Updated Guidance: An Employer's Guide to Right to Work Checks February 2023

The guidance document An Employer’s Guide to Right to Work Checks was updated on 28th February 2023.

The most significant changes include:

• Confirmation that the Home Office is aiming to move to a fully digitised system by December 2024.
• Clarification for employers on the use of Identity Document Validation Technology (IDVT) and Identity Service Providers (IDSPs) to support manual document-based and Home Office online checking service right to work checks. It is only possible to establish a ‘statutory excuse’ where you use an IDSP expressly for right to work checks of British or Irish citizens with a valid passport (or Irish passport card), it is not possible to establish a statutory excuse via an IDSP against liability for a civil penalty if they perform a manual document-based check, or online service right to work check.
• New information on sponsored work and student categories (Annex B). Students are not permitted to fill a permanent full-time vacancy unless they are applying to switch to the Skilled Worker or Graduate routes during their study. Changes to the Immigration Rules now allow students with valid applications for these routes to take up permanent, full-time vacancies either, up to three months before the course completion date for the Skilled Worker route, or once they have completed their course of study for the Graduate route or where they have permission under the Doctorate Extension Scheme.
• Detailed information on short-dated Biometric Residence Permits (BRPs). As an employer you may be presented with BRP cards with an expiry date of 31 December 2024 where the holder actually has permission to stay in the UK that ends after that date. This is not an error and the holder’s rights, and entitlements are unaffected. When the holder provides you with a share code to prove their right to work, their online profile will display the expiry date of their immigration permission, rather than the card expiry date of 31 December 2024.
• The end of the COVID-19 temporary adjusted checks on 30 September 2022.
• Changes to enable some individuals with an outstanding, in-time application for permission to stay in the UK, or an appeal, or administrative review to prove their right to work using the Home Office online checking service.
• A minor amendment to List A ‘Acceptable documents to provide a statutory excuse’ confirming that Re-Admission to the UK (RUK) endorsements are an acceptable document for the purposes of right to work checks.