Right to Work Checks in the UK: Home Office Rules Employers Must Follow

Jurisdiction: This article covers UK Right to Work rules, which apply across England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Employment law and screening regulations vary by jurisdiction. Consult a qualified legal professional before making compliance decisions.

A Right to Work check is one of the few pre-employment checks UK law requires for every hire. Done as the Home Office prescribes, the check also gives employers a statutory excuse. That excuse protects the business from a civil penalty if a worker later turns out not to have the right to work.

The Home Office published its latest employer's guide on 1 October 2026, alongside an expanded scope that brings workers and individual sub-contractors into the scheme.

What is a Right to Work check, and who must do one?

A Right to Work check confirms that a person is allowed to do the work in question in the UK. Every employer must complete one before employment starts, for every worker, whatever their nationality.

Since 1 October 2026, the scheme covers people engaged as:

Employees on a contract of employment

Workers under a worker's contract

Individual sub-contractors

Service providers supplied through an online matching service, where the platform carries the duty

The employer can delegate the practical steps to staff, but the employer remains responsible for the result. Employers also ask every candidate to prove their right to work in the same way, and cannot insist on a particular method, which keeps the process fair and consistent.

How do the Home Office online checking service and share codes work?

The Home Office online service lets employers view a person's right to work in real time using a share code. The service is one of three prescribed ways to complete a check, and the only way for people whose status is held as an eVisa.

The three prescribed methods

Method

Who it suits

What the employer does

Home Office online check

People with an eVisa or other digital status, including EU Settlement Scheme holders

Enters the share code and date of birth, checks the photo, and saves the profile page

Digital check through a registered provider

Holders of valid British or Irish passports, among others

Uses a Right to Work digital verification service provider registered with the Office for Digital Identities and Attributes (OfDIA)

Manual document check

Anyone presenting acceptable original documents

Obtains, checks, and copies original documents from the Home Office lists

In summary, online checks are accepted by the Home Office and are required for eVisa holders, while manual and digital provider checks cover others.

How share codes work

A candidate generates a share code by choosing "Prove your right to work to an employer" in the Home Office service. The code has 9 characters, begins with W, and stays valid for 90 calendar days. Employers enter it with the candidate's date of birth, confirm the photograph matches the person, and save a copy of the profile page.

Viewing the candidate's own screen or a printout does not count as a check. The employer runs the check through the service itself.

Checking visa conditions

The check tells employers more than whether someone can work. Before employment begins, employers confirm:

The permission has not expired

Any restriction on the type of work or role

Any limit on hours, such as term-time limits for students

The photograph matches the person in front of them

Employment offered must stay within those conditions.

What counts as a statutory excuse?

A statutory excuse is the protection an employer gains by completing a prescribed Right to Work check before employment starts. If the worker is later found not to have the right to work, an employer with a valid statutory excuse is not liable for a civil penalty.

Continuous and time-limited excuses

The type of excuse depends on the worker's status:

Continuous statutory excuse: for people with an unlimited right to work, such as British and Irish citizens, it lasts for the whole of their employment

Time-limited statutory excuse: for people with temporary permission, it lasts until their permission expires, so a follow-up check is needed before then

Six-month excuse: where the Home Office Employer Checking Service issues a Positive Verification Notice, for example during an outstanding application or appeal, the excuse lasts six months from the notice

When a statutory excuse does not apply

The Home Office guide sets out three situations where an employer does not gain a statutory excuse:

Apparent impersonation: it is reasonably apparent that the person presenting a document is not the person named on it

Known lack of permission: the employer knows the person is not allowed to do the work

Known false documents: the employer knows the documents are false or do not belong to the holder

Where a false document was presented, and its falseness was not reasonably apparent, the employer is not liable for a civil penalty. Training staff to recognise genuine documents and impersonation keeps checks reliable, and strong workforce identity verification supports the same goal.

How do Right to Work checks work for BRP and EU Settlement Scheme holders?

Both groups now prove their right to work digitally. Biometric residence permits were replaced by eVisas, and EU Settlement Scheme status is held digitally, so the Home Office online check with a share code is the route for both.

BRP holders: the Home Office stopped issuing BRPs on 31 October 2024, and a manual check of an expired BRP is not acceptable proof of right to work. Ask for a share code instead.

