What Employers need to know about Biometric Residence Permits

What’s a BRP?

Biometric Residence Permits (BRPs) are biometric immigration documents that are issued to non-EEA nationals and EEA nationals, who have been granted permission to stay in the UK. Unless you use the ‘UK Immigration: ID Check’ app to prove your identity when applying to stay in the UK, you will be provided with a BRP card. Employers and their HR staff must familiarise themselves with these documents as they will only have a statutory excuse if they have carried out the right to work checks correctly.

If your employee has been granted permission to enter the UK from abroad, they will first be issued with a vignette (sticker) in their passport which will be valid for 90 days to enable them to travel to the UK. Their BRP card should be ready for collection within two weeks from the issue date of their entry clearance vignette and they will collect it from the Post Office branch detailed in their decision letter. They must ensure to collect their BRP card no later than the expiry date of their vignette.

The Home Office encourages migrants to collect their BRP as soon as they arrive in the UK but, in the event your employee is required to start work before they get the chance to do this, you will need to ask to see the visa vignette and carry out the prescribed document checks on this. However, as the visa vignette is only valid for 90 days, the check will have to be repeated using the BRP for the statutory excuse to continue.

BRP expiring on 31 December 2024

As part of the immigration system overhaul, BRP cards will cease to be produced from 1 January 2025. Employees will be able to prove their immigration status online, without a BRP which will be replaced by an e-Visa.

What you need to do:

• create a UKVI account – you can create an account using this link: https://www.gov.uk/get-access-evisa.
• confirm your identity using the ‘UK Immigration ID Check’ app downloaded from your smartphone

This information will be used to link your e-Visa to your UKVI account. You will get an email when you can access your eVisa in your account.

Before you start:

You will need:

• an email address and phone number
• access to a smartphone
• your BRP card (or a valid passport, and either your BRP number or your visa application number)

Please note that action is required before your BRP expires on 31 December 2024.

If you already have an eVisa along with your BRP, you do not need to create a new UKVI account and you can check and prove your status via the following website https://www.gov.uk/view-prove-immigration-status.

When traveling overseas during 2024, continue carrying your in-date BRP until it expires. We advise that from Summer 2024 onwards your passport or national identity document you are traveling with is linked to your UKVI account to facilitate digital checks.

Further information on Biometric Residence Permits and how to check them in line with the right to work guidance can be found here. 

Our immigration lawyers are here to assist you throughout this process. If you have any questions or need support, feel free to reach out to us at immigration@clarkslegal.com.