Right to work checks for overseas contractors

Why the check matters

A right to work check is what gives an employer a statutory excuse against a civil penalty. Done correctly and in time, it protects the business; done late or partially, it does not protect it at all.

The penalty regime treats an incomplete check the same as no check.

Which route applies

• British and Irish citizens can be checked on a passport, or through an identity service provider using digital identity verification.
• Most other workers now prove their status digitally, using a share code checked against the Home Office service.
• A share code must be checked while it is valid and against the person in front of you — a code alone is not a check.
• Where a status is time-limited, a follow-up check is due before it expires.

Record keeping

Keep a clear copy of the evidence, record the date the check was made, and retain it for the duration of employment plus two years.

For a digital check, the record is the response from the Home Office service, not a screenshot of the code.

The common failure

The usual gap is not the first check but the repeat one. A time-limited status that lapses unnoticed turns a compliant engagement into an illegal one without anybody doing anything.