eVisa share-code RTW checks — and 1 Oct 2026 expansion

Possessing immigration permission and establishing a statutory excuse are related but separate. Your job is not to look at a worker’s phone. It is to run the prescribed right-to-work check yourself — usually the Home Office online service, using their right-to-work share code and date of birth — keep the result, and know when that service cannot be used.

Apply checks consistently to every candidate. Do not select checking methods in a way that discriminates on nationality, race or other protected characteristics, and do not only check people you assume are more likely to be migrants. Many people you hire who are not British or Irish will prove status through the Home Office online service (often via an eVisa share code). That is not every case. Prescribed manual document checks, and where those do not apply the Employer Checking Service with a Positive Verification Notice, continue in the situations the employer’s guide allows.

Law / guidance checked as at 28 September 2026. The Employer’s guide to right to work checks (26 June 2025) and the Code of practice (13 February 2024) are the current texts. A draft employer’s guide re-published on 11 September 2026 (superseding the 16 July 2026 draft) and a draft Code (June 2026) on the same GOV.UK collections are intended to come into force on 1 October 2026. They are not current law today.

From 1 October 2026, section 48 of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 widens who can face illegal-working civil-penalty liability. It does not invent a new checking method — it widens the working arrangements the statute treats as “employment”.

This note is for UK employers, HR, agencies, labour providers and platform operators. General information as at 28 September 2026, not advice on your facts. Worldwide Immigration Ltd is an IAA-regulated immigration advice organisation (Ref F201900032). Advisers are not SRA-regulated solicitors.

What you are trying to get

A correct right-to-work check, done before work starts, gives you a statutory excuse — a defence against a civil penalty if the person later turns out not to have been allowed to do that work. For people with an eVisa, the Home Office online check is usually the prescribed route. Viewing their eVisa, a screenshot, or the worker-facing UKVI / “prove your status” screen is not that check — you must use the employer-facing online service yourself.

Sources: Employer’s guide (26 June 2025); Checking a job applicant’s right to work; Code of practice (13 February 2024) — spot-checked 17 September 2026.

Who may need a statutory excuse from 1 October 2026

Until 1 October 2026, the Scheme still focuses on people employed under a contract of employment (service or apprenticeship). From that date, SI 2026/683 brings section 48 of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 into force. Section 48 inserts new sections 14A and 15A into the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006.

In sections 15 to 24 of the 2006 Act, “employing” will include engaging an individual under a worker’s contract, engaging an individual sub-contractor, and an online matching service that provides details of an individual service provider to potential clients or customers (register + online matching + fee or commission).

New section 15A of the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 (IANA 2006) is a separate extended contractual-chain / treated-as-employing liability. In the specific contractual situations it describes (read with the prescribed requirements), it can treat a person as employing an individual who personally provides the work or services (or any part), including where there is no contract with that individual, or where the person does not know they are providing the work. That can reach further than a direct contract with the worker — but it is not an unlimited “any chain of contracts” rule. It does not remove anyone else’s section 15 liability.

Carve-outs matter. The worker’s-contract limb does not apply where the individual’s status is that of a client or customer of a profession or business undertaking they carry on. Draft Home Office materials for 1 October 2026 indicate that genuine independent businesses contracting directly with end-clients are generally out of scope, and that extended liability does not apply to people who act solely as end-users, clients or customers. “Self-employed” as a label is not decisive — the factual arrangement controls.

Timing (two clocks — do not collapse them). For the new direct working arrangements under section 14A (worker’s contracts, individual sub-contractors, and online matching services), draft Home Office guidance presents civil-penalty liability as applying where that employment commenced on or after 1 October 2026. Separately, for section 15A extended liability, the prescribed requirements relating to the contractual arrangements apply from 1 October 2026, and a person seeking a statutory excuse against extended liability must meet those requirements where the relevant contractual arrangements were entered into on or after 1 October 2026. Do not treat “employment commenced” and “contractual arrangements entered into” as the same test. Until then, follow the texts in force today (see above). Companion: SI 2026/700.

Sources: BSAI 2025, section 48; Right to work checks: an employer’s guide; Illegal working penalties — codes of practice — spot-checked 17 September 2026.

What the worker gives you

They generate a right-to-work share code on GOV.UK and give you the share code and their date of birth. Share codes are currently 9 characters and begin with W, R or S. Only a right-to-work code (W) is for this check — do not accept R or S. The code lasts 90 calendar days from issue and can be used more than once in that window. An email from right.to.work.service@notifications.service.gov.uk can deliver the code; it is not the check.

British citizens do not use the Home Office share-code route. Irish citizens normally prove their unrestricted right to work using an Irish passport or passport card, although an Irish citizen who holds relevant digital immigration status may be able to use the Home Office online service. Otherwise check an Irish passport or passport card, or other List A documents, or use a registered Right to Work digital verification service provider (RtW DVSP) if you offer that route.

Sources: Check a job applicant’s right to work: use their share code; Prove your right to work — get a share code online — spot-checked 17 September 2026.

The three steps you actually run

Do not call this service the Employer Checking Service. ECS is a different Home Office service (it issues a Positive Verification Notice). The prescribed online check is Check a job applicant’s right to work: use their share code.

Use the Home Office online service. Open the employer share-code page. Enter the right-to-work share code (W) and the worker’s date of birth. Enter the correct employer or business name in full. You must open that page yourself even if you already have the code in an email or on their screen.

