UK’s error-prone eVisa system is ‘anxiety-inducing’

Persisting issues

Since then, dozens of people like Athena have reported a range of persisting issues. This includes an inability to link physical documents like passports to their online accounts, and wrong information being included in people’s profiles.

Others have reported being unable to generate a “share code” via their UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) digital account, which is needed to prove immigration status when dealing with a range of third parties, such as employers and letting agencies, or being locked out of their accounts altogether.

For one student, being unable to access the eVisa system to generate a share code has cost them multiple job opportunities since arriving in the UK in early 2025.

“Despite completing the process twice and making multiple attempts, the system continues to show the same error message, preventing access to my eVisa,” they told migrant support organisation The3million via its online reporting tool.

“I have a UKVI account, but cannot access the eVisa through it. My visa sticker (vignette) in my passport will expire [soon], and the inability to access my eVisa has already cost me a job opportunity at McDonald’s, where I was unable to provide the required eVisa proof. I have also lost other job opportunities and remain unable to apply for new ones because I cannot obtain a share code – which is only available once the eVisa is accessible.”

In another case reported to The3million, a doctor with indefinite leave to remain who has lived in the UK for 20 years was unable to travel to a medical conference because a persistent IT error means they are unable to link their official identity documents to their UKVI account.

Despite three separate attempts to update their details, the system continues to generate error messages that the name on the account is different to the name on the identity documents: “This is clearly incorrect, as all documents have the same name. The passport is already linked to his BRP and was used to confirm his identity for the eVisa account.”

In the case of Andrew – a Czech national who was granted pre-settled status under the EUSS after more than two years of the Home Office holding his case in administrative review – the ICO found that the technical errors with data held by the Home Office were so severe that it constituted a breach of UK data protection law.

Speaking with Computer Weekly, he said ongoing technical errors with the eVisa system meant his account continued to display an expired student visa, instead of his new spouse visa, and wrong passport information for almost half a year.

Andrew added that because his pre-marriage surname was still on the old passport, he was unable to log into his UKVI account using his new passport, meaning there was no way to access proof of his immigration status.

While the Home Office eventually fixed the issue with Andrew’s old visa being displayed, this only occurred after getting in touch with The3million to escalate the case on his behalf. Even then, the account continued to display his old passport information.

Despite the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) stating that organisations must rectify inaccurate personal data within one month, the Home Office initially gave Andrew a timeline of six to eight weeks, before saying it couldn’t provide a timeframe when he referenced the one-month rule.

While the passport information was eventually rectified, this only occurred after he flagged the case to the ICO, which then intervened on his behalf.

Writing to Andrew, the data regulator concluded in late May 2025 – in a letter seen by Computer Weekly – that “an infringement of data protection law has occurred” resulting from “a number of errors relating to your personal data on the eVisa system”.

It added: “We have written to the Home Office, setting out our view. We are pleased to hear that this issue is now resolved. Nevertheless, the Home Office has committed to checking that there are no further errors with your personal data.”

Computer Weekly contacted the ICO to ask about the nature of the work underway with the Home Office to ensure underlying data issues are fixed, and whether it plans to formally investigate the wider eVisa system, given the sheer number of people experiencing technical issues.

“We regularly engage with the Home Office on data protection issues to ensure the department strives to meet its data protection obligations and mitigate potential risks,” said an ICO spokesperson.

Computer Weekly also contacted the Home Office about its breach of UK data protection law, but received no acknowledgement of the regulator’s findings.

While others, like Andrew, have reported that their issues have now either been resolved or partially resolved since speaking with Computer Weekly, they described being fearful of problems occurring in the future that would leave them, once again, unable to reliably prove their status.

Athena, for example, has since been able to temporarily access her eVisa account through her BRP, but the document was supposed to expire in March 2025. And she doesn’t know how much longer she’ll be able to use this method, as while the expiry deadline was extended to June, “no one [at the Home Office] confirms or denies anything… They can literally just move the goal posts and say, ‘you can no longer access this account’.”

Others also noted that while the issues may have been resolved, there has been no communication from the Home Office about the nature of the technical problems.

Left in the lurch

Despite the different circumstances of people’s immigration status and the specific problems each has had with the eVisa system, all of those Computer Weekly spoke with described the Home Office as “extremely unhelpful” throughout the entire process.

They added that, when they do eventually manage to get in touch with Home Office staff, they are met with confusion and receive different responses from different people.

“What really struck me was when you call them, they’re really not helpful,” said Athena, who added that during her first call with the Home Office, she was told by staff it could be an issue with her passport not stating first and last name, only to then be told on a second call that “the machines don’t read some names very well”. She added: “It’s like they were almost guessing.”

For Ada, whose application for political asylum was accepted by the UK government in early 2025, it took the Home Office nearly an entire month to send her the letter containing login details to her UKVI account.

