Certificate of Application and Right to Work

A certificate of application right to work check starts with one fact: your candidate has a valid application in with the EU Settlement Scheme and it is not yet decided. They have the right to work while it is pending — but how you evidence that, and whether you end up on a six-month follow-up cycle, depends entirely on whether the CoA is digital or non-digital. Most are digital now, and for those you do not need to contact the Employer Checking Service at all.

Getting this wrong in either direction is costly: contacting the ECS unnecessarily delays onboarding, and skipping it where it was needed leaves you without a statutory excuse.

This guide is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For advice on your specific situation, consult a qualified immigration solicitor.

Certificate of application right to work basics: what it is

The employer's guide to right to work checks defines it as:

"a digital, or non-digital document which individuals can rely on to demonstrate their eligibility to work, rent, and access benefits and services. This document is issued when a valid application is made to the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS)."

The underlying right does not come from the certificate itself. EEA citizens and their family members who have made a valid EUSS application have temporary protection of rights under the Withdrawal Agreement, the EEA EFTA Separation Agreement or the Swiss Citizens' Rights Agreement, "which gives them a right to work until their application is finally determined" — including while any administrative review or appeal against a refusal is pending.

The guide also states plainly that employers "should not treat those with an outstanding, valid application less favourably". A pending application is not a reason to delay a start date or withdraw an offer.

Step one: is it digital or non-digital?

This is the fork in the road, because the guide treats the two kinds differently: a digital CoA goes through the online service, and a non-digital one is on its list of cases where you must contact the ECS.

Digital CoA — most cases. Ask the individual for a share code and run the check through the Home Office online service. The guide is direct about it: "A CoA is digital evidence that an individual has made a valid application to the EUSS and should be used by the worker to generate a share code to evidence their right to work until their application (and any appeal or administrative review) is finally determined. In these circumstances, there will be no need for the employer to contact the ECS."

A lot of guidance has not caught up with this. If your internal process still routes every CoA to the Employer Checking Service, it is adding days to onboarding for no compliance benefit.

Non-digital CoA. Being presented with "a non-digital Certificate of Application confirming receipt of an application to the EUSS on or after 1 July 2021" is one of the cases in which the guide says an employer must contact the ECS. (For an application made on or before 30 June 2021, the same applies to a non-digital CoA or an acknowledgement letter or email.) If the individual can give you a share code, run the online check instead; the Code of practice sends you to the ECS where the individual is "unable to provide the employer with a share code to carry out an online check".

Where you do go via the ECS, the guide says the employer "must request verification of right to work from the ECS and have been issued with a Positive Verification Notice (PVN) confirming that the named individual is allowed to carry out the type of work in question; enabling them to hire or extend the individual's contract for 6 months from the date specified in the PVN". Copy and retain the non-digital CoA together with the PVN: the pair is the List B Group 2 document.

The six-month clock

The guide's List B Group 2 includes "a Certificate of Application (non-digital) issued by the Home Office showing that the holder has made an application for leave to enter or remain under Appendix EU to the immigration rules (known as the EU Settlement Scheme or EUSS), on or after 1 July 2021, together with a Positive Verification Notice from the ECS". That places the non-digital CoA + PVN route in the group headed "Acceptable where a time-limited statutory excuse lasts for six months", where a further check is required to keep the excuse. (The digital route above is an online check; its follow-up date comes from the online service, not a six-month PVN clock.)

The Code of practice is unambiguous about timing: "The individual's time-limited statutory excuse will last for six months from the date specified in the PVN. The employer will then need to make a further check before it is due to expire." Not on the expiry date, and not once someone notices. Each new PVN resets the clock, and the cycle repeats until the application is finally determined.

This is the single most common way employers lose an excuse they legitimately had. The initial check is done properly, the PVN arrives, and then six months pass with nobody holding the date. The follow-up checks guide covers what a compliant follow-up looks like.

ECS timing, when you do need it

Two things matter if the ECS route applies.

Allow a week. "The ECS aims to provide a response within five working days of receiving a valid request."

Tell the person. "It is the employer's responsibility to inform the individual they intend to employ, or continue employing, that they are carrying out this check on them."

Our Employer Checking Service guide walks the request process, and the Positive Verification Notice guide covers what the notice does and does not give you.

When the application is finally decided

Two outcomes, two different actions.

Status granted. The employee will have settled or pre-settled status, and the CoA route ends. You need a fresh right to work check against the granted status to establish the excuse going forward — a solicitor's letter or a copy of a decision does not substitute for a prescribed check. Settled and pre-settled status have their own follow-up position, which we cover in right to work checks for EU employees.

Refused, with appeal rights exhausted. The temporary protection ends. Continuing to employ someone in that position, knowing it, removes your statutory excuse.

A short process you can hand to whoever does onboarding

1. Ask which CoA they have — digital or non-digital — before doing anything else.
2. Ask for a share code either way. If they have one, run the online check and save the profile page. You are done, and the result will tell you when a follow-up is due.
3. Only if there is genuinely no share code: copy and retain the non-digital CoA, then request an ECS check. Tell the individual you are doing it, and expect around five working days.
4. When the PVN arrives, record the date on the notice — not the date you received it. That is what the six months runs from.
5. Set the follow-up for before the six-month expiry, and set it at the same moment you file the PVN.
6. Re-check properly when status is granted, and reset the record from time-limited to whatever the new status supports.

The bottom line

A Certificate of Application evidences a valid pending EUSS application and carries the right to work until that application is finally determined. Most are digital, and for those the online share code check is sufficient — no ECS request is needed. Only a non-digital CoA with no share code needs the ECS, and that route puts you on a six-month statutory excuse that must be renewed before it expires. If you are handling a pending immigration application more generally, our guide to employing someone while their application is pending covers the wider set of scenarios.

Sources

• Employer's guide to right to work checks — GOV.UK (quotations are from the final version that came into force on 1 October 2026; earlier versions, including the 26 June 2025 guide, are in the UK Government Web Archive)
• Code of practice on preventing illegal working: Right to Work Scheme for employers — GOV.UK (the revised Code in force since 1 October 2026)
• Use the Employer Checking Service — GOV.UK
• Check a job applicant's right to work: use their share code — GOV.UK