UK's eVisa rollout dogged by glitches, threatening rights

Britain has failed to resolve years-old issues with its eVisa immigration system, which risks putting at risk the status of around 4 million people living legally in Britain, rights groups say. Hundreds of people have struggled to access new electronic records of their immigration status, making it hard to verify work or rent property. Electronic records of immigration status were introduced in 2019 for European Union citizens applying for settlement in Britain after the vote to leave the bloc.

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Now eVisa are being rolled out for non-EU migrants and refugees as part of a switch to an online-only system for verifying one's status.

But mix-ups, problems creating accounts and reports of the system failing have riddled the scheme. "We've seen how the system fails (and are) warning the government that this is a flawed implementation," said Andreea Dumitrache, head of the 3 Million, a grassroots group for EU citizens that supports those trying to switch to eVisa.

"A person's whole life is impacted and, especially for the most vulnerable, it's the difference between putting a roof over someone's head or not," said Dumitrache.