The Home Office is yet to publish information about the scale of software errors in its electronic visa (eVisa) system, but what little data is already available suggests that tens of thousands have been affected.
On 31 December 2024, the immigration documents of millions of people living in the UK expired after being replaced by the Home Office with a real-time, online-only immigration status.
While the department has been issuing eVisas for several years – including to European Union (EU) citizens who applied to the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) after Brexit, those applying for Skilled Worker visas, and people from Hong Kong applying for the British National (Overseas) visa – paper documents have now been completely phased out.
Instead, people are now expected to use a UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) digital account to generate “share codes”, which they must use to prove their immigration status when dealing with a range of third parties, including employers and letting agencies.
Despite persistent data quality and integrity issues plaguing the system since its inception, which have left people unable to reliably prove their immigration status when needed, the current Home Office policy means the eVisa system is the only way people can evidence their lawful residence in the UK, as well as their associated rights and entitlements.
Unlike the old physical documents, the Home Office’s eVisa system does not provide a stable record of an individual’s immigration status. Instead, the system generates the status in real time every time someone needs to prove it, which is determined by trawling dozens of disparate databases to source the relevant information.
Given that millions of people are now required to prove their immigration status via the system, even a 1% error rate would mean tens of thousands of people are affected at the very least.
“More than 10 million eVisas have now been issued, and the vast majority of people continue to use them without any problems,” a Home Office spokesperson told Computer Weekly. “We will provide support to anyone who has difficulties and resolve any problems raised as swiftly as possible.”
However, while immigration lawyers and civil society organisations have long been attempting to uncover the true extent of the issues being faced, the Home Office itself has so far refused to divulge meaningful information that would help these groups grasp the scale of the problem.
Two separate Freedom of Information requests – submitted by lawyers and media outlet Politico in February and June 2025, respectively – were previously denied by the Home Office. In the first instance, it withheld the information on the basis that extracting the information from its databases would exceed the cost limit. In the second instance, it withheld the information because the information was intended for future publication.
While the Home Office also previously told migrant support group the3million in December 2025 that it intended to “commence publishing data regarding customers who have used our eVisa error corrections webforms in Spring 2026”, that data is yet to materialise.
What information is publicly available?
Information about the scale of eVisa issues was recently unveiled by Simon Tomlinson, the Home Office’s then-policy lead for eVisas in migration, borders and international policy and programmes, during a judicial review challenge brought by two people affected by system errors.
While the High Court heard – and ultimately dismissed – the judicial review case in early March 2026, Tomlinson noted that in November 2025 alone, 41,000 calls were made to the UKVI Resolution Centre.
The Home Office cannot declare the eVisa project a success, while at the same time covering up the extent of technical failures Monique Hawkins, the3million
He added that, between April and October 2025, 116,011 further eVisa enquiries were submitted by members of the public, although the ruling itself does not make clear whether that is the number reported to the Resolution Centre specifically, or to the Home Office generally.
Computer Weekly asked the Home Office for clarification on where the reports were made, but received no response on this point.
Although there was, in fact, no error in 34,550 cases (29.7%), the ruling noted that the remaining 81,461 (70.2%) related to errors that subsequently had to be addressed.
“The Home Office cannot declare the eVisa project a success, while at the same time covering up the extent of technical failures,” said Monique Hawkins, head of policy and advocacy at the3million.
“We continue to see the human impact of such failures, as people contact us every single day. Just today, I spoke to someone who, following major surgery abroad, has been unable to return to her home in the UK because of a technical failure in the Home Office process to link passports.
“Transparency on this issue is crucial, and should be something the Home Office welcomes if it truly believes it has been successful. Without it, there is no way of knowing whether the Home Office is effectively monitoring failures, or providing the resources for faster resolution of such failures.”
Computer Weekly contacted the Home Office about when it is planning to publish the data, and why it has not already given the figures cited in court, but received no on-the-record response.
According to further data held by the3million, which hosts an online reporting tool for people experiencing eVisa issues, 917 people reported problems with the system directly to the organisation between April 2024 and now.
“In Q1 2026, a number of eVisa holders reported a recurring technical fault in which a ‘ghost’ application appeared on their account, blocking them from updating their travel document details. In each case, a previous UKVI application was showing as pending despite the individual having no live application,” it said in a snapshot report of eVisa problems.
“Although the volume of submissions reporting this issue was low, it points to a deeper and longstanding concern: that technical faults or unannounced back-end changes made by the Home Office can render someone’s sole proof of immigration status unreliable or inaccessible.”
However, the3million said it estimates that for every eVisa problem reported to it, “there are 500 people out there who do not report to us”. The group has previously gone on the record to say the cases reported to it are likely “just the tip of the iceberg”.
Potential data protection investigation
Although the UK data regulator has been actively considering whether to investigate the Home Office’s eVisa system over data protection concerns since November 2025 – after 19 civil society groups wrote an open letter highlighting the “high volume” of data quality and integrity errors linked to the scheme – it has yet to commit to an actual investigation.
In one case exclusively reported on by Computer Weekly, the technical errors with data held by the Home Office were so severe that the regulator previously found there had been a breach of UK data protection law.
Speaking with Computer Weekly, the person affected said that 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.
Computer Weekly previously contacted the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) about why it has not yet opened a formal investigation or publicly responded to the letter, despite widespread data protection issues being reported with the system.
“We regularly engage with government departments, including the Home Office, to ensure that data protection obligations are met and potential risks are mitigated,” said an ICO spokesperson. “We can confirm that we have received the letter outlining these concerns, and are continuing to carefully assess the issues raised before responding.”
In December 2025, Computer Weekly received a Freedom of Information (FoI) Act response from the ICO about the volume of eVisa complaints it had received since paper documents were phased out at the end of December 2024.
However, the regulator said at the time that it was unable to say how many eVisa-related cases there were, because it would require a manual search of hundreds of complaints raised against the Home Office.
“The reason is that we do not record the requested information in a way that is easily reportable and would require a manual search of hundreds of records to find the information that you are requesting,” it said.
“We hold 851 cases about the Home Office in the previous two years. Assuming that one year is approximately half that, then there would still be 425 cases to manually search. Each search could take approximately three to four minutes to complete, which would still take it over the cost limit. It should also be noted that some of the searches would take considerably longer.”
Computer Weekly asked the ICO whether it now has a clear idea of how many eVisa-related data protection complaints have been raised against the Home Office, but it did not respond to this point.
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