Last week, a reader sent me a request for help in the early hours of the morning: At the Heathrow T5 gate, the British Airways ground staff said "the system cannot find your valid visa", and he was about to be denied boarding. She rummaged through her bag to find BRP—a Skilled Worker who had been in the UK for five years—only to find that BRP had expired in December 2024, and she had never completed the switch to eVisa. The final change cost me £480, plus a night at the airport hotel.
Stories like this have been playing out every week in our backstages lately. It is not news that BRP has completely withdrawn from the market, but what really hinders the Chinese people is , a few detailed time windows. Let’s make it clear once and for all today.
1. Hard deadline for British visa holders: June 30, 2026
From 31 October 2024, the UK Home Office will no longer issue any new BRP cards, and all legal residence status will be held in UKVI accounts in the form of electronic visas (eVisa). After BRP expires, can still be used to assist in account opening within 18 months from the date of expiration of . In other words, people whose BRP expires on December 31, 2024, must complete the switch before on June 30, 2026, at the latest - only a little over a month away.
⚠️ Missing the window does not mean that ILR is invalidated - your right of residence is still in the Home Office database - but remediation will be much more complicated and may require re-identification and waiting 4-8 weeks to get a new UAN.
2. BRP is lost or stolen: British visa holders should do these two things first
Regardless of whether the card has expired, lost or stolen BRP must be reported to within 24 hours, otherwise you may be fined up to £1,000, and may even affect your subsequent permanent residence application. Two lines:
① in : Log in to gov.uk/biometric-residence-permits/lost-stolen-damaged to report online for free; if it is stolen, call 101 to report the crime.
② overseas : First go to the local police station to get a police report. cannot re-apply for BRP. You must apply for a single entry visa (vignette transfer). The official fee is about £154 (please refer to the latest announcement of GOV.UK). After completing the application, enter the country with your new passport and vignette, and then open eVisa in the UK. The entire process can take up to 5 working days at the fastest and up to 3 weeks at the slowest. Be sure to reserve a buffer for your return ticket.
3. eVisa account opening: 3 essential things for UK residence
Log in to gov.uk/get-access-evisa and prepare: ① Current valid passport (it is recommended to go to the Chinese Embassy to get a new passport before binding it, so as not to have to do it again); ② BRP card number or application reference number GWF / UAN (find it in the initial visa email); ③ Install the UK Immigration: ID Check App on your smartphone and scan the passport chip + face recognition.
If all goes well, it'll be done in 15 minutes. The face scanning failure rate is about 8% - reflective skin, wearing glasses, and yellowish lighting will all trigger a retry. White walls + natural light have the highest success rate. After the account is established, UKVI will electronically bind the residence status to the passport number . If you want to change your passport in the future, you only need to update your details in the account.
4. UKVI crashed and you were denied boarding? 4 emergency tips for UK visa
The large-scale login failure in March 2026 caused many Chinese people in the UK to be denied boarding at Heathrow and Gatwick - the error message was "We cannot display your eVisa at this time". The official reply from the Ministry of Interior is only to "clear the cache and try again", and does not have any cover-up procedures . Hard advice before traveling:
· 72 hours before departure pre-generate a share code, screenshot + PDF double backup to mobile phone and email;
· Confirm that the passport number bound to the UKVI account is exactly the same as the passport to be used , check both upper and lower case;
· Carry the latest visa decision letter (grant letter) with you when leaving the country If the system goes offline, the ground staff can release it based on the letter;
· Make a note of the UKVI international customer service hotline (available at gov.uk/contact-ukvi-inside-uk) and save it in the address book.
5. Using the wrong share code = getting a British visa in vain? 3 hidden traps
Many people think that share code can be used repeatedly like an ID card. In fact, it has several hidden boundaries:
① is only valid for 90 days , and must be regenerated after expiration;
② has a specific purpose - Right to Work code for the employer ≠ Right to Rent code for the landlord ≠ status code for the bank. If the wrong destination is selected when generating, the other party's system will display "not applicable";
③ screenshots cannot replace real-time verification of . The employer must enter the code + your date of birth at the gov.uk site and see the green "permission to work" to be considered compliant. Sending screenshots to your employer and asking them to enter the information themselves is an invalid check. If you pass the Home Office spot check, you will be fined.
6. BRP invalidation ≠ British permanent residence invalid: ILR countdown is still running
This is the link where agents love to sell anxiety: once BRP expires or is lost, the permanent residence progress will return to zero. That’s not the case. The core of the ILR calculation is the continuity of ’s legal residence , not the physical card. For 5-year paths such as Skilled Worker, Spouse Visa, and Global Talent, the key is the visa validity period + continuous record of stay in the UK. BRP is just the "carrier" of the status. As long as the eVisa switch is completed and the UKVI account can display the status normally, the countdown to permanent residence will continue as usual.
If you are not worried, you can use 永居计算器 APP to bind the visa start and end dates, and the countdown will be calculated to the end of the day, and the 180-day departure can be automatically tracked. If the system reports an error or is stuck at a certain step, add the lawyer on WeChat uklvshi and send a screenshot. Most problems can be located within 10 minutes.
📌 This article is for reference only. Please consult a licensed immigration attorney for specific cases. [Data source] gov.uk/evisa; gov.uk/biometric-residence-permits/lost-stolen-damaged.
Chat in the comment area: In which year did your BRP expire? Has the eVisa account been opened? Have you ever failed to scan your face? Or is anyone close to you stuck at the airport due to system issues?
If you find it useful, please forward it to your friends who are also applying for permanent residence in the UK, or who have just obtained a visa - anyone may fall into the trap of BRP to eVisa, so switch as early as possible and feel at ease.