Right to work checks: what must employers do?

If an employer asks you for proof of your right to work, you can choose any check method available for your status and evidence. You do not have to produce a passport if another accepted document works. Before your next shift, save the request and any refusal, then send a short message asking what evidence they will accept and when they will decide. Employers must check before work starts; they must not single you out because of your name, accent, skin colour or perceived nationality.

Who you must check

The right to work scheme applies across the UK. Its legal basis is sections 15 to 25 of the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006. Section 48 of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 expanded it on 1 October 2026.

A prescribed check gives you a statutory excuse, a defence against a civil penalty if the person is working illegally. Required follow-ups preserve it. It cannot protect knowing illegal employment or authorise prohibited work. A missing check does not itself trigger a civil penalty if the person is working lawfully.

The main arrangements are:

• Employees. The employer checks, including apprentices and fixed-term staff. The civil penalty scheme covers employment starting on or after 29 February 2008.
• Worker’s contracts. These include arrangements to do work personally where the engager is not a client or customer of the individual’s own business. Casual and zero-hours work can qualify. In standard agency supply for a hirer’s own operations, the employment business checks; the hirer need not routinely duplicate it.
• Individual subcontractors. If you contract with an individual to help deliver work you have contracted to provide to someone else, you may be their employer for this scheme and must check them.
• Online matching services. Services that register providers, match them online with clients and charge a fee or commission can be responsible for checks. Separate extended-liability rules can apply where a matched business sends its own workers.

Independent businesses supplying services directly to customers can fall outside the scheme. The Home Office’s example is a self-employed plumber repairing a homeowner’s tap. A personal service company is not a blanket exemption. Work done wholly overseas and genuine volunteers without a contractual work obligation are outside; unpaid “voluntary workers” with contractual duties can be within it.

An employment-status label or IR35 assessment does not settle this question. See employee, worker and self-employed status and employment contract types for the related, but not identical, employment-law tests.

Supply chains and substitutes

New section 15A creates extended liability in specified contractual chains, platform arrangements and contracts permitting substitution. Buying cleaning services for your own shop differs from subcontracting work you have promised to deliver to a third party. Not every purchaser is liable for its suppliers’ staff.

Where extended liability applies, put a written statement and required contractual terms in place before work starts. Include prescribed checks, written consent for further subcontracting, equivalent obligations down the chain, audit rights, enforcement provisions and cooperation with Home Office investigations. Keep evidence the controls work. An upstream business need not repeat every check, but must take reasonable steps to verify assurances and identity-control systems it relies on.

If a courier’s contract permits substitution, secure a prescribed check on each substitute before their first delivery. Do not delegate responsibility to the courier. Maintain proportionate identity verification. The employer’s guide recommends re-verification at least once per 24-hour period or shift; the statutory code uses firmer wording for interval-based checks. Use daily or shift checks as the working standard and get advice on alternatives.

How to do a compliant check

Use one prescribed method available for the person’s status and evidence, respecting their choice. An eVisa normally requires the Home Office online service. For technical failures, use the Employer Checking Service where applicable.

1. Finish before day one. Make the offer conditional on a satisfactory check. No shift or working trial while verification is pending. A late initial check does not establish the pre-start statutory excuse.
2. Check evidence and identity. For a manual check, hold originals while meeting the person in person or by live video. Copy the required pages and documents. Online, enter the W share code and date of birth at the employer’s GOV.UK service, using your business’s correct full name. Compare the profile photograph with the person and read the work restrictions.
3. Use a registered provider correctly. A right to work digital verification service provider, or RtW DVSP, must be on the Office for Digital Identities and Attributes register and permitted to perform the service. Keep the prescribed output, including identity verification and registration details. A screening intermediary must identify the registered provider it uses.
4. Record and retain. For manual copies, write “The date on which this right to work check was made: [date]”, or keep a separate contemporaneous record with that information. A date alone is insufficient. Save the online profile with its photo and check date, or the required provider report. Diary any follow-up.

Which documents count

The Home Office employer’s guide, Annex A lists acceptable manual evidence. List A gives a continuous excuse. List B gives a time-limited one. A National Insurance number alone proves neither nationality nor permission to work.

