Right to Work Checklist Template for UK Employers

The Home Office publishes its own employers' right to work checklist, and it was rewritten when the new rules came in — the current version is marked "Updated 1 October 2026". Like the version before it, it covers all three ways of doing a check, and it also adds a short screening section for the extended-liability rules. It is the right place to start, and this right to work checklist follows its steps for the manual and online checks.

What it does not do is tell you what happens after the check. It has no follow-up diary, nothing on the 28-day grace period, and no review routine — and those are the steps small employers actually get caught on. This checklist covers the whole cycle: the Home Office's steps first, then the ongoing obligations the official checklist leaves to you.

Print it, bookmark it, or use it as the basis for your own process. If you want the same ground arranged as a hiring sequence, the right to work checklist for new starters runs offer-to-first-shift in order. The checklist is the process; what your right to work policy should say is the written statement of it.

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

Part 1: Who you must check

Since 1 October 2026 this is no longer only a question about employees. The Home Office checklist opens by listing who needs a check before they start: a worker "employed under a contract of employment (a contract of service or apprenticeship)", a worker "engaged under a worker's contract", and a worker "engaged as an individual sub-contractor". It also covers businesses that operate an online matching service putting individual service providers in front of customers.

The person is an employee, a worker on a worker's contract, or an individual sub-contractor — check them
Check everyone, British and Irish citizens included. Checking only the people you assume are migrants is discrimination. Our guide to checking British citizens covers the documents they can use
The check is finished before the first day of work — not in the first week, and not "when the paperwork catches up"

If you use casual staff, sub-contracted labour or platform workers, right to work checks for gig and casual workers sets out who is caught and from when.

Part 2: Pick the check the person can use

The official checklist lists three types of check, and you must do one of them before the worker starts:

a manual document-based right to work check
a Home Office online right to work check
a right to work check using a registered digital verification service provider (RtW DVSP)

Two rules decide which one applies.

eVisa holders get the online check. The Home Office's employer's guide says: "Where an individual has an eVisa, employers must use the Home Office online right to work checking service to establish a statutory excuse by accessing the individual's right to work information using a share code." A physical BRP no longer works — the guide is explicit that "A manual check of an original, expired BRP is not acceptable proof of right to work in the UK."
You do not choose the method for them. The checklist says employers "must not require an individual to prove their right to work using a particular method or discriminate against them because of the method they need to use."

British and Irish citizens usually prove their right to work with a passport, either by a manual check or through a registered provider. Our guide to the digital right to work check explains the provider route.

Part 3: The manual document check, step by step

The Home Office splits the manual check into four steps: obtain, check, copy, record and retain.

Obtain

Get the original document (or combination of documents) from List A or List B — see the quick reference at the end
Do not accept a scan, screenshot or photo of the document. The checklist says employers "must not rely on a screen shot, scanned copies or other electronic copies of documents for a manual right to work check". The single exception is digital evidence of the person's name and National Insurance number, which can be accepted alongside the right List A or B document

Check

Do the check with the person present — in person, or by live video link. If it is by video, you must have the original documents physically with you
Photographs match each other and the person in front of you
Dates of birth are consistent across the documents
Any time-limited permission has not passed its expiry date
Work restrictions allow the job you are offering. For students with limited term-time hours, you must obtain, copy and keep their academic term and vacation dates for the period you employ them — see student visa working hours
You have taken all reasonable steps to check the documents are genuine, untampered and belong to the holder
Any difference in names is explained by a supporting document (marriage certificate, divorce decree, deed poll), and that document is copied too

Copy

Make a clear copy of each document "in a format that cannot be manually altered for example, as a PDF, HTML or hardcopy"
For a passport, copy the pages showing the expiry date, nationality, date of birth, signature, immigration permission, biometric details and photograph, and any page showing the holder's entitlement to be in the UK and do the work. The front cover does not need copying

Record and retain

Record the date you did the check — either as a declaration on the copy, in the Home Office's wording "The date on which this right to work check was made:" followed by the date, or in a separate manual or digital record. A bare date is not enough: the checklist says "Simply writing a date on the copy document on its own will not be sufficient."
Keep the copies securely for the duration of employment and for 2 years afterwards, then securely destroy them

Right to work record keeping covers what an inspector expects to see in the file.

Part 4: The online check, step by step

Use the employer service at gov.uk/view-right-to-work — enter the person's share code and date of birth, and enter your business name in full
Accept only a right to work share code. The guide says these begin with the letter "W" and that share codes "are valid for 90 calendar days from the point of issue"; codes beginning with "R" or "S" are for other services
Do the check yourself on the employer service. The guide says "it is not sufficient to simply view the details provided to the individual on the migrant-facing service or via printed copies of the service output"
Confirm the photograph on the result is the person in front of you (in person or by video call)
Confirm the result allows the work you are offering, and stay within any conditions it shows
Save a PDF or HTML copy of the "profile" page, including the photograph and the date of the check, for the duration of employment and 2 years afterwards

The share code walkthrough covers what to do when a code fails.

Part 5: Classify the result — and diary it

This is the step that decides your ongoing obligations, and it is the step the official checklist leaves to you.

What you checked	What it gives you	Follow-up needed?
List A document, or an online check showing no time limit	A continuous statutory excuse for the length of the employment	No
List B Group 1 document, or an online check showing time-limited permission	A time-limited excuse that ends when the permission expires	Yes — before the expiry date
List B Group 2 — a document that must be verified by the Employer Checking Service, with a Positive Verification Notice	A six-month excuse	Yes — before six months from the date in the notice

If the excuse is time-limited, record the expiry date now, on the day of the check
Set the follow-up reminder on the same day

This is where most micro-employers fail. The check is done properly, the result is filed, and nobody writes down the date it stops working. The full documents list groups every acceptable document by category, so you can see which list a document sits on.

