eVisa Right to Work Checks: A Practical Guide for UK Employers
Your employee hands you a laminated card — their Biometric Residence Permit. There's a problem: BRPs expired on 31 December 2024. That card is no longer valid proof of right to work, even if it looks perfectly genuine and the permission date hasn't passed.
Since the Home Office completed the switch to eVisas, the process for checking many employees' right to work has fundamentally changed. If you're still accepting physical immigration documents from non-British workers, you're running checks that don't count.
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 changed and when
The Home Office moved the UK immigration system from physical documents to digital records (eVisas) in stages:
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| Late 2024 | BRPs stopped being issued to new applicants |
| 31 December 2024 | All existing BRPs expired — regardless of the date printed on the card |
| Ongoing | All new immigration permissions are issued as eVisas only |
An eVisa is an online record of a person's immigration status held in the Home Office system. It replaces the physical card entirely. The employer's guide to right to work checks (June 2025) is clear: a manual check of an expired BRP is not acceptable proof of right to work.
Who this affects
eVisa checks apply to anyone whose immigration status is held digitally. This includes:
- Visa holders (work visas, family visas, student visas with work permission)
- EU Settlement Scheme status holders (settled and pre-settled status)
- Former BRP holders who now have eVisas
- Anyone granted immigration permission since late 2024
It does not affect:
- British citizens — check with a passport or birth certificate (see our guide)
- Irish citizens — can use a passport or passport card (manual check)
How the share code system works
Employees with eVisas prove their right to work using a share code — a 9-character alphanumeric code they generate through their Home Office online account. Here's the process from both sides:
What the employee does
- Signs in to their Home Office online account
- Selects "Prove your right to work to an employer"
- Generates a share code (starts with the letter W for right-to-work purposes)
- Gives you the share code and their date of birth
What you do as the employer
- Go to the online right to work checking service
- Enter the employee's share code and date of birth
- The service displays their immigration status, any work restrictions, and the expiry date of their permission
- Check the details match — the photo should match the person in front of you, and the name should match the name they're using for employment
- Save the result — download or screenshot the profile page showing immigration status, photo, and the date you made the check. Store securely.
The share code is valid for 90 calendar days from when the employee generates it. If it expires before you use it, the employee simply generates a new one.
Critical mistakes to avoid
Accepting an expired BRP as proof. Even if the card looks valid and the permission date on it hasn't passed, it's not acceptable. The card itself expired on 31 December 2024. You must use the online service.
Just viewing the employee's screen. The guidance is specific: it is not sufficient to simply view the details on the employee's own account. You must run the check yourself through the online right to work checking service using the share code. This creates an independent verification record.
Not saving the result. You need to keep a copy of the online check result (the profile page showing status and photo) for the duration of employment plus two years. This is your evidence of a compliant check.
Forgetting the follow-up. If the check shows time-limited permission — and most eVisa checks will — your statutory excuse lasts until the permission expiry date shown in the result. You need to schedule a follow-up check before that date. (Note: a different rule applies if you use the Employer Checking Service — a Positive Verification Notice gives a statutory excuse for 6 months from its date.) Use our follow-up check timeline calculator to set the right dates.
When the employee can't generate a share code
Sometimes an employee can't access their Home Office online account or can't generate a share code. This might happen because:
- They haven't set up their online account yet
- They're locked out or having technical issues
- Their eVisa status hasn't been linked to their account
In these cases, you can use the Employer Checking Service to request verification directly from the Home Office. You'll need the employee's name, date of birth, nationality, and any Home Office reference number. The service will respond with a Positive or Negative Verification Notice.
This is a backup route — it takes longer than the share code method, so encourage employees to set up their online accounts early.
What this means for your compliance process
The shift to eVisas simplifies some things and complicates others:
Simpler: No more assessing whether physical documents are genuine. The online service handles verification. You either get a valid result or you don't.
More complex: You're now dependent on a digital system. If the Home Office service is down, you can't run the check. If an employee can't generate a share code, you need the backup route. And every check with time-limited permission creates a follow-up obligation you need to track.
For most micro-employers, the biggest risk isn't running the initial check wrong — it's losing track of when follow-up checks are due. Six months goes fast when you're running a business. See our guide to ongoing RTW compliance for how to build a tracking process that doesn't rely on memory.