How to bind British permanent residence eVisa? How to prove identity after BRP expires

Last month, a reader sent us a message with a very urgent tone: The BRP card she obtained for permanent residence in 2019 has long been locked in a drawer. She recently got a new passport and excitedly booked a flight back to her country. When she checked in, she was stopped by ground staff and said, "Your British identity cannot be found in the system."

She was stunned: I am a permanent resident, what can go wrong with my permanent residence?

able. And this kind of thing has happened repeatedly over the past year or so. permanent residence (ILR / Indefinite Leave to Remain) itself will not expire, but the carrier that "proves you have permanent residence" has been completely replaced. ’s article today will explain this link clearly: After BRP retires, what will he rely on to retain his permanent residence status?

After BRP is invalidated, what proof can I rely on to prove my permanent residence status in the UK?

Let’s go over the timeline first. Many people are still confused.

The expiry date printed on the face of almost all BRP (Biometric Residence Permit, biometric information residence card) cards is December 31, 2024 at the latest - note that this date has nothing to do with the validity period of your visa or permanent residence, it is purely the lifespan of the card itself. Home Office has long stopped issuing new cards, and will no longer reissue them if they are broken or lost.

By February 25, 2026, Home Office has further completed full digitization: even the physical visa sticker (vignette) affixed to the passport will no longer be issued. The only official carrier of British immigration status now is eVisa - an online record stored in a UKVI account.

The expired BRP currently still retains extremely limited use - used to log in and create a UKVI account, bind identity, the official window is within 24 months after the expiration of the card, or as of December 31, 2026, whichever comes first. But please remember: it can no longer be used to enter and exit . Starting from June 2, 2025, airlines will no longer accept expired BRP as boarding vouchers.

In other words, that plastic card will come to an end at the end of this year. If you haven’t set up a UKVI account by now, you have less than five months left. 🕐

UKVI account for permanent residence holder: established in three steps

The process itself is not complicated, it’s the details that get stuck.

The first step is to create an account. searches "create a UKVI account" on GOV.UK and uses the ID number (BRP number or passport number) + date of birth when applying that year for verification. The most common reason for failure here is that "the ID number is not the one used for the original application" - many people have changed their passports, and the system recognizes the old one as , . If you check it out and try it once, it usually passes.

The second step is face verification. needs to download the UKVI identity verification app and scan the face and ID chip. Mobile phones for the elderly and old Android phones often cannot read the NFC chip. Borrowing a newer mobile phone often solves the problem.

The third step is to log in to view. After the account is established, log in using "View and prove your immigration status". Under normal circumstances, what permanent residence holders should see is Indefinite leave to remain or Settled status, and the status itself has no expiration date . If a certain date is displayed on the page, it is most likely the expiration date of your bound passport, not the identity expiration date - don't confuse these two things, as people panic about it every year.

Permanent Residence eVisa Entry and Exit: If your passport is not tied, you will be refused boarding.

This is the pitfall that the reader stepped on at the beginning, and it is also the most frequent overturning point at present.

Now when checking in, airlines directly perform digital verification on the Home Office system for : use the passport number in your hand to check whether there is a corresponding British identity. If you change your passport but do not update it in your UKVI account, the system will not find this person, and the ground staff will have no discretion and can only deny you boarding.

So there is only one rule: after changes his passport, the first thing to do is to log in to the UKVI account to update the document information (Update your UKVI account details), and then buy the air ticket. The update is free, but it does not take effect immediately. The official recommendation is to set aside time and do not get stuck doing it the day before departure.

Another reminder: Although permanent residence does not have an expiration date, if has been away from the UK for more than 2 consecutive years, ILR will automatically expire (the grace period for EUSS settled status is different). The digitization of eVisa has made border inspections much more accurate than in the past, and there is basically no room for confusion by relying on "the mood of the border inspection". For friends who frequently travel between the two places, it is recommended that you draw up an entry and exit timetable and save it. The 永居计算器 APP we made can also help you calculate the number of days you leave the country to the day, so you don’t have to estimate it from memory.

