The government is pressing ahead with a digital visa scheme to prove the residency rights of millions of people from outside the EU without having completed the necessary checks, campaigners are warning.
The Home Office said in response to a freedom of information request from the Observer that it had not yet completed an equality impact assessment into the rollout of eVisas, despite launching the changeover last April.
Under a programme started by the last government, eVisas are replacing biometric residence permits (BRPs) as the accepted way for non-EU migrants who are not British citizens or passport holders to prove their rights to enter and live in the UK.
Campaigners have warned that the transition to eVisas could cause problems for older residents and those who are less confident with technology or lack reliable internet access.
The Home Office has yet to publish a data protection impact assessment (DPIA), despite concerns that the transition to eVisas could expose some peoples’ immigration status to hacking.
The department said it was “reviewing” two older impact assessments – into the introduction of eVisas for EU nationals under the post-Brexit settlement scheme in 2020, and the subsequent rollout of eVisas to prove non-EU residents’ rights to rent and work – with an updated report to be published “in due course”.
A data protection impact assessment will also be published. It is not clear if this has been completed.
A report published in September by the Open Rights Group warned that the target group for the eVisa rollout was “particularly vulnerable to cybercrimes, in that language barriers and lower digital literacy mean they are less likely to recognise phishing attempts, trojans and malware, potentially exposing their accounts, and therefore their immigration status, to hacking”.
Sara Alsherif, migrant digital justice programme manager at the Open Rights Group, said: “Given the delays to the scheme caused by faulty systems and bad implementation, publishing the DPIA is essential for parliament and the public to understand what’s gone wrong and help the government solve the problems. It is frustrating that the Home Office continues to drip-feed information rather than engaging in an honest debate about how to clear up the mess.
“It is unacceptable for the Home Office to rely on assessments from the EU Settlement Scheme, which itself was beset with problems. The eVisa scheme will impact around 4 million people in the UK, from different backgrounds, including about 200,000 with legacy documents, who are mostly older and unlikely to have had contact with the Home Office for years … We need to know what assessments have been made.”
The government has had to postpone the eVisa transition deadline from the end of 2024 to the end of March 2025 due to slow take-up and technical glitches. Nearly a quarter of the four million people who need to switch to eVisas have yet to do so.
BRPs will no longer work as proof of immigration status after the deadline, and people could be prevented from re-entering the UK from abroad without an eVisa, although passport ink stamps and visa vignettes – which pre-date BRPs – should still be valid. While the switch to eVisas changes how people prove their rights, it does not alter their underlying immigration status.
“The fact that the Home Office has yet to publish a comprehensive policy impact assessment for the transition to eVisas, which it is legally obliged to do, suggests a total lack of regard for the people who are affected,” said Josephine Whitaker-Yilmaz of migrant rights charity Praxis.
“The only group it has started to consider so far are EU migrants. The absence of any impact assessment for non-EU migrants suggests a serious lack of interest in how its policies affect people of colour and other protected groups. The haste with which the government has conducted this eVisa rollout means it is not fulfilling its equality duties. Meanwhile, countless people with the right to live, work and rent in the UK are facing huge levels of stress and uncertainty as the digital transition continues to be poorly managed.”
The Home Office said: “The eVisa rollout currently uses existing equality impact assessment documents, which remain valid and relevant. We continually keep equality impact assessments under review to ensure the eVisa rollout and the systems which support it remain fair, accessible, and do not present barriers to people accessing or using the immigration system.”