List A: continuous excuse, no follow-up

You can accept a British passport, Irish passport or Irish passport card, current or expired, provided it has not been cancelled. Other List A evidence includes a current passport showing indefinite leave, right of abode or exemption from immigration control; a current Immigration Status Document showing indefinite leave plus official National Insurance evidence; a UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man or Irish birth or adoption certificate plus National Insurance evidence; or a British registration or naturalisation certificate plus National Insurance evidence. The National Insurance document must show the person’s name and permanent number and come from a government agency or previous employer. Crown Dependency EUSS-equivalent unlimited-leave documents require Employer Checking Service verification.

List B: time-limited excuse, follow-up required

Group 1 gives an excuse until permission expires. It includes a current passport endorsed with permission for the work, a current Immigration Status Document with a photograph and valid work-permission endorsement plus National Insurance evidence, and ECS-verified Crown Dependency limited-leave evidence.

Group 2 gives a six-month excuse. Listed EUSS application evidence and an Application Registration Card permitting the work must be accompanied by a Positive Verification Notice from the Employer Checking Service. A Positive Verification Notice confirming the right to do the job can also be accepted on its own. Keep the supporting documents where required and recheck before the excuse expires.

These are common traps:

• Share codes. At Prove your right to work, the worker generates a nine-character code starting W, valid for 90 calendar days. Reject R or S codes, which serve other purposes. Ask for a new W code if necessary. The code’s validity is not the length of immigration permission.
• Biometric residence permits. BRP issuance ended on 31 October 2024. An expired BRP is not acceptable manual proof. Check the eVisa online.
• Scans and screenshots. Manual checks require originals, except permitted official digital National Insurance evidence paired with the required document. A worker’s own immigration-profile screenshot is not an employer-side online check.
• Expired and cancelled passports. Manual checks accept expired British or Irish passports and Irish passport cards. The passport-based DVSP route accepts them only up to six months after expiry, with chip verification, if the provider offers it. Clipped or cancelled passports are unacceptable. Providers may also verify listed documents available digitally from their issuing authority.

Timing, follow-ups and records

For a normal new engagement, finish the check before work starts. The limited extensions below do not give new starters a waiting period.

• Student restrictions. Some international students may work 10 or 20 hours a week in term time; others cannot work. Follow the actual permission and keep education-provider term and vacation dates. The week runs Monday to Sunday. Other job restrictions can apply even outside term time.
• Supplementary employment. Eligible sponsored workers’ extra work must total no more than 20 hours weekly across all extra employers, outside sponsored hours. Route, occupation and transitional rules also matter. Obtain evidence of the sponsored job and hours. See visa sponsorship duties.
• Time-limited cases. Recheck by permission or excuse expiry, as applicable. A Positive Verification Notice normally gives six months; an online check for a pending in-time application can also give six months. You may use a different prescribed method for the follow-up.
• EUSS exceptions. British and Irish citizens, people with settlement, and holders of settled or pre-settled EUSS status need no routine follow-up after a correct initial check. Pending EUSS applicants are different. There is no retrospective-check requirement simply because an EEA or Swiss citizen hired before 1 July 2021 remains with the same employer.
• The 28-day window. After a prescribed manual or online initial check, if you are reasonably satisfied at expiry that an in-time application or associated appeal or review is pending, the excuse can continue for up to 28 calendar days to obtain an online check or Positive Verification Notice. Certain long-term lawful residents are also covered. This does not grant immigration permission. A Negative Verification Notice ends the window on notification.
• Business transfers. In a relevant TUPE transfer, you inherit the outgoing employer’s checks and defects. You have 60 calendar days from transfer for fresh checks, with no extension for subsequent follow-ups. Where a worker’s contract for services does not transfer and you enter a new covered arrangement, check before it begins.
• Records. Keep evidence securely for the engagement plus two years, then destroy it securely. Make it promptly retrievable for the Home Office.

If you get it wrong

Civil penalties rose on 13 February 2024. They apply per illegal worker, not according to your business’s headcount, and there is no aggregate cap. The civil penalty scheme concerns people aged 16 or over who are disqualified from doing the work by their immigration status.

To qualify for the self-report reduction, obtain a Unique Reference Number before the Home Office identifies the worker. On a first breach, both mitigating factors plus effective checking practices can produce a Warning Notice instead of a fine. It counts towards repeat breaches for three years. Eligible Faster Payment requires payment in full within 21 days, not instalments.

Use the objection deadline in the penalty notice and take advice promptly. There are 28-day objection and appeal limits. Ordinarily you must object before appealing to the County Court in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, or the Sheriff Court in Scotland. Revised notices and unanswered objections can affect deadlines; do not calculate yours from this guide alone.

