Most people you hire in 2026 who are not British or Irish will prove their status with an eVisa, not a plastic card. Possessing immigration permission and establishing a statutory excuse are related but separate. Your job is not to look at their phone. It is to carry out the prescribed right-to-work check yourself — usually the Home Office online right-to-work checking service, using their right-to-work share code and date of birth — keep the result, and know when that service cannot be used.

This note is for UK employers and HR. It is general information as at 31 August 2026. It is 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 employment starts, gives you a statutory excuse. That is a defence against a civil penalty if the person later turns out not to have been allowed to do that work.

The Home Office online check is one of the prescribed methods. For people with an eVisa it is usually the only method that works. Viewing their eVisa, a screenshot, or the worker-facing UKVI / “prove your status” screen is not the prescribed employer check and does not establish a statutory excuse.

Sources: Employer’s guide to right to work checks (26 June 2025) — checked 31 August 2026. Checking a job applicant’s right to work — checked 31 August 2026. Code of practice on preventing illegal working (13 February 2024) — checked 31 August 2026.

What the worker gives you

They generate a right-to-work share code on GOV.UK and give you:

  • the share code
  • 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. Codes starting with R or S are for other services. Do not accept them. Ask for a new right-to-work code.

The code lasts 90 calendar days from issue. They can use it more than once in that window. If it has expired, they generate another. You do not invent a workaround.

The worker may send you the code themselves, or the service may email it from right.to.work.service@notifications.service.gov.uk. That notification email is a way to receive the code. It is not the check.

British and Irish citizens cannot get a share code. Check their passport or other List A documents, or use a digital verification service if you offer that route. That is a different check. Do not force a share code on them.

Sources: Check a job applicant’s right to work: use their share code; Prove your right to work — get a share code online; employer’s guide (26 June 2025), “Conducting a Home Office online right to work check” — all checked 31 August 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 — the Home Office online right-to-work checking service.

The employer’s guide sets out three steps.

1. Use the Home Office online service

Open Check a job applicant’s right to work: use their share code. Enter the right-to-work share code (W) and the worker’s date of birth.

You still have to open that employer page and enter the code, even if you already have the code in an email or on their screen. Looking at their UKVI account, their eVisa, or the migrant-facing service does not create a statutory excuse.

2. Check

The result page shows a photograph, whether they can work, any time limit, and any restriction (including hours). You must confirm:

  • the photograph is the person presenting themselves for work, in person or on a live video call; and
  • they are allowed to do this work, including any hours limit and any expiry.

If the photograph is wrong or unusable, they update it through their UKVI account. You do not employ on a blurred or mismatched image.

A right to work is not a right to do every job. If the result says they cannot do the work you are offering, stop.

3. Retain the profile page

Save or print the profile page — the one with the photograph and the date of the check — as PDF or HTML. That page is the record. The share code itself, or a screenshot the worker sends you, is not.

Keep it securely for the whole employment and for two years after they leave, then destroy it securely. Record the date you ran the check.

Source: employer’s guide (26 June 2025), steps 1–3 — checked 31 August 2026.

What you must not accept as the check

These things can be useful supporting information. They are not the prescribed check and they do not, by themselves, give you a statutory excuse:

  • the migrant-facing eVisa / UKVI / “prove your status” view, including watching them log in
  • a screenshot or photo of their eVisa
  • the share code on its own, without you running it through the employer service with their date of birth
  • a letter from a solicitor, or a Home Office acknowledgment letter, saying an application or appeal is pending or has succeeded — those may help you decide that a pending application exists; they are not the check

Do not treat any other online immigration-status portal as a substitute.

A manual check of an expired Biometric Residence Permit is not acceptable proof. BRPs stopped being issued on 31 October 2024. An expired BRP is not acceptable proof on its own. They can still use a BRP number to get into the online service and generate a share code. You then run the online check.

A short-validity travel vignette is not a long-term excuse. If you have to use a valid vignette because they have not yet opened their eVisa, the statutory excuse does not last beyond that vignette. Plan the online check as soon as they can access the eVisa.

Sources: employer’s guide (26 June 2025), “How does the service work?”, “Biometric Residence Permits”, and the follow-up / 3C leave sections — checked 31 August 2026.

Students with restricted hours

If the Home Office result shows a student (or anyone else) with restricted hours, you must still run the online check. That is not enough on its own.

For students with limited permission to work during term-time, you must also obtain, copy and retain details of their academic term and vacation dates covering the period of study in the UK for which they will be employed. The Code of practice treats a missing term-and-vacation record as a reason you will not have a statutory excuse for that worker.

The online result will show the hours they may work. Do not guess a number. Conditions differ by course, and some students are not permitted to work at all.

Sources: employer’s guide (26 June 2025), manual Step 2 (students); Code of practice (13 February 2024), “Additional requirement for students” — checked 31 August 2026. Student visa — checked 31 August 2026.

