Residence permits, and what replaced them

What the Card Was

A biometric residence permit, almost always shortened to BRP, was a plastic card the size of a bank card. It was issued to people given permission to stay in the UK for more than 6 months, and it carried:

• A photograph, and fingerprints stored on a chip
• Name, date of birth, and nationality
• The type of permission held
• Any conditions attached to it, such as "no public funds" or a limit on working hours
• The date the permission ran out
• A National Insurance number, on some cards

For years it was the document a person reached for at a job interview, a letting agent's office, or a bank counter. That is why the term is still searched for, and why so much older material still refers to it.

What Happened to It

The Home Office stopped issuing the cards at the end of 2024, as part of the move to a fully digital record of immigration status. GOV.UK now states plainly that all biometric residence permits have expired and have been replaced by eVisas.

Several things that older guidance still describes therefore no longer happen:

• No card is posted out after a visa decision.
• There is no Post Office collection, and no 10-day window to collect a card after arriving in the UK.
• There is no card to carry, to renew, or to return.

What Replaced It: the eVisa

An eVisa is an online record of a person's immigration status and the conditions attached to it. It sits in a UK Visas and Immigration account — a UKVI account — and is reached by signing in on GOV.UK rather than by taking a card out of a wallet.

The record shows the same information the card used to show:

• Name, date of birth, and nationality
• The type of permission held, and when it runs out
• The conditions on it, including any limits on work

Because it is a record rather than an object, it cannot be lost or stolen, and it changes when the permission behind it changes.

Setting Up and Signing In to a UKVI Account

An account is created through the get access to your eVisa service on GOV.UK. That page lists what it takes:

• An email address and a phone number that can be used every time the account is signed in to
• A valid passport, together with either the visa application number (labelled GWF or UAN) or the number from a biometric residence permit — or the expired permit card itself

The next step is confirming identity and linking the account to the eVisa, which usually involves an identity-checking app on a smartphone. GOV.UK sets out other routes for people without a valid passport, without an expired card, or without access to a smartphone. Someone helping another person can set the account up using their own email address and phone number, and hand it over later.

Once the account exists, signing in later uses a passport, a national identity card, a permit number, or a UKVI customer number, plus access to the phone number or email address registered on the account. Opening the record and reading it is worth the few minutes: the name, date of birth, nationality, and conditions all appear there, and an error in them is easier to raise with the Home Office before an employer or a landlord runs into it.

Proving Status to an Employer or a Landlord

Where the card used to be handed across a desk, a share code is sent instead. Signing in to the view and prove your immigration status service produces a code, which is given to the other party along with a date of birth. They use the two together to see the status; they do not see the whole eVisa.

• A share code lasts 90 days.
• It can be used as many times as needed inside those 90 days.
• A new one can be generated whenever it is needed.

This is the mechanism behind a right to work check and a right to rent check. Banks and the NHS set their own rules about what they accept, so the bank account guide and the NHS access guide cover those separately.

If an Expired Card Is Still in a Drawer

An expired biometric residence permit is not simply waste. GOV.UK says it can still be used for three narrow purposes:

• Creating a UKVI account
• Getting into an eVisa and sharing it
• Applying to extend permission to stay in the UK

That holds for 24 months after the expiry date printed on the card, or until 31 December 2026, whichever of the two comes first. Everything else — proving status to an employer, a landlord, a bank, or at a border — goes through the eVisa. Keeping the old card until the account is set up and working is useful for that reason: the card number is one of the ways in.

Where This Leaves Older Guidance

A great deal of material written before 2025 — decision letters, university handbooks, employer checklists — still describes collecting a card, carrying a card, or replacing a lost one. Those steps no longer exist. Where an older instruction says "collect your BRP", the equivalent now is to set up or sign in to the UKVI account and check the record is correct.

Related guides:

• eVisa UK Guide
• Right to Work Check Guide
• Biometrics Appointment Guide
• National Insurance Number Guide

Questions and answers