Many unable to access eVisas to prove right to be in UK

The Home Office has admitted that many people who have the right to live and work in the UK cannot access their eVisas and provide proof they are allowed to be in the country.

- Diane Taylor

Human rights campaigners have said that problems with people accessing eVisas could lead to a scandal affecting hundreds of thousands who are allowed to be in the UK but cannot show their right to work or rent a home.

At the end of this month the Home Office is transferring to a digital immigration system, and most physical documentation proving the right to remain in the UK, such as biometric residence permits, will expire.

The Guardian has learned that some of a particularly large group of people have not been able to obtain eVisas even though they have applied for them and have a right to receive them.

Hundreds of thousands of people are on a Home Office visa known as the 10-year route, where they have to pay large sums of money to renew.