Status & documents

Your status is the key that opens everything else — work, renting, healthcare, benefits. This page covers proving it, keeping it, and the documents around it. The full plain-English explainer of settled and pre-settled status, including the 2025–26 automation changes, is on Your rights.

Proving your status: eVisas and share codes

EUSS status is digital only. You prove it by signing in to your UKVI account and generating a share code for the person who needs to check it — an employer, a landlord, a bank. Codes are free and take a minute to make.

• View and prove your immigration status (GOV.UK)
• Update your UKVI account details (GOV.UK) — keep your email and passport details current; it is how the Home Office reaches you, including about automatic upgrades.

Gotcha: nobody may demand a "physical permit" from you — for EUSS holders it does not exist. If an employer or landlord refuses a valid share code, that is their error, and it is one of the most common problems we map: see refused a job or refused a tenancy.

Late applications

The main EUSS deadline was 30 June 2021, but late applications are still accepted where there are reasonable grounds. If you, a family member, or a child never applied, it is not necessarily too late — but get help rather than guessing.

• EU Settlement Scheme (GOV.UK)
• Settled — free, regulated (IAA Level 3) advice on late applications and refusals, in many languages.

Passports and national ID cards

Renewing your passport or ID card is your own country's job, done through its embassy or consulate in the UK. Book early — waits of weeks or months are normal. Our embassy directory lists every EU, EEA and Swiss mission in London with address, phone and website. Since October 2021 most EU national ID cards are no longer accepted at the UK border — travel on your passport unless you hold EUSS status or another exemption; check the current rules on GOV.UK.

British citizenship

Settled status (or indefinite leave) is normally the step before naturalising as a British citizen. Citizenship has its own requirements — residence, the Life in the UK test, an English qualification, and a significant fee — and its own risks and benefits, including for your current nationality (some EU countries restrict dual citizenship; ask your embassy).

• Becoming a British citizen (GOV.UK)
• Find a regulated immigration adviser — worth it for anything beyond a straightforward application.

Last reviewed: July 2026.