EU Settlement Scheme holders: settled and pre-settled status holders need a check only before employment begins, with no follow-up check required.

Pending EUSS applications: a person with a valid pending application uses their Certificate of Application to generate a share code.

What happens if a Right to Work check is done incorrectly?

If a check was not carried out as prescribed and a worker is found to be working illegally, the employer has no statutory excuse. The employer may then face a civil penalty of up to £60,000 per illegal worker. The Home Office decides each penalty case by case.

The process is clear and structured:

Penalty amounts follow the Code of practice on preventing illegal working, which includes mitigating factors that can reduce the amount

An employer receives a Civil Penalty Notice and can object before any appeal to the court

A civil penalty can affect sponsor licences and some licences, such as private hire and alcohol licensing

Criminal sanctions apply only where an employer knows, or has reasonable cause to believe, that they are employing an illegal worker. For employers carrying out checks correctly and consistently, the statutory excuse is the safeguard the scheme is designed to provide.

What records must employers keep after a Right to Work check?

Employers keep a secure, dated copy of each Right to Work check for the length of employment and two years afterwards, then destroy it securely. The record has to show what was checked and when.

What to keep depends on the method:

Manual checks: a clear copy of each document, including passport pages with nationality, date of birth, photograph, and any permission, plus a dated record of the check

Online checks: a PDF or HTML copy of the profile page, which includes the photograph and date of the check

Digital provider checks: the provider's output and any facial comparison it supplied

Follow-up checks: the same records again for each follow-up

Employers should be able to produce these copies quickly if the Home Office asks to see them. Simply writing a date on a copy is not sufficient. The record must confirm that date as the day the check was carried out.

How does AI-powered verification support a compliant Right to Work process?

AI-powered verification supports Right to Work compliance by organising everything around the check: collecting candidate details, tracking follow-up dates, storing evidence, and keeping an audit trail. The Right to Work check itself always follows one of the three Home Office methods, and the employer remains responsible for it.

A well-run process includes:

A single mobile flow where candidates share a code or passport details

Automatic reminders before time-limited permission expires

Secure storage with retention set to employment plus two years

Clear roles for who carries out and reviews each check

TRACE, TraqCheck's AI background verification agent, runs the wider pre-employment checks in the same consent-to-report workflow: identity verification with liveness checks, employment and education verification, and criminal record checks, including across 190+ countries. Recruiters trigger checks from Greenhouse, Lever, Workday, or the API, and a human verification specialist reviews every result before the report reaches your team.

Running those checks alongside the Right to Work process keeps compliance and regulatory screening in one audit-ready record for compliance and risk teams.

Making Right to Work checks routine

Right to Work checks reward consistency. Use one of the three Home Office methods for every worker and complete the check before day one. Set follow-up dates for time-limited permission, and keep dated records for two years after employment ends. With the October 2026 guidance widening the scheme, now is a good time to confirm your process covers every type of engagement. To see how TRACE runs identity, employment, and criminal record checks alongside your Right to Work process, book a demo.

Frequently asked questions

What are the Home Office guidelines for checking a candidate's visa status?

Employers check right to work before employment starts using a manual document check, a Home Office online check with a share code, or a registered digital provider. Employers then confirm the permission has not expired, note any work or hours restrictions, and match the photograph to the person.

What is a statutory excuse under UK Right to Work law?

A statutory excuse is protection from a civil penalty that an employer gains by completing a prescribed Right to Work check before employment starts. The excuse can be continuous, time-limited until permission expires, or six months following a Positive Verification Notice.

What happens if a UK employer fails to carry out a Right to Work check correctly?

Without a statutory excuse, an employer may face a civil penalty of up to £60,000 per illegal worker, decided case by case with mitigating factors. Employers can object to a penalty notice before appealing.

What records must UK employers keep after a Right to Work check?

Employers keep a dated copy of the documents, online profile page, or provider output for the length of employment plus two years. The record must be produced on request and destroyed securely afterwards.

Are online Right to Work checks accepted by the Home Office?

Yes. The Home Office online check is one of three prescribed methods and gives employers a statutory excuse when done correctly. For people with an eVisa, it is the only accepted method.

How long is a Right to Work share code valid?

A share code is valid for 90 calendar days and can be used more than once within that time. Employers accept only codes beginning with W.