Security News > 2024 > February > UK to replace physical biometric immigration cards with e-visas
By 2025, Britain is set to ditch physical immigration status documents such as Biometric Residence Permits and Biometric Residence Cards in a bid to make its borders digital, which is in-line with developed countries like Australia.
Presently, students, workers, immigrants and their dependents from non-EU countries residing in the UK are eventually issued Biometric Residence Permits, cards which are proof of their immigration status in the country.
The reason for this being, while the UK was a part of the European Union, regulations required the government to implement next-generation encryption technology into its immigration documents, and as such the UK planned on rolling out enhanced cards after the end of this year, while phasing existing ones out.
An eVisa is an electronic record of a person's immigration status and provides customers with the ability to view and prove their immigration status digitally, explains Home Office.
"Replacing physical immigration documents with eVisas by 2025 is a key part of the transformation and digitisation of the border and immigration system, delivering enhanced security and cost-savings for the UK public and greater convenience for customers and status checkers."
While the UK government is on track to deliver a digital border and immigration system, including plans to trial contactless entry using just facial recognition, there are no plans at the moment to replace physical passports with digital equivalents, such as those piloted by Finland, BleepingComputer understands.