However, when the letter did eventually arrive, she found she was unable to access the account, while her husband Yasin – who had also applied for asylum at the same time – was able to access his.

Despite three phone calls with the Home Office, one of which was completely automated, the issue was not resolved until the couple reached out to The3million, which lobbied the department on their behalf.

“The Home Office doesn’t help. We spoke with a real person twice, and both of them didn’t help at all,” they said, adding while they were told to report the issue online after the first human-led call, the Home Office operators were unable to give them a timeframe for how long it would take to resolve the problem.

“Then we received an email saying there is no issue with the eVisa, so we called them again and they said we didn’t report the error in the correct way, even though we used the link in the email they sent to us.”

Ada added that despite not being provided with a National Insurance number until they log into their UKVI accounts, Home Office staff were asking for this information to resolve the issue: “We cannot see it without accessing the visa. They don’t know what they’re doing.”

Unaided by the Home Office, the couple came across The3million while frantically searching online for help.

They told Computer Weekly that, while it is a relief to have the technical issue resolved – the nature of which they are still unclear about – the experience was incredibly stressful, as UKVI account access is needed when renting and applying for jobs or welfare benefits.

Their stress was compounded as, during the asylum application process (which for them lasted nine months), applicants are not allowed to rent or work. They are also expecting a baby.

“Pregnancy is tough by itself, both emotionally and physically, and the additional stress made things much worse,” said Yasin, adding that because they had already been waiting so long for their asylum application to be processed, there was now a pressing need for them to be able to apply for work, housing and benefits.

Ada added they would have been left homeless within a matter of weeks without intervention from The3million, but that they should never have had to rely on outside help in the first place: “They sorted it out in a single day … [but] we should have been able to solve it by ourselves directly with the Home Office.”

A similar sentiment was shared by Andrew, who told Computer Weekly that issues with his account displaying an expired student visa and wrong passport information were only resolved when his case was escalated by The3million and the ICO, respectively. 

He added that his trouble with a lack of Home Office responsiveness started well before the eVisa system was even deployed, with the department taking over two years (and multiple wrong rejections) to grant him settled status.

He described the entire situation with his eVisa as “incredibly stressful”, noting that he was unable to complete vital PhD work during this time due to the sheer amount of time and energy he spent dealing with the Home Office.

Andrew added that because his university needed up-to-date proof of his status, he was also “constantly checking” whether it had been fixed and looking at the rules out of fear that he was the one who had made a mistake or done something wrong.

“I was so stressed out about it. It was really hard to focus on my actual research because, alongside all this academic work, I was spending hours and hours just with this, documenting everything, staying in touch with the Home Office,” he said, adding he could have instead spent the time focusing on publishing his work, which he was never able to as a result.

“I also have ADHD, so for me it’s quite difficult keeping track of everything. It’s not like I can do a one-off email in 10 minutes – I have to prepare for it, look into everything, think about what actually happened.”

Like others Computer Weekly spoke with, Andrew said that even getting through to the Home Office is a challenge: “Sometimes, there’s no point in trying, as you will have to wait two hours on the line, just being constantly told, ‘it’s going to be fixed, it’s going to be fixed’, and then it’s not.”

Others Computer Weekly spoke with – including some who have been living in the UK for decades – shared similar experiences of anxiety and frustration resulting from technical issues with accessing their visas while travelling.

Trouble travelling

For Amelia, a US citizen with indefinite leave to remain who has been in the UK since 1975, persistent errors with setting up a UKVI account mean she is still having to rely on physical documents that have technically expired.

Amelia said the process for setting up the account was confusing, as she was being bounced around different web pages and seemingly being asked to input the same information a number of times.

She noted how, shortly after eventually managing to complete the eVisa application process, she was instructed to log in and check her details. However, when she went to do so, a message informed her that she couldn’t log in because the application wasn’t complete, at which point she realised two separate identity numbers were attached to her account.

“Supposedly, I should get another email with the correct identity number telling me to log in and check my details,” she said. “If it hasn’t come by the end of next week, I will go to my MP.”

While Amelia’s issues have been resolved since clearing the Home Office website cache – meaning she can now access her eVisa – she has been forced to travel with her old passport and letters confirming her leave to remain during this period, something she should technically not be able to do under the UK government’s new rules.

However, she still ran into huge delays, as airport staff in that instance were initially unable to verify her old passport with the leave to remain stamp, meaning she had to go to multiple different offices to eventually claim her boarding pass.

“They always say get to the airport two hours before or whatever it is, but you spend all that time just trying to get hold of your boarding pass because of this eVisa situation,” said Amelia, adding that in her experience of being in queues with others over the eVisa issue, “we get less hassle” being white.

