Bindmans Immigration team has joined over 240 others, including immigration lawyers and not for profit organisations, in signing an open letter from ILPA (the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association) to the Home Office, expressing concerns on the UK’s transition to eVisas and highlighting that the proposed digital-only immigration system will not be fit for purpose.

Among the concerns are the lack of harmonisation in the wider strategy for digitisation of the immigration system, the absence of a transitional phase after 31 December 2024, technical errors in the system itself, the impact on vulnerable migrants, as well as lack of public awareness.

The letter, which can be read here, includes a number of short and medium term recommendations.

Head of Business Immigration Tanya Goldfarb, who originated and co-drafted the letter, comments:

Bindmans and many others are rightly concerned that we are facing a potential repeat of the Windrush and EU Settlement Scheme mistakes. We have been urging the Home Office to deliver transitional plans that will avoid a cascade of issues on 1 January 2025 when BRPs will have expired. Having been instrumental in the drafting of the open letter,  I hope the Home Office take heed of the recommendations made, which have been repeatedly communicated to them over the past 12 months by ILPA and others.