Positive Verification Notice: What It Means for Employers
A Positive Verification Notice is the document that turns an Employer Checking Service result into a legal defence. If you've ever had to verify an employee's right to work through the Home Office — because they had a pending application or couldn't produce documents — the PVN is what you get back when the answer is yes. But it comes with a deadline that catches employers out: it only protects you for 6 months.
This guide explains what a Positive Verification Notice is, exactly how long it covers you, and what you must do before it expires.
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 a Positive Verification Notice is
A Positive Verification Notice (PVN) is the Home Office's confirmation that a named person has the right to work for you. It's issued through the Employer Checking Service after you submit a request — usually because the standard online share code check or manual document check couldn't establish the right to work.
You can only get a PVN through the Employer Checking Service. You can't generate one yourself, and you can't get one if an online or manual check would have worked — those routes come first. The PVN exists for the gap cases: pending applications, outstanding appeals, status held only on Home Office systems. For when to use the service in the first place, see our Employer Checking Service guide.
How long a PVN gives you a statutory excuse
This is the single most important fact about a PVN: it gives you a statutory excuse for 6 months from the date shown on the notice.
That's different from every other check. To be clear about how the timings compare:
| Check type | Statutory excuse lasts |
|---|---|
| Online or manual check — permanent status (List A) | The full duration of employment. One check. |
| Online or manual check — time-limited permission (List B Group 1) | Until the permission expiry date shown |
| Positive Verification Notice (List B Group 2) | 6 months from the date on the notice |
A PVN does not cover you for as long as the employee's underlying application takes to decide. If their application is still pending 6 months later, your statutory excuse has already lapsed — you have to run another Employer Checking Service check and get a fresh PVN. The clock resets every 6 months for as long as the application is outstanding.
What to do when a PVN is about to expire
Before the 6-month anniversary of the notice date, you need to re-establish your statutory excuse. In practice:
- Check whether the employee's situation has changed. If their application has now been decided and they have a visa or eVisa, run a normal online share code check — you're back to a standard time-limited or permanent excuse and out of the PVN cycle.
- If the application is still pending, submit another Employer Checking Service request. A new PVN gives you another 6 months from its date.
- Record everything. The date you requested the new check, the date on the new PVN, and your next follow-up date.
The dangerous case is forgetting step 2. If the 6 months pass and you haven't re-checked, you're employing someone without a statutory excuse — even though they may genuinely still have the right to work. That gap is exactly what a civil penalty of up to £45,000 per worker is designed to catch.
Recording a PVN for your audit trail
If the Home Office visits, your PVN records are part of the evidence that you've met your obligations. For each PVN, keep:
- A copy of the Positive Verification Notice itself
- The date on the notice (this starts your 6-month clock)
- The date you submitted the Employer Checking Service request
- Your scheduled follow-up date
- A note of the employee's role and the reason the ECS was used (e.g. pending application)
Store these securely for the duration of employment plus two years after it ends — the same retention rule that applies to all right to work check records. Our right to work checklist template covers what to keep and for how long.
How the PVN fits the bigger picture
The PVN is one instance of a pattern that runs through the whole right to work scheme: most statutory excuses are time-limited, and the follow-up is where employers fail. A PVN gives 6 months, a time-limited visa gives until the expiry date, and the 28-day grace period gives a short window to sort things out. None of them are "set and forget."
The employers who stay compliant are the ones who capture the relevant date the moment they run any check, and set a reminder before it lapses. Our follow-up check timeline calculator does the date arithmetic for you, and our ongoing compliance guide shows how to build a tracking system around it.
The bottom line
A Positive Verification Notice is your statutory excuse when the Employer Checking Service confirms an employee's right to work — but it lasts only 6 months from the date on the notice. Diarise the follow-up as soon as the notice arrives, re-check before the 6-month mark while the application is still pending, and keep the notice on file. The PVN protects you; the missed renewal exposes you.