Alice – a French American who came to the UK as a child in the 1970s and who also has indefinite leave to remain – detailed to Computer Weekly how she was nearly unable to prove her immigration status when returning from Luxembourg because airport staff didn’t know what to do with her UKVI-generated share code: “They don’t know what the hell is going on with it.”

While she had already checked into her British Airways flight online 24 hours beforehand, she was asked at bag drop for her Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), at which point she explained that she had settled status.

However, when she provided the share code, she was informed by staff that they couldn’t do anything with it because they didn’t have internet access at the desks. With airport staff not knowing what to do with the code, Alice was passed from one person to another for at least 45 minutes, until she eventually came across a member of staff who also had settled status.

Alice added that while he initially ran into errors himself when trying check her share code, “he knew enough” about the system from his own experience that, using his phone rather than the work computer, they were between them able to access her UKVI account.

That member of staff then had to explain to his co-workers that the page he now had access to on his phone was evidence of Alice’s status, and should have been accessible to view via the share code she had originally provided.

“It’s so incredibly stressful, and you worry as a person who’s not done anything wrong if you’re going to get caught in the crosshairs,” she said. “This is a fiasco, we need physical proof … this approach by the government just puts the onus of the new immigration rules on everyone else.”

Alice added this could “easily” have resulted in her missing the flight: “It just so happened that I got to the gate just in time, and the flight was then delayed … there’s pressure on everybody’s side and I think it’s going to cause absolute mayhem through the summer.”

Responding to Computer Weekly’s request for comment, the Home Office said eVisas have been widely used for years, and that the majority of holders continue to use them without any problems.

It added that, in instances where people do experience problems, the Home Office offers a wide range of support, including through its EU Settlement Resolution Centre for people seeking technical help, and its Assisted Digital Service for those who do not have access to devices or the internet.

Doubling down

In September 2024, a report from Open Rights Group (ORG) examined the technical underpinnings of the eVisa system, noting it should not be understood as a digital equivalent of physical immigration papers – which remain constant every time they are viewed and can be used offline – as users must be connected to the internet to generate their immigration status in real time, every time they need to prove it.

“When users enter their details to log into the Government View and Prove system [in their UKVI account], they are not accessing their status directly, but rather their credentials are being used to search and retrieve dozens of different records held on them across different databases,” it said, adding that research has identified over 90 different platforms and casework systems that immigration data may be pulled from within the UKVI ecosystem to determine a person’s status.

“View and Prove uses an algorithmic and probabilistic logic to determine which data to extract and which e-records to use when it encounters multiple records, i.e. in instances where people have renewed or changed their immigration status or appealed an incorrect decision. It is these real-time and opaque automated checks that generate a person’s immigration status, which they can then share with an employer, landlord or international carrier.”

While ORG and The3million have directly proposed alternatives to the Home Office – such as the use of QR codes or “stable token” systems – the department’s eVisa policy team insisted as far back as December 2023 that it would not “compromise on the real-time aspect” of the e-Visa checks as “any check of an individual’s immigration status must be done in real time to reflect the current immigration status held” on its systems.

Despite clear and continuing issues with the eVisa system, the UK government is doubling down on its approach, claiming in its May 2025 immigration whitepaper that “the transition to eVisa has been successfully providing a significantly better end-to-end experience for individuals throughout their entire journey”.

It also detailed how eVisa data would enable the Home Office to “update records in real time when [a person’s] status changes” and said the intelligence provided by digital visas would allow the state to “maintain and increase contact” with people as they move through the immigration system.

“Put together, the comprehensive, intelligence-led and effective roll-out of eVisas to all foreign nationals resident in the UK will have a transformative impact on our immigration controls: telling us when each individual leaves the country and when they have returned; telling us whether they have the right to work, to rent, to claim benefits or use public services; and telling us how long they have the right to stay,” it said.

“Importantly, eVisas will make it much easier for Immigration Enforcement to identify those who try to stay and work in the UK illegally, to track them down and take action against them.”

The whitepaper made no mention of the well-documented issues people are having with proving their status as a result of the eVisa system, although it did note that work is ongoing to enhance the accuracy and quality of the data held.

“We’ve been seeing complaints about the eVisa scheme since day one, from the moment people began setting up their eVisa accounts,” Sara Alsherif, migrant rights programme manager at ORG, told Computer Weekly.

“Now, more than a year later, we’re still seeing the same unresolved problems: system failures, people losing jobs and benefits due to technical errors, and others experiencing extreme stress when trying to return to the UK despite having a right to enter.

“The digital-only status has proven unreliable and inconsistent. When the system doesn’t work, people are left stranded and unsupported. The Home Office must introduce an offline alternative that provides a secure and accessible backup in the event of digital system failure. No one should lose their rights because of a technical glitch.”

*The names of all those Computer Weekly spoke with have been changed to protect their identities.