The UK Has Stopped Putting Visa Stickers in Passports: What Travellers Get Instead

Successful applicants for a UK visa no longer receive a sticker in their passport. Since 1 July 2026, UK Visas and Immigration has stopped issuing vignettes to new applicants. Their permission now exists only in digital form, as an eVisa.

What an eVisa is
An eVisa is an online record of a person's immigration status. Instead of a sticker that border staff and airlines can see on a passport page, the visa is held in a UK Visas and Immigration account, and the holder proves their status through that account.

Nothing is printed. The passport itself carries no evidence of the visa.

What travellers need to do
Keep the account up to date. The eVisa is linked to the passport details recorded in the account, so a new passport has to be added before travel. If the details do not match, the airline and the border may not be able to confirm the permission.

Some applicants also need to collect a paper document, the Form for Accompanying an eVisa, before travelling. Travellers in this group who arrive at the airport without it can expect difficulty boarding.

Where this catches people
At check-in, abroad. Airline staff used to look for the sticker. Now they check the status digitally, and a passport that has been renewed without updating the account looks, to them, like a passenger with no visa.

An eVisa is not an ETA
The two are easily confused, because both are digital and both are issued by the Home Office.

An eVisa is a visa: the permission given to someone who has applied for and been granted a UK visa, from visitors who need one through to workers, students and family members.

An ETA, the Electronic Travel Authorisation, is the separate permission that nationals who do not need a visa must hold before they travel to the UK.

A traveller needs one or the other depending on nationality, not both. Getting the wrong one, or assuming neither applies, ends at the check-in desk.

What to do
If you hold a UK eVisa, check that your current passport is linked to your account before every trip. If you were told to collect a Form for Accompanying an eVisa, collect it before you travel. If you do not need a visa, check whether you need an ETA instead.

Verified against GOV.UK updates on the move to eVisas, checked 1 October 2026.