ILR is approved, no longer send BRP? eVisa binds passport with check-in verification

The first thing many people did on the day they received the permanent residency approval email was go home and wait for the card to arrive. After one week, two weeks, nothing came, and they started to doubt whether it was lost in the mail.

The card will not come. The Ministry of the Interior has stopped producing physical BRP (biometric residence card) after October 31, 2024. Now, the approved permanent residency (ILR / Indefinite Leave to Remain) only includes one thing: a digital identity eVisa. What you are waiting for is not a courier, but to open an account yourself.

You haven't completed this step, you have a status, but you can't prove it - you can't rent a house, your employment is stuck during the background check, and the most troublesome part is that after going abroad, you are stopped at the check-in counter and .

What will be received after the permanent residency is approved? No card, just an email.

The process is as follows: when you submitted the ILR application, you have already provided biometric information - either by visiting a UKVCAS service point to take fingerprints and photos, or by using the "UK Immigration: ID Check" mobile app to scan your passport chip and perform facial recognition. Therefore, after approval, does not need to go through the biometric collection again, . Many people get stuck waiting unnecessarily because they confuse "approval" with "providing biometric information again."

The decision will be sent by email. The email contains two key items: decision letter (decision letter) , and instructions to create or log in to a UKVI account to view eVisa. The decision letter itself is not a valid proof of identity, but the PDF must be kept safe; it will be used as a reference when there is a discrepancy in the system.

Create a UKVI account, view eVisa free of charge, it will not change, nor re-examine your identity. Any statement that requires you to pay for "activating permanent residency" is not part of the official process.

Permanent Residence eVisa Binding List: Do These 5 Things in Order After Approval

This table suggests taking screenshots and saving them in the phone's album, one by one:

Will I be stopped at the boarding gate if I haven't re-bound eVisa?

This is the most realistic risk point now, and the rules have just become stricter.

Starting from 2026-02-25, carriers (airlines, ferry companies, etc.) of flights to the UK must perform automated verification of passengers before boarding: take the passport you hand over and compare it with the "permission to travel" in the Home Office records. British and Irish citizens and a small number of exempt groups are excluded.

Note this logic: The system recognizes the passport number, not you as a person . You have obtained a new passport but failed to update your UKVI account, so the system checks with the new passport number and finds "no record". The old BRP that you are holding can't help either — the physical BRP will no longer have travel value to the UK after June 2025.

The update entry is the "update your UK Visas and Immigration account details" service on GOV.UK, free of charge, taking about a few minutes to fill in. But don't wait until the last minute: in most cases, it is processed within a few working days, while in some cases the Home Office may ask you to send your passport or ID documents for verification, which would take weeks.

Operation principle: Update the account first, then book the ticket . Not the other way around. Bring the old passport even if it's already cut, in case there are questions and it can serve as evidence of the same person.

How to open share code? The codes for work and housing cannot be used interchangeably.

After obtaining permanent residency, employers conduct Right to Work check, landlords conduct Right to Rent check, none of them look at the physical card anymore, but instead ask you to provide a 9-digit share code. You can generate it on the spot in your UKVI account's View and Prove service, which is free.

Two common pitfalls: First, codes are categorized by purpose , so make sure to select the correct one for employers or landlords when generating, codes used for work purposes will be rejected by the system when used for rental checks; Second, has an expiration date of 90 days , after which it needs to be regenerated, no need to worry. It may also be used in scenarios such as opening a bank account, or changing a driver's license at DVLA, and the same applies for selecting according to the purpose.

There is another common misunderstanding: the settled status on the permanent residency eVisa does not show an expiration date. Some landlords or HR personnel who are not familiar with digital identity may not understand "settled status" and repeatedly ask for the card. At this point, taking a screenshot of the status on the View and Prove page and reminding the other party to check via the official verification channel gov.uk themselves usually resolves the issue. If it really can't be resolved and involves being denied a rental or having an offer revoked, you can pay £5 on justiscript.com to get a written response from a UK-qualified lawyer within 24 hours, which is more efficient than explaining repeatedly.

After completing the permanent residency binding, there are two more time limits to note in your calendar.

Digitalization has only solved the "how to prove" aspect, but has not changed the rules of permanent residency itself. After binding eVisa, there are two dates that are recommended to be set as calendar reminders:

If you are continuously away from the UK for 2 years, your permanent residency will expire. This is a place where many people tend to be careless after obtaining their status - returning to China to take care of family, being dispatched abroad, starting a business, and two years pass by in a blink. If you have really exceeded the time limit, you need to go through the Returning Resident visa process, and you need to prove a strong connection with the UK, which is not automatically restored.

who intends to naturalize usually needs to wait another 12 months after obtaining ILR (the spouse of a British citizen is generally not subject to this restriction), and be aware that absence from the country within 12 months before applying for naturalization should generally not exceed 90 days. These two numbers are not the same as the 180-day rule during the permanent residency period, so they should not be calculated together. If you want to calculate the dates precisely down to the day, you can use the "永居计算器" app to schedule.