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.
