The UK Immigration System, A Digital Status Crisis

Over the past decade, the UK has moved towards a digital-only system for immigration statuses, replacing physical documents with eVisas and online records. This system is intended to make it easier to prove the right to work, rent, study, and access services in the UK. Every person with an immigration status is expected to maintain an online status record, which third parties such as employers, landlords, banks, and airlines can check to verify identity and rights.

The system promises efficiency and security, but it also shifts all responsibility for proving legal rights onto the digital sphere. Unlike physical documents, digital records can be inaccessible due to errors, system downtime, or user challenges with login credentials, creating significant potential for disruption.

This context is essential to understand the newly published Digital Status Crisis report by the 3 million, which highlights the real-world impact of digital-only status on individuals and organisations.

The publication of the Digital Status Crisis report by the 3 million offers an examination of the UK’s digital-only immigration status system. Based on nearly two thousand user submissions, likely representing only a tiny proportion of real cases, the report reveals a system struggling with accuracy, accessibility, and reliability. For millions who rely on eVisas to prove their right to live, work, rent, travel, and access services, these failures carry serious legal consequences.

The report highlights widespread problems with incorrect data appearing on eVisas, frequent failures when users attempt to update ID documents, and numerous cases where individuals cannot access their UKVI accounts at all. Even where digital records are technically correct, the system breaks down in practice: employers, landlords, banks, and airlines may reject digital-only proof because they do not fully understand the eVisa process.

The report also exposes an almost complete absence of support when issues occur. With helplines closed, webchats automated, and response times slow, people may be  unable to prove their rights for extended periods, sometimes for as long as weeks or months.

The implications are far-reaching, and for some, dangerously reminiscent of the conditions that led to the Windrush Scandal: individuals with legal rights unable to prove them because the system is flawed.

From a legal standpoint, the report underscores the risks of a digital-only model. When a person cannot access their eVisa, they cannot prove their rights, even if those rights exist in law. Errors in the Home Office database, which individuals have no control over can instantly put people at risk of losing employment, housing, or access to public services. Third-party misunderstanding of digital proof adds another layer of vulnerability, meaning individuals can suffer harm for problems that they have no control over.

The lack of transparency from the Home Office about error levels and system performance further complicates the situation, leaving practitioners, advocates, and Parliament without a clear picture of the risks connected to the current digital infrastructure.

In our work as an expert adviser to the EU Commission on the EU Settlement Scheme, and through our direct support to EU citizens and their family members, Seraphus has closely observed the rollout of the eVisa Scheme. The eVisa, is the UK’s first fully digital immigration status that now impacts the lives of nearly seven million people with EUSS status. 

While we recognise the potential of digital tools to simplify immigration processes, since the introduction of the EUSS in 2019 we have consistently highlighted the challenges posed by a digital-only status, and a fully digitised system.

As part of our advisory role to the EU Commission, we regularly report on the impact of these challenges on vulnerable individuals seeking to protect and exercise their rights in the UK. Seraphus also engaged consistently with the Home Office, alongside other stakeholders, on the rollout of the eVisa and the technical issues that we, and others in the sector see affecting our clients.

The findings in this report should serve as a powerful reminder that the eVisa system as a digital only immigration system fails in its ambitions to simplify processes, to protect people, and to ensure compliance. 

The current system needs urgent stabilisation, with alternative routes staffed by caseworkers that can resolve issues quickly, and a secure non-digital backup introduced so that peoples’ rights are protected when technology fails. 

Alongside supporting clients facing eVisa failures and challenging unfair decisions caused by digital errors, Seraphus remains deeply concerned about how the digitisation of the immigration system impacts migrant communities already reeling from significant wider policy changes. We will continue to advocate for our clients and offer our support to the organisations campaigning on these issues. The digitalisation of immigration status cannot proceed responsibly until the problems identified in the Digital Status Crisis report are addressed head-on.