Home Office responds to the3million and ILPA on document linking issues

Article summary

In a response to the3million and the Immigration Law Practitioners' Association (ILPA), the Home Office has provided clarification regarding certain aspects of the functionality of their eVisa system and identity document linking processes. While confirming no general system outage occurred in December 2024, they acknowledged a marginally increased error rate (below 1%) during peak periods. The response outlines specific prerequisites for adding identity documents to UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) accounts, namely: possession of valid digital status, absence of pending applications, and no ongoing document/photo updates. The Home Office has confirmed that UK-issued Refugee Travel Documents and Stateless Persons Travel Documents remain valid for international travel, with carriers being explicitly instructed to accept these documents independently. Functionality to add Home Office travel documents to the UKVI account will be delivered later in 2025. One recent change is that from 27 February 2025 name and nationality updates will be able to be...