How to transfer the permanent residence stamped in the old passport to eVisa? NTL free application

There is a group of people who are easily overlooked: obtained permanent residence in his early years. The evidence is not BRP, but an ink stamp or old-style sticker with "Indefinite Leave to Remain / Settlement / No Time Limit" on the passport. Many readers who came to England with their families in the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s had this situation.

This type of document cannot be directly converted into eVisa. You must first apply for NTL (No Time Limit) - essentially asking Home Office to re-confirm "you do have permanent residence" in a modern way.

Several key points about NTL: Starting from April 2022, has canceled the application fee ; starting from October 31, 2024, those who pass will receive eVisa directly and will no longer issue BRP; the official processing time is generally within 6 months, but biometric information still needs to be collected on site (some appointment points will charge service fees).

6 months is not a small number. If you or an elder in your family still has a stamped permanent residence passport and plans to go abroad to visit relatives next year, you should do it now instead of waiting until you have booked the air tickets only to find out that it is too late.

What should I do if eVisa is displayed incorrectly? Permanent residence is marked as having a limited time limit

Digitization does not equal zero errors. Among the problems collected by immigrant rights organizations in the past two years, there have been problems such as misspelled names, wrong nationalities, wrong conditions, and , which is clearly a permanent residence but is shown as a limited-term status of with an expiration date.

The processing path is like this:

📌 Submit through the online error reporting tool on GOV.UK or call the UKVI Resolution Centre. must ask for an incident number - this is your only proof that "I have reported it a long time ago" and will be used when explaining to employers, landlords, and border officials in the future. The official will usually respond within 10 working days, but it will be delayed during peak periods.

📌 Take screenshots during error reporting: status page, error confirmation page, call time. When it comes time to get stuck while applying for a job, these screenshots can come to your rescue.

📌 By the way, share code: To check the employer’s right to work (begins with W), to check the landlord’s right to rent (begins with R), and other purposes (begins with S), is valid for 90 days and , and can be generated unlimited times. Don't give your UKVI account password to any employer or agency. The formal approach is always to share the code.

If you have a special situation—for example, you are in a hurry to change your job due to abnormal identity display, or you are not sure whether your elders’ old stamps can be transferred to NTL—if you don’t want to spend a lot of money for a comprehensive consultation first, you can spend £5 on justiscript.com to get a British practicing lawyer to give a written reply to a specific question within 24 hours, in both Chinese and English. You can first clarify the direction before deciding whether to formally entrust you.

Three things you should do this year after getting permanent residence in the UK

In the final analysis, the "right" to permanent residence has not changed, what has changed is the "method of proof". Once you have done the following three things, you will be basically safe:

① Create a UKVI account before the end of this year and log in to take a look at the status;
② Update the binding immediately after changing your passport, and then book a flight;
③ Start NTL as soon as possible for the old-style stamped permanent residence, and reserve it for 6 months.

There is also a seriously underestimated action: updates the email address and mobile phone number bound to the UKVI account to the ones you actually use now. All notifications for Home Office are sent there, tied to an old mailbox from ten years ago, which is equivalent to locking yourself out.

This article is for reference only. Please consult a licensed attorney for specific questions.

[Data source] GOV.UK: gov.uk/evisa | gov.uk/biometric-residence-permits | gov.uk/government/news/fee-removed-for-no-time-limit-applications (plain text, please open it in your browser)

💬 When you were creating a UKVI account or binding eVisa, what step did you get stuck at? Is it because the NFC cannot read the document, the verification of the old passport number fails, or the status page is displayed inexplicably? Tell us about your specific error reports in the comment area. We will pick out a few high-frequency ones and break them down in subsequent articles.

Collect this article if you find it useful . It is much better to check it out before changing your passport and preparing to travel than to cram for a while.

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