sGAR Home Office Notification: Temporary acceptance of expired BRPs and EUSS BRCs

The majority of UK biometric residence permits (BRPs) and biometric residence cards (BRCs) will expire on 31st December 2024, and passengers who currently hold BRP/Cs will be travelling on eVisas.

Carriers and operators will receive a ‘0A – Valid Permission to Travel Found’ message when the Home Office is able to automatically confirm a valid digital permission (whether an eVisa or an ETA) for the passenger. Carriers and operators should rely on this message as satisfactory evidence that a passenger has a valid UK immigration permission, and no further visa checks are necessary to establish the passenger’s permission to travel.

However, we are keen to ensure that travel is not disrupted for passengers with eVisas. Therefore, we announced that, as a transitional measure, biometric residence permits (BRPs) and EU Settlement Scheme biometric residence cards (EUSS BRCs) which expire on or after 31st December 2024 can also be accepted as evidence of permission to travel to the UK provisionally until 31st March 2025. This will be kept under review. Other expired immigration products are not acceptable proof of permission to travel.

In the first instance, carriers and operators should rely on the ‘0A – Valid Permission to Travel Found’ as satisfactory evidence that a passenger has a valid UK eVisa or ETA. Where a ‘0A – Valid Permission to Travel Found’ message is not received, the passenger may still have a valid immigration status and carriers and operators will need to perform alternative checks to satisfy themselves that the individual has a permission to travel to the UK.

• If a passenger holds a valid visa or other physical document evidencing a permission to travel, these can still be used to evidence their permission to travel, when boarding UK-bound services.

• If the passenger has a newly issued passport, they may not have linked it to their UK Visas & Immigration (UKVI) account. The passenger may be able to self-resolve and update their new passport details in their UKVI account using the Update my Details service if they have a biometric passport.
• If a passenger has no physical document evidencing a permission to travel, they can use the online View and Prove immigration status service, by issuing a Share Code to the carrier or operator who can then check their permission via the online ’Check someone's immigration status'

• If the passenger has a biometric residence permit (BRP) or EU Settlement Scheme biometric residence card (EUSS BRC) which expires on or after 31st December 2024 this can also be accepted as evidence of permission to travel to the UK provisionally until 31st March 2025. This will be kept under review.
• Carriers and operators can contact the 24/7 UK Border Force Carrier Support Hub on +44 300 369 0610 or +44 204 619 6020.

Please see a FAQ document within the Knowledge Hub folder here, which provides answers to questions about the temporary acceptance of expired BRPs and EUSS BRCs as evidence of permission to travel to the UK. Example BRP/C documents can be found within the sGAR Information pack on slide 63.