What Happens After a Home Office Right to Work Enforcement Visit

An unannounced Home Office visit is stressful. Officers arrive at your premises, ask to see employment records, and you may not know what rights you have or what happens next. Understanding the process in advance — what officers can and can't do, what the outcomes are, and what your options are after — puts you in a better position to respond.

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

Why enforcement visits happen

Immigration Enforcement (part of the Home Office) visits employers as part of its illegal working compliance activity. Visits can be triggered by:

• Intelligence from tip-offs — a member of the public, a former employee, or a competitor reporting suspected illegal working
• Cross-referencing data — payroll records, tax data, or other databases flagging discrepancies
• Sector-level enforcement operations — targeted campaigns in industries with historically high non-compliance (hospitality, construction, care homes, cleaning)
• Previous history — if you received a civil penalty or warning notice before, you're more likely to be revisited

Visits are almost always unannounced. You will not receive advance notice. This is deliberate — giving notice would allow employers to remove or coach workers before officers arrive.

What powers officers have on a visit

Officers conducting illegal working visits exercise enforcement powers under the Immigration Act 1971 (extended to illegal working by the Immigration Act 2016) and related legislation. They can:

• Enter business premises (with or without a warrant in many circumstances)
• Inspect employment records, recruitment documents, and right to work files
• Speak to workers and ask questions about their status
• Request to see original documents or copies

They cannot:

• Force entry into residential premises without a warrant
• Arrest workers purely on the basis of their nationality (workers have rights regardless of their status)
• Compel you to incriminate yourself — you have a right to remain silent, though cooperation is generally in your interest for mitigation purposes

If officers arrive, ask to see their identification and warrant (if applicable). Then cooperate promptly. The Code of practice on preventing illegal working treats "active co-operation" as one of the two factors that each reduce a civil penalty by £5,000 per worker, and it may include where an employer has "provided Home Office officials access to premises, including to recruitment and employment records, and right to work checking systems when requested".

The three outcomes after a visit

If a visit identifies a potential breach, the Code says the employer "may be served with a Notice which will inform them that they are being referred to CPCT" — the Civil Penalty Compliance Team. CPCT then sends an Information Request, "providing an opportunity to supply further information or evidence of a statutory excuse". The decision that follows takes one of three forms:

1. No Action Notice If you are not found liable for a civil penalty — typically because you have a statutory excuse for every worker checked — you "will be issued with a No Action Notice which makes clear that no further action will be taken under the Scheme on this occasion, and the case will be closed". It is not counted against you if there is ever a later breach. This is the outcome when your process is working correctly.

2. Warning notice On a first breach, where you show effective right to work practices together with self-reporting and active co-operation, the Code reduces the penalty "to the minimum level of a Warning Notice (first breach only)". A warning notice doesn't carry a financial penalty, but it starts the three-year clock for repeat offences: "A Warning Notice will be taken into account for future breaches within three years." A second breach within three years becomes a repeat breach, with a £60,000-per-worker maximum penalty. Do not treat a warning notice as a clean outcome — see our guide to repeat right to work breaches for what that means.

3. Civil Penalty Notice Where illegal working is confirmed and the employer doesn't have a statutory excuse, a Civil Penalty Notice is issued. It "will include details of why the Home Office considers them to be liable, the amount of the penalty, ways to pay, and information on how the employer may object to the penalty" — up to £45,000 per illegal worker for a first breach, £60,000 for a repeat.

The notice will be accompanied by a Statement of Case "setting out the evidence and the reasons for the Home Office decision".

After a Civil Penalty Notice: your options

You must pay by the date specified in the Civil Penalty Notice unless you object, and an objection must be made in writing "within 28 days of the due date specified in the notice". There are three paths:

Option 1: Pay the penalty (Faster Payment Option, first penalty only)

If this is your first civil penalty and you pay within 21 days of the notice being given, you receive a 30% reduction. This is called the Faster Payment Option. The Code makes it "only available for employers in receipt of their first penalty", and it "cannot be paid in instalments". It does not say how that applies where an earlier breach ended in a Warning Notice rather than a penalty — if that is your position, ask the Home Office to confirm in writing.

Option 2: Object to the penalty

You can object in writing within 28 days of the due date specified in the Civil Penalty Notice on three grounds:

• You are not liable — for example, because you are not the employer of the worker identified
• You have a statutory excuse — you conducted a compliant right to work check and kept the records; the statutory excuse holds regardless of whether the worker had the right to work
• The penalty level is too high — the amount should be reduced given the specific circumstances

The statutory excuse ground is the strongest. If you ran a compliant check — the right method for that employee's circumstances, before they started work, with the records kept — you have a complete defence and the penalty should be cancelled. The right to work record keeping guide covers what that evidence needs to look like.

The Home Office will respond with an Objection Outcome Notice, which cancels, reduces, or maintains the penalty.

Note: If you object before the deadline, you remain eligible for the Faster Payment Option. If you still have to pay after the objection, the Code gives you "21 days to pay by FPO (if applicable) and 28 days to pay in full, from the date specified in the Objection Outcome Notice". The Home Office will tell you the outcome within 28 days of receiving the objection, or by an agreed extension; if you hear nothing within 28 days, you may go on to appeal.

Option 3: Appeal to the court

If your objection is unsuccessful, you can appeal to the County Court (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) or the Sheriff Court (Scotland) within 28 days of the date specified on the Objection Outcome Notice, or on a new Civil Penalty Notice. The Code describes an appeal as "a re-hearing of the Home Office decision" — you're not just challenging the Home Office's process, you can re-argue the facts — on the same grounds as an objection. If the appeal fails, the court may order you to pay the Home Office's reasonable costs.

If you've objected on statutory excuse grounds and have strong records, a County Court appeal is a credible option. Legal advice is essential at this stage.

What happens to the workers

When officers find workers who don't appear to have the right to work, those workers may be detained and removed. As the employer, your liability is civil (the penalty) unless the Home Office believes you were knowingly employing someone without the right to work — in which case you may face criminal prosecution under Section 21 of the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006, which carries up to 5 years' imprisonment and an unlimited fine.

Criminal prosecution is relatively rare and reserved for cases where the Home Office has evidence that the employer knew the worker lacked the right to work and employed them regardless.

What to do right now (before a visit happens)

The best time to prepare for an enforcement visit is before one is announced. That means:

1. Check your current records — can you produce a right to work record for every employee? If not, work through your list now. See our right to work audit guide for a structured approach, and the right to work checklist for what each record should contain.
2. Identify any gaps — employees with no record, or records that are incomplete or undated
3. Fix the fixable — if an employee with time-limited permission has a gap in their follow-up check schedule, contact the Employer Checking Service now rather than after a visit
4. Assess your exposure — our penalty risk calculator shows what the current civil penalty framework means for your specific situation

You cannot repair a missing initial check after the fact. But identifying a gap before an enforcement visit and taking demonstrable steps to fix it (including self-reporting to the Home Office helpline on 0300 790 6268, using the employers' option, if you discover an illegal worker) may qualify you for mitigation.

Sources

• Code of practice on preventing illegal working: Right to Work Scheme for employers — GOV.UK (quotations are from the revised Code brought into force on 1 October 2026 by SI 2026/700, which applies to breaches on or after that date)
• Immigration Act 1971 s.28FA (search for personnel records) — legislation.gov.uk
• Immigration Act 2016 s.34 (offence of illegal working) — legislation.gov.uk
• Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 s.21 — legislation.gov.uk
• Penalties for employing illegal workers — GOV.UK