UK Right-to-Work: What Every Employer Must Keep on File in 2026

What is Right to Work and why does it matter?

Under the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006, every UK employer is legally required to check that each employee has the right to work in the UK before they start employment. This applies to all workers — full-time, part-time, temporary, and agency staff.

Failing to conduct a proper check — or employing someone whose Right to Work has lapsed — can result in a civil penalty of up to £45,000 per illegal worker discovered on site. Repeat offences or cases where an employer knowingly hired someone without the right to work can result in criminal prosecution, unlimited fines, and imprisonment of up to five years.

Importantly, the "statutory excuse" — the legal protection that shields employers from liability — only applies if the original check was performed correctly and the documents were copied and retained. If your records are incomplete, you have no defence even if you genuinely believed the worker had the right to work.

Documents that prove Right to Work

The Home Office divides acceptable documents into two lists:

List A — unlimited right to work (one-time check only)

These documents confirm that the holder has no time restriction on their right to work in the UK. A single check at the start of employment is sufficient:

List B — time-limited right to work (follow-up checks required)

These documents confirm the holder has a time-limited permission to work. Employers must conduct follow-up checks before the permission expires:

The eVisa transition: what employers need to know in 2026

One of the most significant changes in recent years is the shift from physical immigration documents to eVisas. From the end of 2024, the Home Office stopped issuing new Biometric Residence Permits (BRPs). Instead, most non-UK/Irish nationals now hold immigration status entirely digitally — through the UKVI online service.

For employers, this means:

You cannot rely solely on a physical document like a BRP. The definitive check is the Home Office online right-to-work checking service (gov.uk/prove-right-to-work).

Workers share a time-limited 'share code' from their UKVI account, which you use alongside their date of birth to verify their right to work status online.

The online check also tells you if any restrictions apply (such as limited hours for student visa holders).

You must retain a clear copy of the share code check result — a screenshot or PDF of the confirmation screen — as your statutory excuse.

Crucially, eVisa status can still expire — particularly for workers on Pre-Settled Status, student visas, or Skilled Worker visas. An employee whose visa was valid when hired may have their permission to work expire during employment. That is why follow-up checks are mandatory for all List B workers.

How long do you need to keep Right-to-Work records?

You must retain copies of the documents you checked, or screenshots of online check results, for the duration of employment plus two years after the employment ends. After that two-year period, you should securely destroy the records in line with your GDPR obligations.

Records must be stored securely and must be retrievable quickly in the event of a UKVI inspection. Inspectors can and do request records at short notice — if you cannot produce them, your statutory excuse is invalidated.

Follow-up checks for time-limited documents

For any employee with a time-limited right to work (List B documents, Pre-Settled Status, eVisa with an expiry), you must carry out a repeat check before their current permission expires. If you fail to conduct this follow-up check, your statutory excuse lapses — and you could face the full civil penalty even if the employee's status is actually still valid.

The follow-up check must be conducted using the same method as the original check: online share code check for eVisa holders, document copy for physical document holders.

This is the area where most employers slip up. It is not enough to check at the start of employment — you need a system that tracks each employee's permission expiry date and triggers an alert in advance so you have time to request the follow-up check before the deadline.

What good Right-to-Work record management looks like

The bottom line

Right-to-Work compliance is not a one-time task — it is an ongoing obligation. With the eVisa transition making digital checks the norm and UKVI enforcement visits rising year on year, employers who rely on paper-based or spreadsheet systems are increasingly exposed.

A dedicated compliance tracking system removes the manual burden: it stores the check records, tracks expiry dates for every time-limited worker, and sends automatic alerts when follow-up checks are due. The cost of the software is negligible compared to a single £45,000 civil penalty.