UK eVisa technical errors threaten rights of millions of legal residents

Britain has failed to resolve years-old issues with its eVisa system ahead of the phase-out of physical immigration documents, jeopardising the rights of around 4 million people living legally in Britain, rights groups say.

Hundreds of people have struggled to access new electronic records of their immigration status, making it hard to apply for welfare payments and prove their right to work or rent property.

Electronic records of immigration status were introduced in 2019 for European Union citizens applying for settlement in Britain after the vote to leave the bloc.

Now eVisas are being rolled out for non-EU migrants and refugees as part of a switch to an online-only system for verifying one’s status.

But data mix-ups, problems creating accounts and entire system outages have bedevilled the scheme.

“We’ve seen how the system fails (and are) warning the government that this is a flawed implementation,” said Andreea Dumitrache, the head of the3million, a grassroots group for EU citizens that supports those trying to switch to eVisas.

“A person’s whole life is impacted and, especially for the most vulnerable, it’s the difference between putting a roof over someone’s head or not,” said Dumitrache.

Extended deadline

The government has said the online-only system, which it describes as “tried and tested”, will increase the immigration system's security and efficiency.

In a glitch in March, the3million said some people found...

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