UK eVisa Explained: What Replaced the BRP Card for International Students
UK eVisa Explained: What Replaced the BRP Card for International Students
For years, international students in the UK carried a BRP — a Biometric Residence Permit, a credit-card-sized piece of plastic that proved your right to be in the country.
That card is being phased out. The UK now runs a digital immigration status system called the eVisa, and if you are applying now, you will not receive a physical card at all.
This trips people up constantly, particularly students who have heard from friends or family who studied in the UK a few years ago and expect a card that never arrives.
What an eVisa actually is
An eVisa is not a document. There is nothing to print, nothing to laminate, nothing to keep in your passport.
It is an online record of your immigration status, held in your UKVI account. When you need to prove your status — to a landlord, an employer, a university, or a border officer — you either let them check the record digitally, or you generate a share code that gives them time-limited access to it.
Your status is linked to your passport, so keeping your passport details up to date in your UKVI account is not optional housekeeping. It is what makes the whole system work.
The timeline, briefly
- The eVisa system applies to all new visa applications made on or after 15 July 2025.
- The transition has been fully implemented since 1 June 2026.
Setting up and using your UKVI account
Your UKVI account is the single most important piece of admin in your UK student life, and it is worth five minutes of attention before you need it in a hurry.
A few things to get right:
- Create the account and log in before you travel. Discovering a login problem at an airport is the worst possible time to discover it.
- Keep your passport details current. If you renew your passport — and plenty of students do mid-degree — you must update the new passport in your UKVI account. A mismatch between the passport you are travelling on and the one linked to your status causes real problems.
- Keep your contact email and phone up to date. Account recovery depends on them.
- Do not rely on screenshots. A screenshot of your status is not proof of status. Share codes expire by design, and that is the point.
Share codes: when you will need one
You will be asked to prove your status more often than you expect. The common situations for a student are:
- Renting. Landlords and letting agents in England run right-to-rent checks.
- Part-time work. Employers must verify your right to work, including the hours your visa permits.
- Opening a bank account. Practice varies by bank, but many will ask.
- University enrolment and re-enrolment. Your sponsor has compliance duties and will check.
The mistakes that cause real problems
From what consistently goes wrong, these are worth avoiding:
1. Assuming a card is coming. It is not. If you are waiting for plastic to arrive before booking flights, you are waiting for nothing.
2. Travelling on a passport not linked to your account. This is the single most common cause of trouble at the border under the new system.
3. Never logging in until you need it. Access problems take time to resolve. Resolve them early.
4. Letting your contact details go stale. If you cannot receive the verification message, you cannot get into your account.
5. Confusing your visa decision letter with your status. The letter is useful, but your UKVI account is the authoritative record.
What has not changed
It is worth saying clearly: going digital does not change your visa conditions. Your work-hour limits, your course requirements, your sponsor obligations, and your permission dates are exactly what they were. Only the way you prove them has changed.
It also does not change the application process itself — you still apply, pay the fees and the health surcharge, and provide biometrics as required.
A note on timing
Immigration rules in this area move frequently. A Statement of Changes published in September 2026 brought in further measures affecting the Student route, with most taking effect from 8 October 2026, and not every change carries transitional protection.
The practical lesson is the same one that applies to everything in UK immigration: check the rules in force on the date you apply, not the guidance you read six months earlier.