UK Visas & Immigration (UKVI) has announced the final piece of its digital immigration jigsaw: from 25 February 2026, every visitor who ordinarily needs a visa will receive only an electronic visa (eVisa). The update was released on 13 February via UKVI’s official X account and picked up by several international outlets, including Nigeria’s Vanguard.
Under the change, visa stickers and paper vignettes will disappear entirely. Approved applicants will instead log into a UKVI account, where their eVisa is stored digitally and linked to their passport chip. Airline agents will verify permission to travel through the same Advance Passenger Information (API) feed that already checks for ETAs and residence permits.
The government says eVisas will cut fraud, speed up entry processing, and pave the way for “contactless corridors” at airports such as Heathrow and Manchester. Recent Home Office pilots showed that average primary-control clearance times fell by 37%, while refusals for counterfeit visas dropped almost to zero.
