What a BRP is
You’ll get a biometric residence permit (BRP) if you:
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apply to come to the UK for longer than 6 months
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extend your visa to longer than 6 months
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apply to settle in the UK
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transfer your visa to a new passport
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apply for certain Home Office travel documents
You don’t have to apply separately for a BRP. You’ll get one automatically if your visa or immigration application is approved, or you’re replacing an older document.
What’s on your BRP
Your BRP will include:
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your name, date and place of birth
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your fingerprints and a photo of your face (this is your biometric information)
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your immigration status and any conditions of your stay
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whether you can access public funds, for example, benefits and health services
You may have a National Insurance (NI) number printed on the back of your BRP. Not all BRPs have this - it depends on factors like the date it was issued and your visa status.
Give your fingerprints and photo
You’ll be asked to provide your fingerprints and photo (‘biometric information’) as part of your visa or immigration application. You need to:
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have a digital photo taken of your face
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put your fingers on a glass screen to be scanned
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give your signature, or say why you can’t give it
The process takes less than 5 minutes and doesn’t involve any ink or mess. You won’t need to take off your head covering if you wear it for religious or medical reasons.
If you don’t have any fingers you only need to have a digital photo taken of your face. It will be noted on your records that you’re physically unable to provide fingerprints.
What children need to do
Children under 16 must be accompanied by a parent, guardian or someone over 18 who has legal responsibility for them.
Children don’t need to give their signature. They don’t need to give their fingerprints if they’re:
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under 6 and applying from inside the UK
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under 5 and applying from outside the UK
Where to provide your biometric information
Where you give your biometric information depends on how you’re making your visa or immigration application.
If you’re applying from within the UK, go to:
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a Post Office branch if you’re applying by post - check that the branch offers ‘Home Office biometric enrolment’
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a premium service centre if you’re applying in person
If you’re outside the UK, apply at a visa application centre.
Fee
You must pay £19.20 when you give your biometric information at a Post Office branch. Otherwise, the cost is included in your application fee.
Getting your BRP
How you get your biometric residence permit (BRP) depends on where you made your visa or immigration application.
If you applied from inside the UK
Your BRP will be sent to you by courier. You don’t need to collect it.
If you applied from outside the UK
Collect your BRP once you’re in the UK. You must do this before your vignette expires or within 10 days of arriving in the UK, whichever is later.
Check your decision letter. It will tell you to collect your BRP from either:
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a named Post Office branch your sponsor,
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if you chose this option when you applied
You must be over 18 to collect a BRP.
What you’ll need
Bring your passport or travel document with your vignette sticker in when you collect your BRP.
Collecting a child’s BRP
You must be nominated to collect a child’s BRP, even if you’re the child’s parent.
The Home Office will tell you within 5 working days if you’re approved to collect the child’s BRP.
Collecting your BRP from a different Post Office branch
You can choose to pick up your BRP from a different Post Office branch. You’ll need to arrange this at the branch and pay a fee.
If you can’t collect your BRP
You can nominate someone else to collect your BRP if you have a serious illness or disability that prevents you from collecting it.
The person you nominate must have one of the following:
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a passport
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an EU national identity card
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a BRP
You can get someone to make the nomination for you, for example, a legal representative, charity, employer, college or university.
You’ll be told within 5 working days if the person you nominate is approved to collect your BRP.
If you change your mind, you can still collect your BRP yourself or you can nominate a different person. You don’t need to cancel the original nomination.
If your BRP hasn't arrived
You can report online that your biometric residence permit (BRP) hasn’t arrived if:
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you’ve applied from inside the UK
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your ‘decision letter’ from the Home Office saying that you can remain in the UK arrived more than 10 days ago
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You’ll need the following information to report a missing BRP:
your full name, date of birth and nationality
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an email or postal address
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your decision letter
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You can get someone to report a missing BRP for you, for example, a legal representative, charity, employer, college or university.
The Home Office will email you within 5 working days to tell you what to do next. It’ll take longer if you don’t give an email address.
Report a problem with your new BRP
If there’s a problem with your BRP when it arrives, report it within 10 days. Otherwise, you may have to apply and pay for a replacement.
You can report online if your BRP doesn’t arrive.
