Setting up a UKVI account without a Smartphone

[Sylphid]

E-mail received from Home Office saying : ‘You need to replace your BRP with an eVisa now..
Please take the following steps now:
Create a UKVI account to access your eVisa, which will replace your BRP.
To create your UKVI account, you will need..

* Access to a smartphone

I do not have access to a smartphone, (although do have access to a tablet computer (iPad), and all of the other pre-requisites(Date of birth, BRP Number, Passport
,Access to an email address and phone number)

Therefore emailed the contact centre details given under ‘Any Questions’ https://www.gov.uk/guidance/online-immi ... atus-evisa , subsection ‘If you need help’

Reply was: ‘We understand that you have received important information regarding your Biometric Residence Permit (BRP) and changes to the UK immigration system and are not able to use the online route with a smartphone, so would like to know where you can go for help. Assisted Digital is a free service provided by UKVI to support customers in the UK who are digitally excluded to create a UKVI account. Details on how to contact these services is available on decision notification letters/emails, and on GOV.UK at: www.gov.uk/assisted-digital-help-online-applications.
You can get:phone support from an advisor, face to face support in person.
'We Are Group' will assess your eligibility and provide support. For further support, please contact:Email: visa@we-are-digital.co.uk
Text: 'VISA' and a number to call you on to 07537 416 944
Telephone: 03333 445 675

E-mailed visa@we-are-digital, but was referred back to the Home Office. Tried again, this time by phone to 03333 445 675

Was told would need to make a one hour appointment at a centre over sixty miles away, involving a two and three quarter hour journey.

Can it really be that setting up a UKVI account requires a smartphone, or a six and a half hour round trip?

Any constructive advice gratefully received.

[zxyzhgp]

What a smart phone does are first scan your document, second scan the smart chip in your doc and third take a photo of yourself

I do not think other electronics can do above three functions

BTW, you need a good smart phone. Some do not have scan smart chip function

[meself2]

By "scan chip" I assume NFC is meant.

I looked up online and it seems that iPads do not have NFC support, so you can't use it for the app. If you have any other device with NFC capabilities, it's worth a shot to use it, but I doubt that's the case.

I don't know how feasible it will be to borrow a friend's device, perform the procedure and then just log into your UKVI account on iPad - I'll leave it up to people who are more knowledgeable with the process.

[zxyzhgp]

The thing is in the future, we may need to carry our smart phone with UK immigration app to scan QR code at airport

So it is better to have it now

[meself2]

The thing is in the future, we may need to carry our smart phone with UK immigration app to scan QR code at airport

So it is better to have it now

True, but can you not log into a UKVI app on iPad after you've done the initial checks on a smartphone, so OP has some sort of a temporary solution?
Im not familiar with app per se, just know the technology usually used for this.

[zxyzhgp]

The thing is in the future, we may need to carry our smart phone with UK immigration app to scan QR code at airport

So it is better to have it now

True, but can you not log into a UKVI app on iPad after you've done the initial checks on a smartphone, so OP has some sort of a temporary solution?
Im not familiar with app per se, just know the technology usually used for this.

yes, once you successfully link your account with smart phone, the immigration data can be viewd online with ipad.
The evisa system is still beta and some of my friends have done the linking but the online system shows their previous visa status

[Sylphid]

Thanks for all the great advice. It may be possible for me to rent a Smartphone at an hourly rate. (i-phone 12, so should have iOS 14.1 or later, and NTC capability)

Any idea how long the actual process of setting up the UKVI account, using the phone might take?

(I have all the other requisite information to hand, but will not be familiar with the operation of the phone itself.)

Once the UKVI account is set up, I can use the iPAD to re-access it on future occasions, as people have said.

Thanks in anticipation.

[zxyzhgp]

it should be less than 5mins and you have 5 times per day for ID check

You need to download the UK immigration app first
Prepare a passport and brp both. (Just in case if passport not working you can use BRP. BRP better as its chip is up to date. In my case, passport not working even it has smart chip)

It takes time for the smart phone to sense the chip. The locations of sensor in phone are different

Also need to do it in a place with white background (You need to take photo yourself)

After linking, double check if the online data matches your current visa status