UK community worker flying home from US ‘questioned for over an hour’ after eVisa refusal
UK community worker flying home from US ‘questioned for over an hour’ after eVisa refusal
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Marzena Zukowska’s ordeal at Chicago O’Hare airport is the latest in a series of issues facing foreign nationals using their eVisas while travelling back to the UK. A community organiser says they feared they would miss their flight home from Chicago when airline staff challenged them over their eVisa for more than an hour.
![[Marzena (pictured) had to speak to airline staff for over an hour, trying to prove that they could use their eVisa to fly to the UK]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/29/08/IMG_0256.jpg)
Marzena Zukowska’s ordeal at Chicago O’Hare airport is the latest in a series of worrying episodes involving foreign nationals resident in the UK using visas after the switch to a digital system at the start of this year. Holders no longer have physical immigration documents to show airline staff. Instead, they are dependent on carriers digitally verifying their immigration status.
Marzena, 35, told The Independent that Tap Portugal staff in Chicago insisted on seeing physical proof of their visa status - and when they could not get it, asked they apply for a visitor’s visa, despite Marzena living in Liverpool as a settled UK resident.
Marzena, who has dual Polish and US nationality and is non-binary, said they remained locked in discussions with staff for more than an hour, and feared they would miss their flight back to Manchester and a booked appointment for egg-freezing treatment.
Have you been impacted by the change to eVisas? Contact Holly Bancroft by emailing holly.bancroft@independent.co.uk. They told The Independent: “I turn up at the Tap Portugal desk, I give them my Polish passport. The person at the desk and her manager were looking at the computer, and said ‘we need to see proof of your visa to the UK’. I told them that I have settled status, and that it is digital only.”.