Mistakes in the length or conditions of your visa
If you applied for your visa from inside the UK, you can ask for an administrative review.
Other problems with your BRP
You can report other problems with your BRP online, for example:
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there’s a mistake on it, for example, your name, gender or date of birth is wrong
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your BRP was damaged when it arrived
You’ll need to have the following:
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your BRP number
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your full name, date of birth and nationality as they appear on your BRP
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an email or postal address
You can get someone to report the problem for you, for example, a legal representative, a charity, employer, college or university.
The Home Office will email you within 5 working days to tell you what to do next. It’ll take longer if you don’t give an email address.
You can report your BRP lost or stolen from inside or outside the UK.
You can get someone to use the service for you, for example, a legal representative, a charity, employer, college or university.
Report a lost or stolen BRP
You need the following to report your BRP lost or stolen:
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your full name, date of birth and nationality
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an email or postal address
You won’t be able to use your BRP if you find it after you report it lost or stolen.
The Home Office will contact you within 1 working day.
Replace your BRP
You’ll need to replace your biometric residence permit (BRP) if it’s lost, stolen or damaged and it was valid for at least another 3 months.
How soon you must replace it depends on where it was lost or stolen.
You may also have to replace your BRP if your personal details have changed, for example, you’ve changed your name.
If your BRP was lost, stolen or damaged in the UK
You must apply for a replacement BRP within 3 months.
If your BRP was lost, stolen or damaged outside the UK
You can’t apply for a replacement BRP outside the UK.
You’ll need a ‘replacement BRP visa’ which lets you re-enter the UK once only - you must apply online in most countries. It costs £169.
You must apply for a replacement BRP within 1 month of your return to the UK.
Apply for a replacement BRP
Apply for a replacement BRP - it costs £56.
You can either:
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post it with the fee (the address is on the form)
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apply in person at a premium service centre - if you have a UK visa, leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain
Related FAQ's
Our speciality lies in the field of Immigration, Nationality and EU Law, so it means we always are dealing with this side of the law. We are able to support you in making a correct decision, avoid delays on your case, save money and time, not forgetting the stress of any doubts with your application.
There are many routes available to come to the UK, extend or switch, some of them do not allow extension or even switching. Knowing what is right can be a difficult task and this is why we are here. Simple task of not using the prescribed forms can mean your application is invalid, which means if you have no valid stay, you would have to return back and there is no appeal rights.
Our initial consultations are a chargeable service. We initially discuss the requirements of the application to ensure you meet the requirements and have the documentation required at hand for the submission. It gives you an opportunity to meet us and ask questions.
Each case will be checked thoroughly, everything will be cross referenced so guidelines are met and we will also add our legal document which would outline the Immigration Rules and how the client has satisfied the rules. We use documents that are used by Home Office case workers, so we know exactly what they would look for in your case.
The most important fact is that law constantly changes, policy guidelines and requirements are always changing, so it is best that you always use specialised services to support you. We never compromise our services, our fees remain very competitive but our expertise is at the very highest standard.
We place our clients first, so when you sign the customer care letter and we go through your case file, and we believe that the case would not be successful, we will terminate the agreement and return your documents. We will also provide alternative solutions with no added costs. We also have a cancellation period should you feel you want to withdraw your file.
Please note that all cases cannot be guaranteed as circumstances depends and whether you met guidelines, however the Home Office caseworker can still refuse cases on the balance of probabilities and other factors. Our job would be to prepare your case in the best possible way.
1) You contact us through e-mail or phone.
2) We take some basic information, we ask some relevant questions to understand the type of query and what type of support is required.
3) Your case then gets passed to a case worker.
4) Case Worker would contact you to set up an initial meeting.
5) You attend a consultation, an action plan is drawn up and we find out whether ICS Legal can support your case. A report would be sent where there is a requirement to outline what was discussed and what to do next.
6) You authorise us to be your legal representative by signing our customer care letter.
7) We will then start to request documents and information about your case this will build up your case pack.
8) We will then write our legal report and use Home Office caseworker’s documents to ensure everything has been checked and all requirement have been met.
9) Where possible we will go through every aspect of your case before case submission.
10) We will continue to update you throughout the case life cycle .