If you were granted leave to remain after 1st January 2020, you may have received a Biometric Residence Permit, or BRP, that has an incorrect expiry date. Instead of being the date your grant of leave expires, it is 31st December 2024. If this is the case, don’t worry. This video will give you everything you need to know.

Transcript:

What do I need to do if my BRP expires on 31st December 2024?
If your BRP has an expiry date of 31st December 2024, and your grant of leave (for example your visa) expires after this date, you do not need to do anything.

Whilst your BRP card will expire on this date your immigration status will not be affected. As a result, you will still be able to access services and receive benefits linked to your immigration status.

How can you prove the correct expiry date of your leave?
When you were granted your leave to remain, you should have been issued a letter by the Home Office. This letter confirms when your leave expires. This may be stated as a timeframe rather than a date - for example, you leave has been granted for 30 months.

You can use this letter as confirmation of the expiry date of your leave.

To prove your status to an employer or a landlord, you won’t need to provide the letter as evidence. This is because they will carry out an online right to work or rent check on your behalf.

How can you prove your immigration status after your BRP has expired?
From the 1st January 2025, you will not need a physical BRP card to prove your immigration status. You will instead be able to do this solely online. The Home Office has not yet confirmed how this process will work, however they have stated that an update will be provided in early 2024.

It's likely that the Home Office will adopt the online system being used for some other applications. In these cases, individuals can view their immigration status by entering a 'share code' online, which can be done on the government website.

Why were you issued a BRP that expires before your leave?
The Home Office began issuing BRPs with an expiry date of 31st December 2024, so that after this date they could issue new BRPs that adhered to EU regulations. These regulations demanded that BRPs must have the latest encryption technology. The old BRPs did not have this, so they needed to be replaced.

When Britain left the EU on 31st January 2020, the restrictions on BRPs were lifted, however the Home Office continued to supply BRPs that expired in December 2024. This is because the Home Office plans to move immigration statuses online, and wants to phase out the use of physical BRP cards to do this.

What other changes have been happening?
In the last few years, the Home Office has been moving its immigration operations online. This started with applications, which were moved to online forms. These changes were introduced as the Home Office believed this would make applications easier and more straightforward. However, many clients come to us expressing frustration at the application process and the government website, which is often unclear and prone to glitches.

In addition, the Home Office has come under fire for its move to a digital system. In April 2021, a court case argued that the changes were discriminatory. This is because many of the individuals who would be making immigration applications would be unable to use or have no access to technology. Whilst this court case was unsuccessful, and later measures were brought out to reduce the impact of digital only immigration status, it remains to be seen whether these are enough.

Thank you for watching this video by Truth Legal. We hope it has helped you to understand why your BRP expires on 31st December 2024. Please be sure to check out our website for more information, as we regularly post blogs about immigration issues like this one. You can also follow Truth Legal on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.

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