Check. Confirm the photograph is the person presenting themselves for work (in person or on a live video call), and that they may do this work, including any hours limit and any expiry. Where facial recognition is used to complete that identity element digitally, draft guidance requires a registered RtW DVSP.

Retain the profile page. Save or print the profile page with the photograph and the date of the check (PDF or HTML). The share code itself, or a worker’s screenshot, is not the record. Keep it for the whole engagement and for two years after it ends, then destroy it securely.

Source: employer’s guide (26 June 2025), steps 1–3 — spot-checked 17 September 2026.

What you must not accept as the check

These are not, by themselves, a statutory excuse: the migrant-facing eVisa / UKVI / “prove your status” view (including watching them log in); an eVisa screenshot; the share code alone without you running the employer service; or a solicitor’s letter / Home Office acknowledgment about a pending or decided application.

A manual check of an expired Biometric Residence Permit is not acceptable proof. BRPs stopped being issued on 31 October 2024. They can still use a BRP number to generate a share code — you then run the online check.

Source: employer’s guide (26 June 2025) — spot-checked 17 September 2026.

Follow-up and when the online service cannot be used

If the result shows time-limited permission, diarise a follow-up on or before that end date. A continuous (indefinite) statutory excuse does not require routine follow-up. The Home Office does not require repeat checks for EU Settlement Scheme settled or pre-settled status where the initial check was correct, provided you are not knowingly employing someone without the right to work.

Separately, some prescribed checks only give a six-month statutory excuse. That includes a Positive Verification Notice from the Employer Checking Service, and an online check of someone with an outstanding in-time application. Both can provide only a six-month excuse — recheck before that period expires.

If the online service cannot be used, you still need a prescribed alternative: a manual check where acceptable List A or List B documents exist, or — for eVisa holders who cannot generate a usable share code — often the Employer Checking Service (only a Positive Verification Notice gives the excuse). There is no 28-day grace for new starters — delay the start until you can complete a prescribed check or obtain a PVN.

Source: employer’s guide (26 June 2025) — spot-checked 17 September 2026.

Civil penalties — two separate points (do not mix them)

Point A — figures already in force (not an October 2026 increase). Live GOV.UK: civil penalty of up to £60,000 for each illegal worker. That maximum was set by S.I. 2024/82. The Code in force from 13 February 2024 uses starting points of £45,000 per worker (first breach in three years) and £60,000 per worker (repeat breach within three years) — starting figures, not an automatic bill. Draft materials for 1 October 2026 keep the same starting points — October 2026 does not raise the headline amounts on these primary sources.

Point B — what does change on 1 October 2026. The same maximum and starting points can apply to a wider set of arrangers (worker’s contracts, individual sub-contractors, certain online matching services, and extended liability under sections 14A and 15A in the situations those sections cover). The expansion is about who may need a statutory excuse, not about a new £60,000 tariff. There is also a criminal offence if you know, or have reasonable cause to believe, you are employing someone who is not allowed to do that work. Do the check the same way for every candidate — consistently, without discriminatory selection of who is checked or which method is used.

Sources: Penalties for employing illegal workers; Code of practice (13 February 2024) — spot-checked 17 September 2026.

Practical prep before 1 October 2026

Map the contractual arrangements through which individuals personally provide work or services for or through your organisation — including direct employees, worker’s contracts, individual sub-contractors, online matching-service arrangements and contractual chains where section 15A may apply. Look at how the arrangement operates in practice, not merely the contractual label. Where you will need a statutory excuse from 1 October, complete the prescribed check before work starts (for eVisa holders, usually the share-code check). Brief procurement and platform teams: subcontract templates and matching-fee flows become compliance artefacts after 1 October.

If you hold or need a sponsor licence, sponsorship duties and the statutory-excuse scheme are related but separate. Draft Home Office guidance for 1 October 2026 also states that sponsors must retain evidence of immigration status for sponsored workers even where the working arrangement sits outside the Right to Work Scheme.

Home Office Employer Enquiry helpline: 0300 790 6268 (Mon–Thu 9am–4:45pm, Fri 9am–4:30pm).

Frequently asked questions

Does the 1 October 2026 change replace the eVisa share-code check?

No. Section 48 widens who may need a statutory excuse. For eVisa holders, the prescribed route for most employers remains the Home Office online service with a right-to-work share code and date of birth. Manual checks and ECS / PVN continue where the guide allows.

Does 1 October 2026 raise civil penalties to £60,000?

No. The up to £60,000 maximum and the Code’s £45,000 / £60,000 starting points (first breach / repeat breach) are already in force under the February 2024 Code and S.I. 2024/82. October 2026 expands who can be liable; it does not raise those figures.

Can I rely on watching someone open their UKVI account?

No. Watching the migrant-facing eVisa / “prove your status” screen is not the prescribed employer check. Run the employer-facing service yourself, enter the correct employer or business name in full, and retain the profile page.

One next step

If you need to map which of your contracts and platform flows fall inside sections 14A and 15A before 1 October 2026, or to align sponsor licence compliance with right-to-work checks, speak to us.

Start with our Sponsor Licence service page, call 020 3488 2308, email inquiry@worldwideimmigration.co.uk, or contact us as a secondary option.

Worldwide Immigration Ltd is regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority (IAA Ref F201900032). Advisers are not SRA-regulated solicitors.