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By the Mantlin team · Last reviewed 14 September 2026 · Sources GOV.UK and the official Home Office handbook
Draft, pending final review.
In short
Yes, for now, and there is a closing date. If you cannot get to your eVisa, GOV.UK lets you book and take the Life in the UK Test with a biometric residence permit or biometric residence card that has already expired. Two time limits apply and the earlier one is the one that counts. Your test must be no later than 24 months after the expiry date printed on the card, and it must be before 31 December 2026.
So this route closes at the end of 2026. If that card is the ID you were planning to use, book early rather than late. Your own deadline depends on the expiry date on your own card, and we cannot see that, so please double check the current rules on GOV.UK before you book. The test itself is not changing.
Check this on GOV.UK
The rule sits in the identification requirements for the test, published on GOV.UK. The wording is short. “If you are unable to access your eVisa, you may be able to use an expired biometric residence permit (BRP) or an expired biometric residence card (BRC). You must take your test no later than 24 months after the expiry date shown on the card, or until 31 December 2026, whichever is sooner.”
The main GOV.UK test page says the same thing in its list of accepted ID for booking. It gives the deadline as before 31 December 2026, whichever comes first.
This is for people whose BRP or BRC has expired and who cannot get to their eVisa. Those two things go together. If your eVisa is working, you use a share code from your UK Visas and Immigration account instead, and none of this affects you.
You still bring the original card with you on the day. A photo of it or a printout is not accepted, and the name on your booking has to match the name on the document.
There are two dates. Take whichever comes first. The first is 24 months after the expiry date printed on your card. The second is 31 December 2026. Your deadline is the earlier of the two.
Two worked examples, using the rule above.
Check the date printed on your own card and do that sum. Then confirm it against GOV.UK, because the rule is theirs and it can change.
There is one detail worth knowing if you go looking at the rules yourself. The two GOV.UK pages word the end date slightly differently. One says until 31 December 2026 and the other says before 31 December 2026. Read strictly, they do not quite agree about whether the last day itself counts.
You do not need to solve that. Just do not plan to sit your test in the last days of December 2026. GOV.UK also says you must book online at least 3 days in advance, so leaving it to the end removes the room you might need.
GOV.UK does not say what replaces this route, and we are not going to guess. What we can say is what is left on the accepted list. After the deadline an expired card is no longer an option for the test, and you would need one of these instead.
If none of those fits your situation, GOV.UK explains how to email the Home Office for help. That is worth doing early, not the week before a deadline.
It is easy to read a date like this and worry that the exam is being changed. It is not. This is a rule about which documents prove who you are. The test is still 24 questions in 45 minutes, you still need 18 correct to pass, which is 75 percent, and it still costs £50. You can read more in is the Life in the UK Test changing.
If you have an eVisa you can get to, use the share code and carry on as normal. If your BRP or BRC has expired and your eVisa is out of reach, find the expiry date on the card, work out the earlier of the two deadlines, and book your test with time to spare.
Then get ready for it. You can start free practice with no account needed, and read what you need to bring on the day so nothing is a surprise at the centre.
ID rules change, and the page you are reading has a date on it. Please check GOV.UK yourself before you book, especially if you are reading this a long time after it was written.
Ready to try it? Practise real style questions free, with no account needed to start.
Not affiliated with the Home Office or UK Government. This is an independent study tool and does not provide the official Life in the UK Test. The official test can only be booked and taken through GOV.UK.