The Single Central Record: What It Is and How to Keep It Compliant
Right to Work Share Code UK: How to Check an Employee’s Right to Work
Employing someone without the right to work can cost up to £45,000 per worker for a first breach and £60,000 for a repeat, and a missing or badly recorded check is what removes your defence. Yet the check itself takes minutes when you know the process. The right to work share code is at the centre of it, and with physical immigration documents now largely a thing of the past, every UK employer needs the digital routine down cold. Here’s the whole process, from what is a right to work share code through to keeping the evidence that protects your organisation.
What Is a Right to Work Share Code?
A right to work share code is defined as a nine character code, usually beginning with the letter W, that a candidate generates from their UKVI account so an employer can view their immigration status directly on the Home Office database. Since Biometric Residence Permits stopped being valid at the end of 2024, almost every non British, non Irish worker holds a digital eVisa instead, and the share code is how they prove it. For eVisa holders, the prescribed right to work check is carried out digitally through the Home Office service.
Key definition: a share code gives you a time limited window onto the candidate’s live immigration record. It stays valid for 90 days from generation and can be used by more than one employer in that time, so a candidate interviewing widely can share the same code with everyone.
One distinction worth knowing early. GOV.UK issues different codes for different purposes, and only a code generated for work will do. A code created for Right to Rent or a status check won’t give you a statutory excuse, which is the legal protection that shields you from a penalty if something later turns out to be wrong.
Step 1: How to Get a Right to Work Share Code from Your Candidate
Before you can run the check, you need two things from the candidate: their code and their date of birth. Here’s how to get both right first time.
Send them to the official service. The candidate generates the code through GOV.UK’s Prove your right to work service[1] using their UKVI account. Third party sites can’t produce a valid code, so link them to GOV.UK directly.
Make sure they pick the work option. The service issues different code types. Choosing the right to work option produces a code starting with W; anything else will be rejected by the employer portal.
Collect the code and date of birth in writing. You’ll enter both exactly as given, so ask for them by email rather than over the phone.
Check the code is still in date. Codes expire 90 days after generation. If your recruitment process has run long, ask for a fresh one before you proceed.
Pro tip: a code for employment always starts with W. If you’re handed one with a different first letter, it was generated for the wrong purpose. Ask the candidate to repeat the process and select the work option.
Step 2: Run the Check on the Home Office Portal
With the code and date of birth confirmed, the employer side takes five minutes:
Go to the official portal. Use GOV.UK’s View a job applicant’s right to work service[2]. This is the only route that gives you a statutory excuse.
Enter the code and date of birth exactly. A single wrong character returns an error, so check both fields before submitting.
Read the profile properly. Look for restrictions on hours or role types, and note any expiry date on the permission to work.
Match the photo to the person. The photograph on the digital profile must match the candidate in front of you, in person or on a video call. A mismatch makes the check invalid regardless of what the portal says, and this is the step busy teams skip most often.
Step 3: Save the Evidence and Secure Your Statutory Excuse
The portal result isn’t the finish line. Your statutory excuse only exists if you keep the proof, and this is where manual processes quietly fall apart:
Download the PDF result immediately. It’s time stamped and tied to the share code, and it is your evidence of a compliant check.
Keep it securely for the whole employment plus two years after the person leaves. That’s a legal requirement, not guidance.
Diarise a follow up check before any expiry date on time limited permission. A missed follow up is one of the most common ways employers lose their protection.
- File the record centrally in your HR system, not a local folder or an email thread. Illegal working enforcement visits rose 48% year on year to May 2025, according to Home Office transparency data[4], and scattered records are a liability in an inspection.
This is exactly the kind of repeatable, deadline driven admin that belongs inside an onboarding workflow rather than a spreadsheet, with the evidence stored alongside the rest of your HR documents and compliance records.
What’s Changing: Checks Are Extending Beyond Employees
Right to work compliance is about to get wider. The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025[3] received Royal Assent on 2 December 2025, and it will extend right to work check obligations beyond direct employees to individuals on workers’ contracts, individual subcontractors and people engaged through gig economy platforms. The detailed implementation is being brought into force through secondary legislation. If your organisation engages casual, freelance or platform based workers without checking them today, that gap is closing, and the organisations with a clean, digital, repeatable checking process will absorb the change without breaking stride.
Make Every Check Consistent, Evidenced and On Time
Reliability comes down to three habits. Check before the first shift, never after. Store the evidence centrally with the date it was obtained. And diarise every time limited permission the day you record it, so the follow up check happens before the expiry, not after someone flags it.
