A mobile phone app designed to help EU nationals register to stay in the UK after Brexit does not work on iPhones, Home Office officials have admitted.
The app requires that a basic amount of information be entered including the applicant’s physical and email addresses, a scan of their passport, and a photograph. This information is then matched to the individual’s details maintained on file with HM Revenue & Customs and is intended to give the applicant an instant answer regarding the success of their application.
Officials conceded that a key function on the app – the chip reader – will not work on Apple devices, the phone brand used by more than half of the adult population in the UK. Instead one Home Office official suggested applicants borrow someone else’s phone to complete the registration. It is understood that the iPhone compatibility issue was known from the beginning.
Earlier, Home Secretary Amber Rudd had claimed the app would be easy for the 3 million EU nationals living in the UK to use, and that it had been extensively tested. Home Office officials now admit widespread testing of the app has not yet begun.
