Shortly after the Home Office revealed that border authorities would continue to process travellers with out-of-date BRP cards, GDS announces the documents can also be used for online government services

Government’s GOV.UK ID Check app has enabled users to verify their identity via expired biometric immigration documents.

The expansion of verification routes – which encompasses expired Biometric Residence  Permits and Cards (BRPs and BRCs), as well as Frontier Worker permits (FWPs) – comes shortly after government announced that some expired immigration documents could continue to be used for travel in an out of the UK for the early months of 2025.

All physical BRC or BRP cards are due to expire at the end of this year, with current holders asked to register instead for a digital eVisa. But, as the 31 December deadline drew closer – and with the likelihood of many holders travelling abroad to visit family over Christmas – government instructed airlines and other travel providers to continue accepting expired biometric documents as proof of the holder’s right to travel in and out of the country until the end of March, at least.

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For the purposes of accessing government services, expired BRC and BRP cards have an even bigger window of usage, with government’s formal identity verification app accepting the documents for more than a year after they go out of date.

The online guidance for the app was updated this week: “You can now use an expired BRP, BRC or FWP to prove your identity with the GOV.UK ID Check app, as long as it expired less than 18 months ago.”

With many such documents expiring at the end of this month, the new allowances could potentially enable the otherwise defunct cards to be used as a means of accessing online government services until mid-2026.

This expansion of service was the second update made to the guidelines this month, with an amendment posted last week indicating that the app – which is operated by the Government Digital Service – was also now open for those using a wider range of software systems.

The document was “updated to clarify that the GOV.UK Check ID app works on phones that have Firefox as their default web browser”, the guidance says.