Other consequences can include business closure, compliance orders, director disqualification, sponsor-licence loss, seizure of earnings and public naming. Licensing consequences exist in affected sectors. The employer’s guide describes the 2016 Act’s licensing powers in England and Wales; do not assume identical provisions elsewhere.

A worker, including a self-employed person, can commit an offence if they know or have reasonable cause to believe they are disqualified from the work. The maximum is six months’ imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine in England and Wales; Scotland and Northern Ireland cap the fine at the statutory maximum. Earnings may be seized.

How to check without discriminating

Follow the Home Office’s discrimination code, in force from 1 October 2026. Right to work obligations do not excuse race discrimination. Claims can arise before anyone is hired, and compensation is uncapped. Great Britain uses the Equality Act 2010 and Employment Tribunals; Northern Ireland uses the Race Relations (Northern Ireland) Order 1997 and Industrial Tribunals.

You can build fair checks into ordinary recruitment:

• Choose a consistent stage. Check every applicant being considered there, including British citizens. Do not single people out because of surname, accent, skin colour or perceived nationality.
• Accept prescribed alternatives. Do not demand a passport where a birth certificate and National Insurance evidence suffice. Do not insist on a commercial digital check or reject an eVisa because you prefer paper. Fair treatment does not mean identical documents.
• Handle expiry fairly. An in-time application can preserve leave and work rights under section 3C. Allow reasonable opportunity to prove continuing permission and take advice before dismissal. Do not disadvantage someone solely because lawful permission is time-limited.
• Help resolve proof problems. Use the Employer Checking Service where applicable and tell the person you are doing so. It aims to respond within five working days of a valid request, not five calendar days.
• Train decision-makers. Interviewers and managers must follow your policy. Record resolved anomalies and offer alternatives when digital identity checks fail. See our Equality Act guide and bringing a tribunal claim.

If you have been refused work or treated differently, contact your union: UNISON for care or health, Unite for hospitality or cleaning, USDAW for retail, or GMB or IWGB for warehouse and delivery work. Ask Acas about early conciliation promptly; it is the required first step before most tribunal claims. Citizens Advice or a local law centre can help if you have no union. Ask the Equality and Human Rights Commission for advice about race discrimination. Write down the shift, what was asked, what you supplied and the response. Keep it somewhere your employer cannot access.

Recent changes and scheduled reforms

1. 13 Feb 2024Higher penalties took effect

   Maximum civil penalties became £45,000 per illegal worker for a first breach and £60,000 for a repeat breach.

2. 31 Oct 2024BRP issuance ended

   The Home Office stopped issuing biometric residence permits as it moved to eVisas. Expired BRPs are not acceptable manual right to work evidence.

3. 1 Oct 2026The expanded scheme took effect

   Worker’s contracts, individual subcontracting and specified platform arrangements came into scope, with extended-liability rules and updated Home Office codes and guidance.

4. 1 Jan 2027Wider unfair-dismissal rights are scheduled

   The government’s timetable plans a six-month qualifying period instead of two years and removal of the compensatory cap for dismissals from this date in Great Britain. These are future changes, subject to parliamentary processes, not rights already in force on 1 October 2026.

The government’s employment-rights timetable records the increase in Great Britain’s Employment Tribunal claim time limit from three to six months on 1 October 2026. Do not assume this changes Northern Ireland’s deadlines. Discrimination protection does not depend on completing the unfair-dismissal qualifying period.

Do the rules work?

The laws aim to deter illegal working and exploitation, and penalise businesses using unlawful labour. But a check cannot tell you whether someone is paid properly or treated safely. Immigration compliance does not replace employment rights.

Small employers must learn unfamiliar documents and restrictions. Lawful workers with difficult-to-prove status can lose opportunities, and selective screening can become racial exclusion. Conversely, a sophisticated forgery does not automatically defeat a manual-check excuse: the Home Office asks whether its falsity was reasonably apparent.

Check everyone at the same stage. Do not demand the same documents from everyone.

We judge the system by whether it deters unlawful employment without excluding lawful workers. For you, that means prescribed checks, valid alternatives and Home Office verification when needed. None gives blanket immunity from discrimination claims. For workers, being asked for proof is normal; being singled out because of race or nationality is not.

The right-to-work system fines employers heavily, but a check does not protect your pay, safety or right to complain. Employers benefit when a tied visa makes workers afraid to challenge wage theft or unsafe conditions. That is our verdict on the system, not a rule of immigration law. Your practical first move is to keep the evidence and get independent advice before the next shift.