Nidia Webb, a woman who has been legally settled in the United Kingdom for eight years, found herself unable to board a flight home from Spain after the Home Office’s electronic visa (eVisa) system incorrectly associated her settled status with that of her identical twin sister. According to Webb, she was informed at the departure gate that her digital settled status had become linked to her sister’s details rather than her own, meaning the system could not match her identity to her immigration record. She said she was told the problem was a “known issue” affecting some twins within the Home Office system. Webb recounted that Home Office staff assured her over the telephone that the error would be corrected, but the confirmation email was mistakenly sent to her sister instead of to her. She only learned that the issue had been resolved when she was finally allowed to board her flight home. Webb noted that, had she not spent hours on the phone trying to resolve the matter, she could not say how long she might have remained stranded abroad. A Home Office spokesperson responded that more than 10 million people have already successfully used eVisas to prove their immigration status, and that the department remains committed to data accuracy and ensuring that safeguards are accessible to anyone relying on the digital system. The spokesperson added that, in the rare cases where errors are identified, most are resolved within 24 hours, and that the specific problem Webb experienced had since been fixed, with staff pledging to contact her directly. Concerns about the eVisa rollout extend beyond isolated incidents. In July 2025, the Guardian reported that up to 200,000 people who had lived in the UK legally for decades risked being caught up in a Windrush‑style scandal because the Home Office was unable to reach them to transfer their old immigration documents onto the new digital platform. Monique Hawkins, acting chief executive of the immigration campaign group the3million, said her organisation had seen previous cases similar to Webb’s, emphasizing that such errors reveal vulnerabilities in the system. Hawkins stressed that it is “crucial that people have a genuinely stable means by which to prove their status.” She also told Politico that the eVisa rollout had been “rushed,” noting that travelers frequently face denied boarding and compensation disputes as carriers and the Home Office shift responsibility between each other.