Part 6: Follow-up checks

A follow-up check is a full prescribed check, but it does not have to be the same type as the first. The guide says: "This check does not have to be the same type of right to work check as the initial check." Someone first checked manually on a visa in their passport, for example, may now hold an eVisa and need the online check. Whichever route you use, do every step of it — the guide says of the online check: "Employers must repeat this process in respect of any follow-up check."

When it is due:

List B Group 1: before the permission expiry date
List B Group 2: before six months from the date specified in the Positive Verification Notice

Reminder schedule:

Reminder	When	Action
Early warning	90 days before expiry	Tell the person; ask about their renewal plans
Planning	30 days before expiry	Confirm whether they have applied to extend
Action	14 days before expiry	New share code or documents, or evidence of a pending application
Expiry day	Day of expiry	Run the follow-up check — or, if an application is pending, go to Part 7

New permission granted → run a fresh check (Part 3 or Part 4) and diary the new expiry date
Application pending → Part 7
No pending application and permission has expired → you cannot continue to employ them. The follow-up check guide covers what to do next

The follow-up check timeline calculator works out the reminder dates from an expiry date.

Part 7: The 28-day grace period and the Employer Checking Service

If your existing excuse is about to expire and you are reasonably satisfied the worker has an outstanding in-time application, appeal or administrative review, the guide says "their statutory excuse will continue from the expiry date of their worker's permission for a further period of up to 28 calendar days for the employer to obtain a Positive Verification Notice (PVN) from the ECS or carry out a Home Office online check."

Get evidence that the application is pending — the guide gives as examples "a Home Office acknowledgment letter or a Home Office or appeal tribunal reference number and proof of date of postage"
Get confirmation from the worker of when the application, appeal or review was made
Submit the Employer Checking Service request straight away. The guide says the ECS "aims to provide a response within five working days of receiving a valid request"
Positive Verification Notice → a six-month excuse from the date in the notice. Diary the next follow-up immediately
Negative Verification Notice → the grace period ends early, on the date you are notified

Two limits to know. The guide says "The 28 calendar days 'grace period' does not apply to checks conducted before employment commences" — it protects existing staff, not new hires. And if day 28 passes with neither a PVN nor a successful online check, the excuse is gone. The Code of practice sets the penalty level for a first breach at £45,000 per worker, and £60,000 per worker for a repeat breach within three years — our guide to illegal worker fines explains how that figure can be reduced.

The 28-day grace period guide has the full mechanics.

Part 8: Monthly compliance review

Ten minutes a month. It is the cheapest insurance against a five-figure penalty.

Employee register — every time-limited permission has an expiry date recorded
Next 90 days — which permissions or six-month notices expire?
Open requests — any ECS requests still waiting for a notice?
Records — any check missing its copy, or its dated record?
Leavers — anyone who left this month? Start their 2-year retention clock
New engagements — any casual workers or sub-contractors who started without a check?

Part 9: Extended liability screening

The 1 October 2026 checklist adds a screening section for arrangements where you can be liable for someone you do not engage directly. Its questions include whether you "receive relevant work or services from an individual supplied through another employer or service provider", whether you "operate an online matching service", and whether the contractual arrangement permits substitution.

If any of those apply, read right to work checks in contractor chains — the steps are a written statement with prescribed terms, substitution controls and identity verification, and they must be in place before the work starts

Acceptable documents: quick reference

These are summaries; Annex A of the employer's guide and the Code of practice have the exact wording. (The Home Office checklist words the Crown Dependency entry in List B Group 2 differently from the guide and the Code; we follow the guide and the Code.)

List A — continuous right to work

A British passport (current or expired)
An Irish passport or Irish passport card (current or expired)
A current passport endorsed to show the holder is exempt from immigration control, is allowed to stay indefinitely, has the right of abode, or has no time limit on their stay
A current Immigration Status Document showing indefinite stay or no time limit, together with an official document giving the person's permanent National Insurance number and name
A UK birth or adoption certificate (long or short), together with official evidence of the permanent National Insurance number and name
A birth or adoption certificate issued in the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man or Ireland, together with the same National Insurance evidence
A certificate of registration or naturalisation as a British citizen, together with the same National Insurance evidence
A Crown Dependency document showing unlimited leave, verified as valid by the Employer Checking Service

A clipped passport is a cancelled document and is not acceptable.

List B Group 1 — excuse lasts until the permission expires

A current passport endorsed to show the holder may stay in the UK and is currently allowed to do the work in question
A current Immigration Status Document with a photograph showing the holder may stay and do the work, together with official evidence of the permanent National Insurance number and name
A Crown Dependency document showing limited leave, verified as valid by the Employer Checking Service

List B Group 2 — six-month excuse, needs a Positive Verification Notice

A Home Office document showing an EU Settlement Scheme application made on or before 30 June 2021, with a Positive Verification Notice
A non-digital Certificate of Application for an EU Settlement Scheme application made on or after 1 July 2021, with a Positive Verification Notice
A Crown Dependency document showing that the holder has made an application for leave under the relevant Appendix EU, with a Positive Verification Notice
An Application Registration Card stating the holder may take the job, with a Positive Verification Notice
A Positive Verification Notice from the Employer Checking Service on its own

Sources

Employers' right to work checklist (accessible version, updated 1 October 2026) — GOV.UK
Employer's guide to right to work checks — GOV.UK (the version published on 1 October 2026, which states that it came into force that day)
Code of practice on preventing illegal working: Right to Work Scheme for employers — GOV.UK (in force from 1 October 2026)
Employer Checking Service — GOV.UK
Check a job applicant's right to work: use their share code — GOV.UK