Right to Work Record Keeping: What the Home Office Expects in an Inspection
Running a right to work check is only half the job. The check is worthless if you can't prove you ran it. When the Home Office visits — and the number of enforcement visits has increased since 2024 — they will ask to see your records for specific employees. If you can't produce them, your statutory excuse is gone regardless of whether you actually did the check at the time.
The employer's guide to right to work checks (June 2025) is direct: "You may face a civil penalty if you do not record the date on which the check was performed."
Not the check itself — just failing to record the date is enough to lose your defence.
This guide is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For advice on your specific situation, consult a qualified immigration solicitor.
The legal basis for record-keeping
Your obligation to keep records flows from the same statutory framework as the obligation to check: Section 15 of the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006. The statutory excuse — your defence against a civil penalty — only exists if you can demonstrate you conducted the prescribed checks and retained evidence of them.
The Code of Practice on Preventing Illegal Working (February 2024) describes exactly what that evidence looks like. Record-keeping is not a secondary obligation — it's constitutive of the excuse.
How long you must keep records
Retention period: All records must be kept for the duration of the employee's employment plus two years after they leave. After that, destroy them securely.
This applies to:
- Records for employees currently working for you
- Records for employees who have left, until the two-year window closes
- Records from sub-contractors if you engaged workers through an agency or labour provider arrangement
There is no minimum for when you can destroy records — you can keep them longer than two years, but the statutory minimum is duration plus two.
What you must keep — by check type
Manual document check (List A or List B documents)
When you verify original documents in person, you must retain:
- A clear copy of every document you checked — both sides of any identity card, the photo page and relevant endorsement/visa pages of a passport
- The date you made the check — written on the copy or in a linked record
- For passports with both a bio-data page and a separate visa/endorsement: a copy of both
The copy must be legible. A blurred photocopy that you can't read is not useful evidence.
Online right to work check (share code)
When you verify via the Home Office online checking service:
- Download or screenshot the profile page showing the employee's status, photo, work restrictions, and expiry date
- Save the date of the check (usually auto-stamped on the downloaded page, but verify it appears)
- Keep a copy of the document the employee showed you alongside the online result (not required for the check itself, but useful for your records)
The downloaded profile page is your evidence. If you only "viewed it on screen" and didn't save it, you have no record.
Digital verification service (DVS) check
When you use a certified identity provider for British or Irish passport holders:
- The DVS provider gives you an output after the check — this is your record
- Keep a clear copy of that output, which should show the document verified and the date of the check
- Keep a copy of the passport checked alongside the DVS output
See our guide to digital right to work checks for more on the DVS process.
Employer Checking Service (ECS) responses
When the Home Office issues a Positive Verification Notice following an ECS request:
- Keep the original PVN or a clear copy
- Record the six-month expiry date — this is when your statutory excuse for that employee lapses
- Keep the date of your ECS request alongside the PVN
The PVN is time-limited. The date on the notice matters — your follow-up check must happen before the six months expire.
What format records can be in
Digital copies are acceptable. You don't need paper files. The employer's guide confirms: "All copies of documents taken should be kept securely for the duration of the worker's employment and for two years afterwards."
What matters is that records are:
- Legible — you can read all relevant fields
- Retrievable — you can produce them quickly when asked
- Linked — the copy is clearly associated with the specific employee
A shared drive folder organised by employee name works. A scanning app on your phone works. A dedicated compliance tool works. An unmarked pile of photocopies in a drawer probably doesn't hold up well under inspection.
What inspectors look for
When a Home Office enforcement officer visits, they'll typically request records for specific employees — often ones where they already have intelligence that the check was missing or non-compliant. You'll need to:
- Produce the record for each requested employee
- Show that the check was conducted before the employee started work (the date matters)
- Show the record is from a compliant check method (manual, online, or DVS — not a method that doesn't produce a statutory excuse)
- For List B employees: show follow-up check records at the correct intervals
If you can't produce a record for a particular employee, the officer will treat it as though no check was conducted. Your verbal assurance that you did check isn't evidence.
Common record-keeping failures
The undated copy. You made a photocopy of the passport but didn't write the date on it. Without the check date, you can't prove you did the check before the employee started.
The lost share code screenshot. You viewed the online result but didn't download it. The share code result page isn't retrievable after you close the browser — once it's gone, it's gone.
The mixed-format archive. Some records are paper, some are on an old laptop, some were emailed but the mailbox was deleted. When an inspector asks for a specific record, you need to produce it promptly. Scattered storage makes this hard under time pressure.
The follow-up gap. For List B employees, you ran the initial check and kept the record — but when the follow-up check was due, nobody noticed, and there's now a gap in the record for that employee.
The two-year confusion. Some employers stop keeping records at two years from the initial check, rather than two years after the employee left. If an employee works for you for three years and then leaves, you need to keep records for five years total (three employment plus two).
Building a record-keeping system that holds up
The key requirements translate into a few practical habits:
One folder per employee. Whether digital or physical, keep everything for an employee together — initial check documents, follow-up check documents, any ECS notices, and the dates of each check.
Date everything at the time. Write or stamp the date on every document copy at the moment you check it. Retrospective dates are a red flag in an inspection.
Tie expiry dates to your follow-up schedule. For List B employees, the record should include the next follow-up check due date — either written on the folder or in a tracking system. Our follow-up check timeline calculator generates this automatically from a visa expiry date.
Set a two-year departure reminder. When an employee leaves, note the record destruction date (departure date plus two years) in your system. Then actually destroy them — indefinite retention creates a data protection risk.
Test your retrieval process. Pick a random employee and see how long it takes to find their right to work record. If it takes more than five minutes, your system won't hold up when an inspector is watching.