Updated Home Office statistics released on 30 September show more than 10 million visa holders have now transitioned to an electronic visa (eVisa), while Electronic Travel Authorisations (ETAs) issued have exceeded 20 million. The milestone comes less than two years after the government stopped printing biometric residence permits for new entrants and started issuing digital status by default. Officials also published the first tranche of “error-correction” data, revealing that fewer than 0.4 % of digital records required manual amendment—evidence, they say, that the system is functioning reliably at scale. Most corrections related to name spellings and passport-number mismatches flagged when travellers checked in for flights. The Home Office insists the shift will save £275 million over ten years by eliminating document production and postage. Airlines and airports benefit too: Advance airline queries to the digital status database are clearing in under 200 milliseconds on average, shaving minutes off boarding times for long-haul departures. Nevertheless, law firms report an uptick in clients who struggle to generate share-codes, particularly older migrants accustomed to paper documents. The department has promised a multilingual helpline and a network of “eVisa support desks” at major UK airports before the February 2027 deadline when physical evidence ceases entirely.
