Outsourcing giant Serco announced this morning that it has secured a £63 million, five-year contract to operate a consolidated contact-centre platform for UK Visas & Immigration (UKVI), HM Passport Office (HMPO) and the Ministry of Justice. Going live in July 2026, the service will provide 24/7 multilingual support via phone, web-chat and SMS. The move is more than a simple tech refresh. It forms part of the Home Office’s wider push to create a “single front door” for immigration and passport enquiries in advance of the full e-Visa roll-out slated for late 2026. Serco’s bid emphasised AI-driven triage and “right-first-time” resolution to cut abandoned calls and reduce the number of cases that escalate to costly in-country appointments.
For mobility professionals the upgrade should—if delivered as promised—translate into faster responses on application-status updates, BRP errors and biometric-appointment rescheduling.
![Serco wins £63 million contract to modernise UKVI, HM Passport Office and MoJ contact centres]()
For organisations that prefer a human touch while these changes bed in, VisaHQ’s London team (https://www.visahq.com/united-kingdom/) can step in to handle e-Visa submissions, BRP corrections and passport renewals end-to-end, sparing HR teams from long call-centre queues and helping applicants get it right the first time.
UKVI’s own data show average call-waiting times ballooned to 22 minutes in Q4 2025; the target under the new contract is under five minutes. Serco will also handle outbound comms to applicants, including proactive SMS reminders that an e-Visa has been issued or that an ETA is about to expire. This should lessen the compliance risk of travellers arriving without proof of immigration status once physical vignette stickers are phased out. Employers should keep an eye out for revised service-level agreements (SLAs) and potentially new premium-rate numbers. In the meantime, the existing paid-email service remains in place until migration to the new platform is completed early next year.
For mobility professionals the upgrade should—if delivered as promised—translate into faster responses on application-status updates, BRP errors and biometric-appointment rescheduling.
For organisations that prefer a human touch while these changes bed in, VisaHQ’s London team (https://www.visahq.com/united-kingdom/) can step in to handle e-Visa submissions, BRP corrections and passport renewals end-to-end, sparing HR teams from long call-centre queues and helping applicants get it right the first time.
UKVI’s own data show average call-waiting times ballooned to 22 minutes in Q4 2025; the target under the new contract is under five minutes. Serco will also handle outbound comms to applicants, including proactive SMS reminders that an e-Visa has been issued or that an ETA is about to expire. This should lessen the compliance risk of travellers arriving without proof of immigration status once physical vignette stickers are phased out. Employers should keep an eye out for revised service-level agreements (SLAs) and potentially new premium-rate numbers. In the meantime, the existing paid-email service remains in place until migration to the new platform is completed early next year.
