Britain’s Home Office insists its transition to a digital-only system of proving immigration status is going smoothly.  

But the department has repeatedly refused to answer questions from campaigners, immigration lawyers, and MPs about how many mistakes the technology makes.

Digital-only immigration status — now known as an eVisa — was first introduced seven years ago for EU, European Economic Area, and Swiss nationals who applied to stay in the U.K. under the EU Settlement Scheme post-Brexit. It was then rolled out more widely, and now the majority of migrants need an eVisa to prove their right to rent and work in the U.K.

Glitch hunt

Unlike physical documents, eVisas don’t provide a stable record of visa entitlement, instead being generated in real time by drawing data from different stores. When applying for jobs or to lease a property, migrants request a unique share code to prove their immigration status. 

Particularly concerning to stakeholders is the Home Office’s refusal to reveal the scale of software glitches, which could result in someone’s status coming into question.

The department has given conflicting accounts of why it can’t provide these figures. In February, the Home Office confirmed in response to a Freedom of Information request from immigration lawyer Andrew Tingley that it held data on the total number of reports made using its “Report an error with your eVisa” online form, but said this information was exempt from disclosure because “retrieval, extraction and quality assurance” would exceed the cost limit.  

When POLITICO submitted a near-identical request, this time covering April to June, the department instead cited Section 22, which allows information to be withheld if it is intended for future publication.

Lawmakers’ efforts to push for transparency have also failed.  

Asked by Liberal Democrat peer Jonathan Oates last month about the number of errors reported over the past year, Home Office Minister David Hanson said the information was “not currently available from published data and could only be collated and verified … at disproportionate cost” — which was also used as a frequent response to written questions from MPs.

“[MPs] all seem to be receiving the same answers that there isn’t funding or resources to be allocated to be able to provide the true picture … Not having the answers, not being able to produce the figures, even from the last six months, I think is a very worrying picture,” said Labour backbencher Apsana Begum, who’s put two questions to ministers about the number and demographic breakdown of errors. 

Without official statistics, the only data available on how often eVisa errors surface comes from a tool designed by EU citizens’ rights group the3million and the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (ILPA).  

Since its launch in June 2024, the website has received 487 issue reports, though this is likely “just the tip of the iceberg,” said CEO of the3million Andreea Dumitrache. “Only the Home Office can provide the full picture of how many people are truly impacted.”  

Immigration Minister Seema Malhotra said in a statement to Parliament in December that a “small number” of eVisa holders had encountered issues. 

Bring in the lawyers

POLITICO spoke to four immigration lawyers, all of whom said the Home Office’s online form for reporting errors was slow and unreliable.

Migrants need to set up an account with UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) to obtain their eVisa, but the department published terms and conditions in February 2024 stating exclusion of liability for “any loss or damage” that arises from use of the account, including inability to access it.  

A lot of people are asked to redirect their complaint elsewhere or told the issue has been resolved when it hasn’t, only to be “ignored for weeks” with no timeline for resolution and forced to seek legal advice, said Victoria Welsh, a co-convenor of the Immigration Law Practitioners Association’s (ILPA) digitalization working group and the head of business immigration at Taylor Rose.  

One automated message from UKVI acknowledging receipt of an error report said the service was “currently experiencing a very high volume of enquiries” and as a result would “not be able to respond within [its] published timeframes,” according to an email dated February 23 seen by POLITICO.  

“We’re not a charity, we’re here to make money, but it’s not right that people have to instruct lawyers to help solve these problems,” Welsh added.   

Andrew Tingley, a partner at Tingley Dalanay and another co-convenor of the ILPA working group, said UKVI often doesn’t accept that the error reported even constitutes an error. “This calls into question whether the statistics collected are accurate,” he said. “There does not appear to be any institutional acceptance either by civil servants or ministers of the major issues that people are facing.”  

Glitches will inevitably occur with any rollout of a new system, Welsh said. The problem is “the [Home Office’s] continued denial that there are problems, the continued statements that in the vast majority of cases, everybody’s fine … frankly, it’s gaslighting,” she said.  

Serious consequences

For those who do encounter problems, the consequences can be devastating. “Any scale of problem should be enough to take it more seriously than what is happening … People are losing accommodation. People are being shut out of their bank account. People are being refused entry to the country. They’re being refused boarding on planes,” Welsh said.  

There’s no evidence yet that the Home Office is deporting migrants who fail eVisa status checks, whether erroneously or otherwise, said Tom Marsom, the director of U.K. immigration at Vialto.  

“But the whole point of digitalization is not because they want to save paper or plastic. It’s because it makes it easier to do immigration enforcement … if they’re not going to use it for immigration enforcement, it suggests to me either that wasn’t the plan in the first place or they’re not confident in their own data to go ahead without causing problems,” he added. 

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper in June floated plans to integrate eVisas into immigration enforcement, telling the Home Affairs Select Committee that the government wants “to have a digital service linked to eVisas and our broader management process, to be able to determine whether an individual is in or out of the U.K., whether they have left at the point at which their visa expires, or whether they are overstaying and immigration enforcement action is needed.” 

The Home Office had yet to respond to this article at time of publication.