UKVI Account: How to Create, Recover and Update It

You need a UKVI account to access your eVisa, the digital record of your identity and immigration status. It is how you view the eVisa, get a share code to prove your status, and keep your personal and passport details up to date. You do not have to pay to set one up or to access your eVisa. Our eVisa guide explains what the record shows, and the right to work share code guide covers using it for a job. More guides are in our immigration section.

If your partner and children are joining you in the UK as dependants, they need their own UKVI accounts to access their own eVisas.

You will already have a UKVI account if you have ever:

• ✓Yes: used the ‘UK Immigration: ID Check’ app to confirm your identity when applying for a visa
• ✓Yes: created an account when applying for a visa, in which case you received a UKVI account confirmation email
• ✓Yes: replaced a physical immigration document, such as a biometric residence permit or card, with an eVisa
• ✓Yes: applied to the EU Settlement Scheme

If you already have an account you should not create another. If you are not sure, try to sign in to view your eVisa.

You need a phone number and an email address that you can use each time you sign in. You also need one of these, if you have them:

• ✓Yes: a valid passport and your visa application number, which is a global web form number or a unique application number
• ✓Yes: a valid passport and your biometric residence permit number
• ✓Yes: your expired biometric residence permit, which you can use for 24 months after the expiry date printed on the card or until 31 December 2026, whichever comes first

You can recover your UKVI account if you cannot sign in because you lost access to your phone or changed your email address. You can also chat to UKVI on webchat if you have other questions about your account or your eVisa, and GOV.UK has support videos.

If you can sign in but cannot view your eVisa, check you finished setting up the account and linked it. If it still does not show, or shows the wrong details, you report an error with your eVisa instead. That is covered below.

Update your account when you change your passport or travel document, name, mobile phone number, email address, home address or postal address. You can also correct your date of birth, add or change a nationality, add another passport or travel document, and change your photo if you can no longer be recognised from it. A new photo has to meet the rules for digital photos or it is rejected.

You cannot change your name, or your passport or travel document, while you are waiting for a visa application decision. If you are updating your name, date of birth or nationality you need an identity document that proves it has changed. You can only update account details this way. You cannot change immigration details such as a visa or a citizenship application.

If you are outside the UK, what you can update yourself depends on your passport. With a biometric passport you can update your account if your passport details, name or nationality have changed. Without one you can update only your passport number and expiry date. For any other change to your personal details you ask UKVI to update the account for you, and you may need to give your fingerprints and photo at a visa application centre.

Report an error if your eVisa details are wrong, for example the wrong date of birth or immigration status, if you can view it but cannot use it to get a share code, if you cannot view it because of a technical error, or if the Home Office set up your account and you have never been able to sign in. UKVI aims to fix most issues within 5 working days, and up to 15 working days if the issue is complex. You can ask someone else to report it for you. The eVisa guide lists what you will be asked for.

You can help someone else create their UKVI account, for example someone who cannot use the internet. You can manage the account on their behalf if they are your child or you have power of attorney. Use your own phone number and email address when you create it, so you can use them to sign in.

When the person becomes able to manage their own account, or a child reaches 18, update the account with their own phone number and email address so they can sign in. If you have access to an account only because you helped someone apply for a visa, you cannot update it for them. They need to update their own details. Our guide to proving your immigration status explains what they can do with the account once it works.