Follow-up: two different clocks

If the result shows time-limited permission, diarise a follow-up check on or before the date that permission ends. A continuous (indefinite) result does not need a repeat check. The Home Office also no longer requires repeat checks on holders of EU Settlement Scheme settled or pre-settled status, provided the initial check was done correctly and you are not knowingly employing someone without the right to work.

That is clock one: the end of their permission.

Clock two is different. Some prescribed checks only give you a six-month statutory excuse — in particular a Positive Verification Notice from the Employer Checking Service, and an online check of someone with an outstanding in-time application. Recheck before that six-month excuse expires, even if their underlying permission has not been decided. Do not mix the two dates up.

Source: employer’s guide (26 June 2025), “When do you conduct follow-up checks?”, “In-time applications (3C leave)”, and the PVN definition — checked 31 August 2026.

When the Home Office online right-to-work service cannot be used

The online service is not an informal extra you can skip. It is also not available in every case. If it cannot be used, you still need a prescribed alternative. Permission to work is not, by itself, a statutory excuse.

Where acceptable List A or List B documents exist, carry out a manual document check. For British and Irish citizens who hold a valid passport (or Irish passport card), you may use a digital verification service (the 26 June 2025 guide’s term for an identity service provider) instead of a manual check, if you offer that route.

People with an eVisa do not have a physical eVisa you can copy. If they cannot generate a usable right-to-work share code — for example because of a technical issue with their eVisa or digital status — the listed route is often the Employer Checking Service, and only a Positive Verification Notice gives you the excuse.

Use ECS where the employer’s guide lists it. That includes, for example:

  • they have an outstanding in-time application, appeal or administrative review and cannot produce a usable digital profile
  • they show a non-digital Certificate of Application, or an Application Registration Card, that requires Home Office verification
  • you have no acceptable documents and cannot run the online service (including a technical issue with an eVisa)
  • they present other information indicating they are a long-term resident who arrived in the UK before 1988

A Positive Verification Notice gives a time-limited excuse of six months from the date specified on the notice. A Negative Verification Notice means you do not have an excuse if you employ them anyway.

Online-first for an in-time (section 3C) application: many eVisa holders with an outstanding in-time application can now generate a share code. Ask for that first. If they cannot, then ECS. A pending application does not automatically let you start or keep employing someone without the appropriate check.

There is no 28-day grace for new hires. If you cannot complete a prescribed check before employment starts, delay the start until you can, or until you have a PVN. The up-to-28-calendar-day continuation of an existing excuse applies only to existing employees, in the circumstances the guide sets out, to give you time to obtain a PVN or run an online check.

If you need ECS because of a newly made application, appeal or administrative review, the guide says to wait at least 14 calendar days after it was delivered or posted before you request verification.

Source: employer’s guide (26 June 2025), “When to contact the Home Office Employer Checking Service”, “In-time applications (3C leave)”, and “When do you conduct follow-up checks?” — checked 31 August 2026.

If you skip the prescribed check

Civil penalties are calculated case by case. The code of practice in force from 13 February 2024 uses a starting point of £45,000 per illegal worker for a first breach in three years, and £60,000 per worker for a repeat breach. Those are starting figures, not an automatic bill.

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. Do not only check people you assume are migrants.

Sources: Code of practice on preventing illegal working (13 February 2024) — checked 31 August 2026. Employer’s guide (26 June 2025), “What are the sanctions against illegal working?” — checked 31 August 2026.

Keep this as an ops job

This is a hiring control, not a visa application. If you also need to sponsor someone from overseas, that is a separate licence and a separate set of duties. Corporate immigration support sits under corporate visas and licences. Do not treat a share-code check as a substitute for either.

Home Office Employer Enquiry helpline: 0300 790 6268 (Monday to Thursday 9am–4:45pm, Friday 9am–4:30pm).

One next step

If you want a paid review of how your HR team runs share-code checks — or a case where the online service will not produce a result — book a consultation. Call +44 203 488 2308 or email inquiry@worldwideimmigration.co.uk.

Worldwide Immigration Ltd is regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority (IAA Ref F201900032). Advisers are not SRA-regulated solicitors. This page is not legal advice on your facts. Home Office services and fees change; we check the live GOV.UK pages before we advise on a file.

Sources (checked 31 August 2026)

Current in-force pages only. A draft employer’s guide (16 July 2026) and a draft code, both described as coming into force on 1 October 2026, sit on the same GOV.UK collection pages. They are not current as at 31 August 2026 and were not used for this note.

  1. https://www.gov.uk/check-job-applicant-right-to-work
  2. https://www.gov.uk/view-right-to-work
  3. https://www.gov.uk/prove-right-to-work
  4. https://www.gov.uk/prove-right-to-work/get-a-share-code-online
  5. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/right-to-work-checks-employers-guide/employers-guide-to-right-to-work-checks-26-june-2025-accessible
  6. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/illegal-working-penalties-codes-of-practice-for-employers/code-of-practice-on-preventing-illegal-working-right-to-work-scheme-for-employers-13-february-2024-accessible
  7. https://www.gov.uk/employee-immigration-employment-status
  8. https://www.gov.uk/student-visa