This guide covers the transition, account setup, sharing status, travelling on an eVisa and troubleshooting.
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Immigration Status Without the Card
Biometric residence permits stopped proving anything at the end of 2024, but the permission behind them continues unchanged. Proof now lives in a free UKVI account, where the eVisa records status, conditions and expiry; employers and landlords check it by share code, carriers against the linked passport. Nothing about the underlying grant altered in the transition, only the place the evidence sits. The one habit the system demands is keeping the current passport linked.
What an eVisa Is
An eVisa is the online record of your immigration status — the permission itself, not a copy of it. It attaches to your UKVI account, links to your current passport, and generates time-limited share codes when someone legitimately needs to check your position. Nothing about your underlying status changed in the transition; what changed is where the proof lives.
Why the System Moved Online
Digital status cannot be lost in a house move, stolen with a wallet or forged convincingly — and it updates in place when permission extends, without waiting for a card in the post. The costs are new failure modes: account access becomes as important as status itself, and the transition's edge cases still generate casework a year and a half on.
BRP Phase-Out
The 31 December 2024 Cut-Off
Every BRP expired on 31 December 2024 regardless of the status behind it. The card proves nothing current, but most carry a status that continues unchanged — the fix is a free UKVI account revealing your eVisa, not a new application. Keep the expired card: its number still helps link older records during account setup.
How the Transition Ran
The rollout moved in waves — new grants issued digitally first, then existing BRP holders invited to create accounts through 2024, with the cards' blanket expiry closing the era. Since then, decisions produce eVisas by default, and the residual paper documents — legacy vignettes, ink stamps in old passports — are progressively invited into the digital system.
Who Must Act
Anyone whose proof of status is still a physical document: expired BRP holders who never created an account, holders of indefinite leave evidenced by vignettes or stamps — whose route runs through a No Time Limit application — and visa holders whose permission was moved between passports on paper, covered in our transfer of conditions guide.
Account Setup
Creating a UKVI Account
The account is free and created once at gov.uk — no fee, no application, no decision. You prove who you are, connect the account to your immigration record, and the eVisa appears. Beware paid "assistance" sites: nothing in this process costs money.
The Setup Sequence
Have your identity document, BRP number or visa application reference, and a personal email and phone number that will stay yours — not an agent's, not an employer's. Identity verification runs through the ID Check app where available; the account then links your passport, and updating that link when you renew your passport is the single most important habit the system asks of you.
System Features
What Your eVisa Shows
The record displays your status, its conditions and its expiry — everything a decision letter states, kept current. Check it after every grant: caseworking errors are corrected fastest when caught immediately, and our conditions and notification guide explains how the written notice and the digital record fit together.
Verification Tools
Share codes are purpose-specific and time-limited: you generate one for a stated purpose, hand it over with your date of birth, and the checker sees only what that purpose requires. Codes expire, so generate them when asked for, not in advance.
Share Codes for Employers and Landlords
Right to Work Checks
Employers verify through the right to work service using your share code, and the online check is what establishes their statutory excuse. An employer asking to photocopy your expired BRP instead is running an outdated process that protects neither of you — point them at the digital check.
Renting with a Share Code
Landlords follow the mirror-image right to rent process with a rent-specific share code. The same discipline applies on both sides: codes, not cards, and records of the check kept by the checker.
Travelling on an eVisa
Borders and Re-Entry
Carriers and the UK border check status against your linked passport electronically — there is no vignette to inspect. That makes the passport link the travel-critical detail: fly on a passport your account doesn't know about and the airline's check may fail at the desk. Update the link before every passport renewal trip, and carry the confirmation of any pending application when travelling close to expiry.
Proving Status from Abroad
The account works worldwide, and a share code proves status to anyone who needs it remotely — a consulate, an overseas employer verifying UK ties, a foreign landlord. What it cannot do is substitute for the travel document itself: the eVisa proves permission, the passport proves identity, and both travel together.
Troubleshooting
Access and Technical Problems
Locked accounts, dead email addresses, changed phone numbers and unlinked passports account for most eVisa distress, and each has an administrative fix through the account recovery process — walked through step by step in our UKVI account recovery guide. The general rule: recovery routes exist for every lost credential, and none of them requires a new visa application.
When Problems Need a Lawyer
Legal help earns its place where the record itself is wrong — status displayed incorrectly, conditions misstate the grant, historic leave missing — or where an access problem collides with a deadline: a job start, a tenancy, travel. Those cases move fastest with the evidence assembled the way our immigration team presents it: what the record says, what it should say, and the documents proving the difference.
Frequently askedQuestions about eVisas and BRPs
My BRP expired on 31 December 2024 — is my status gone?
No. The cards expired; the status behind them continues. Create a free UKVI account, link your identity, and your eVisa shows the same permission. Keep the expired card — its number helps connect older records.
How do I convert my BRP to an eVisa?
Create a UKVI account at gov.uk, verify your identity — usually through the ID Check app — and the account links to your immigration record automatically. The process is free, and no application or decision is involved.
How do I prove my right to work with an eVisa?
Generate a share code for right to work in your account and give it to the employer with your date of birth. Their check through the official service establishes their statutory excuse — photocopied cards no longer do.
Can I travel with just my eVisa?
You travel on your passport, with carriers checking your status electronically against it. The critical step is keeping your current passport linked in your UKVI account — an unlinked passport is the top cause of boarding problems.
What if I renew my passport?
Update the passport details in your UKVI account before you travel on the new document. The eVisa attaches to your account, not the old passport, so the update is administrative — but skipping it breaks the airline's check.
What if my eVisa shows the wrong status?
Report the error through the account's correction route immediately, and keep your decision letter — it is the primary evidence of what the record should say. Errors touching work, rent or travel deadlines justify legal help without delay.
Tell us what the record shows, what it should show, and what the problem is blocking. We'll run the correction with the evidence marshalled properly.
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