Eligibility to Work in the UK

Introduction

Every employer has an obligation under the Immigration Act to ensure that checks are implemented to ascertain an individual's right to work in the United Kingdom prior to commencement of employment. These checks must be applied to all prospective employees, regardless of apparent race, origin or citizenship.

Useful links: these links will provide further information and guidance.

• employers’ ‘Right to Work Checklist’ to ensure you have correctly carried out all the steps you need to; or

• online interactive tool ‘Check if someone can work in the UK’, which will take employers through the process by asking a series of questions.

• latest government guidance June 2025.

These documents will help to confirm that the employer has undertaken each step correctly to establish your statutory excuse.

The Law

The law makes it a criminal offence for an employer to knowingly employ someone, aged 16 or over, who has no right to work in the UK, or no right to do the work the Company is offering. However, the law gives you a statutory defence against conviction for employing illegal workers if you have checked, copied and retained on file certain original documents belonging to the individual. 

The law also obliges you to ensure that your recruitment practices do not discriminate against individuals on racial grounds.

The Company may be liable to payment of an uncapped financial penalty if you are found to be employing illegal migrant workers, and you could be subject to up to 5 years imprisonment.

Procedure

The Company must conduct a right to work check before employing a person to ensure they are legally allowed to do the work in question. If an individual’s right to work is time limited, you must conduct a follow-up check shortly before it is due to come to an end.

There are 3 ways to check eligibility:

1. The Home Office Online Check. Best for: Visas, eVisas, or Settled Status holders.

• The Steps:

  1. The worker goes online and gives you a 9-digit "share code" and their date of birth.

  2. You type these details into the official GOV.UK employer portal.

  3. You look at the digital photo on your screen and confirm it matches the worker.

• Can you use video? Yes. You can verify their face matches the screen via a live video call.

2. The Certified IDSP Digital Check

Best for: British or Irish citizens with valid biometric passports.

• The Steps:

  1. You use an approved, certified third-party digital identity provider (IDSP).

  2. The worker uploads a photo of their passport and a selfie to the provider's app.

  3. The system checks the passport's security features and gives you a report.

  4. You manually verify that the person in the report is the same person starting work.

• Can you use video? Yes. You can verify their face matches the IDSP report via a live video call.

3. The Physical Manual Check

Best for: British or Irish citizens without a passport (using birth certificates), or anyone with rare physical Home Office documents.

• The Steps:

  1. The worker must hand you their real, original, physical documents.

  2. You must hold and inspect the physical documents to check for damage or forgery.

  3. You make a clear copy, sign and date it, and keep it securely on file.

• Can you use video? ❌ No. You cannot look at physical documents over a video call or accept scanned emailed copies. This check must be done in person.

Conducting a Manual Document-Based Right to Work Check

There are three steps to conducting a manual document-based right to work check. You need to complete all three steps before employment commences to ensure you have conducted a check in the prescribed manner, in order to establish a statutory excuse.

Step 1 – Obtain.

You must obtain original documents from either List A or List B of acceptable documents (for a list of current documents - as these can change - visit the government guidance: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/right-to-work-checks-employers-guide.

Step 2 - Check

You are required to satisfy yourself that the prospective employee is the rightful holder of the documents presented and must check that:

1. photographs and dates of birth are consistent across documents and with the person’s appearance in order to detect impersonation;

2. expiry dates for permission to be in the UK have not passed;

3. any work restrictions to determine if they are allowed to do the type of work on offer (for students who have limited permission to work during term-times, you must also obtain, copy and retain details of their academic term and vacation times covering the duration of their period of study in the UK for which they will be employed);

4. the documents are genuine, have not been tampered with and belong to the holder; and

5. the reasons for any difference in names across documents can be explained by providing evidence (e.g. original marriage certificate, divorce decree absolute, deed poll). These supporting documents must also be photocopied and a copy retained.

Step 3 – Copy

Finally, you must make a clear photocopy of each document in a format which cannot manually be altered and retain the copy securely either electronically or in hardcopy. You must also retain a secure record of the date on which you made the check. Simply writing a date on the copy document does not, in itself, confirm that this is the actual date when the check was undertaken. If you write a date on the copy document, you must also record that this is the date on which you conducted the check. The date may be written on the document copy as follows: ‘the date on which this right to work check was made;[Insert date]’.

You must copy and retain copies of:-

• Passports: any page with the document expiry date, the holder’s nationality, date of birth, signature, immigration permission, expiry date, biometric details, photograph and any page containing information indicating the holder has an entitlement to enter or remain in the UK (visa or entry stamp) and undertake the work in question (the front cover no longer has to be copied).

• All other documents: the document in full, including both sides of an Immigration Status Document and an Application Registration Card.

All copies of documents taken should be kept securely for the duration of the employees’ employment and for two years afterwards. The copy must then be securely destroyed.

The Home Office recommend using their:-

• employers’ ‘Right to Work Checklist’ to ensure you have correctly carried out all the steps you need to; or

• online interactive tool ‘Check if someone can work in the UK’, which will take employers through the process by asking a series of questions. Both will help to confirm that the employer has undertaken each step correctly to establish your statutory excuse.

Both will help you to confirm that you have undertaken each step correctly to establish your statutory excuse.

When to conduct follow up checks?

You need to recheck the right to work of those individuals who have time-limited permission to work in the UK if they are going to continue working for you after their current permission expires.

Where your employee has time-limited permission to work in the UK, a follow-up check should take place on, or before, the date their permission comes to an end. The follow-up check is designed to prevent people from overstaying their immigration leave where this is time limited. 

If an employee is unable to provide you will a share code to evidence that they have continuing permission to work, you should contact the Employers Checking Service, who can confirm the right to work of an individual who has an outstanding application..

A person’s application for further immigration permission to stay in the UK must be made before their existing permission expires for it to be deemed ‘in-time’. If they do this, any existing right to work will continue until that in-time application has been determined. In such circumstances, a Positive Verification Notice from the Employer Checking Service would demonstrate your statutory excuse for six months from the date of the Notice. If you receive a Negative Verification Notice in response to your verification request, you will no longer have a statutory excuse and you will be liable for a civil penalty if the person is not permitted to work in the UK. You may also be convicted of the offence of employing an illegal worker.