A British Columbia-based woman with settled status in the UK was blocked from boarding a flight home from Spain after the Home Office's digital eVisa system confused her immigration record with that of her identical twin sister. Nidia Webb, who has lived in the UK for eight years and was granted status under the post-Brexit EU settlement scheme, was left stranded as her plane departed without her, only resolving the error after hours on the phone to civil servants. The case highlights persistent problems with the Home Office's shift away from physical residence documents towards a digital-only eVisa system.

The Home Office apologised and said the fault had been fixed, but mistakenly sent confirmation of the correction to her twin's email address rather than her own, leaving Ms Webb unaware until she was cleared to board a replacement flight, which she paid for herself and has not yet been reimbursed for. Campaign group the3million said such mix-ups are a known and recurring issue, and in 2024 it emerged that over 76,000 people had had their details muddled on the Home Office's Person Centric Data Platform. A Home Office spokesman said more than 10 million people had used eVisas successfully and that most errors were resolved within 24 hours.