The Home Office Employer Checking Service: When and How to Use It
Most right to work checks never need the Home Office. You either scan an employee's share code online or check their original documents, and you have your statutory excuse. But a small number of situations can't be resolved that way — the employee has a pending immigration application, an outstanding appeal, or status the standard checks simply can't see. For those, there is one route: the Employer Checking Service.
This guide explains exactly when you must use the Employer Checking Service, how to request a check, and what the response means for your compliance records.
This guide is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For advice on your specific situation, consult a qualified immigration solicitor.
What the Employer Checking Service is
The Employer Checking Service (ECS) is a free Home Office service that verifies a person's right to work when you cannot establish it through an online share code check or a manual document check. You submit the employee's details, the Home Office checks their immigration records, and they send you back a verification notice that either confirms or denies the right to work.
The ECS exists because the two standard checks only work when the employee has documents or a digital status to show. Some people have a genuine right to work that lives only on Home Office systems — for example, while an application is being decided. In those cases the ECS is the only way to get a statutory excuse.
You request a check through the Employer Checking Service on GOV.UK.
When you must use the Employer Checking Service
You should use the ECS when neither the online share code check nor the manual document check can give you a statutory excuse. The most common scenarios are:
- A pending, in-time immigration application. The employee applied to extend or vary their leave before their previous leave expired. Their right to work continues under section 3C of the Immigration Act 1971, but the standard checks can't confirm it. The ECS can.
- An outstanding appeal or administrative review against a Home Office decision.
- A Certificate of Application (CoA) or Application Registration Card (ARC) that needs verification.
- No share code and no acceptable documents — for example, where status is held only on Home Office systems.
- Long-residence cases — people who arrived in the UK before a certain date and have a right to work but no modern documents to prove it.
If the employee can generate a share code, use the online right to work checking service instead — it's instant. If they have acceptable original documents, run a manual check. The ECS is the fallback, not the default. For a breakdown of which check applies in which situation, see our share code step-by-step guide and documents list.
How to request a check
You make the request online through the Home Office service. You'll need:
About the employee:
- Full name, date of birth, and nationality
- Job title and hours worked per week
- UK home address
- Any Home Office reference number — for a pending application, this is the Unique Application Number (UAN), a 12-digit number
- Any Certificate of Application or Application Registration Card details
About your business:
- Business name and type
- Your contact details
Submit the request and wait for the response. The ECS typically takes up to 5 working days to reply, though it can be longer in busy periods. If you have a right to work check that's taking longer than expected, the ECS is usually the reason.
What the response means
The Home Office responds with one of two notices:
Positive Verification Notice (PVN). The employee has the right to work. This is what gives you your statutory excuse. Crucially, a PVN provides a statutory excuse for 6 months from the date on the notice — not indefinitely, and not tied to a visa expiry date. You must run a follow-up check before the 6 months are up.
Negative Verification Notice (NVN). The Home Office cannot confirm the right to work. You do not have a statutory excuse and should not employ the person — or should not continue to employ them — until the position is resolved. Take advice before acting, because an NVN doesn't always mean the person has no right to work; it may mean the records don't yet confirm it.
The trap: the statutory excuse is time-limited
This is the part most employers get wrong. A standard online or manual check on someone with permanent status (List A) gives you a statutory excuse for the duration of their employment — one check and you're done. A PVN does not. It gives you 6 months, then you have to check again.
The same time-limited logic applies to time-limited visas (a statutory excuse that ends on the permission expiry date) and to the 28-day grace period that follows. If you don't track these dates, your statutory excuse quietly lapses and you're employing someone without a defence — exactly the gap that a civil penalty of up to £45,000 per worker is designed to punish. See our guide to the 28-day grace period for how the ECS fits into the follow-up timeline.
Building the ECS into your compliance process
If you employ anyone whose right to work depends on a pending application or a PVN, the ECS becomes a recurring task, not a one-off:
- Run the ECS check and record the date you submitted it.
- Save the verification notice (PVN or NVN) and the date on it.
- If it's a PVN, set a reminder for a follow-up check before the 6-month anniversary of the notice date.
- Repeat the ECS check at each follow-up while the underlying application is still pending.
This is the same follow-up discipline that catches employers out with visa expiry dates — the difference is that the PVN clock resets every 6 months. Our follow-up check timeline calculator will set the right dates for you, and our ongoing compliance guide shows how to build a system that doesn't rely on memory.
The bottom line
Use the Employer Checking Service when the standard online and manual checks can't establish a right to work — most often when an employee has a pending application, an appeal, or status held only on Home Office systems. A Positive Verification Notice gives you a statutory excuse, but only for 6 months. Diarise the follow-up the moment the notice arrives. The check is free; the missed follow-up is what costs money.