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Checking eligibility to work in the UK
Prevention of illegal working including guidance, checklists and document checks.
Before you offer employment to a potential member of staff, certain checks must be carried out to ensure that they have a right to work in the United Kingdom (UK). These checks must be carried out for ALL staff, regardless of their nationality.
All documents must be kept for the following periods unless otherwise stated.
- If the migrant is sponsored for less than one year:
- the duration the migrant is sponsored; or
- until a compliance officer has examined and approved them
whichever is the longer period.
- If the migrant is sponsored for one year or more:
- one year; or
- until a compliance officer has examined and approved them
whichever is the longer period.
Details of what documents are acceptable in order to prove Eligbility to Work can be found on the Eligibility to Work checklist (link below), as well as details of which parts of the relevant document needs to be copied.
Document Checks - Guidance
Recruiting managers are asked to use the Eligibility to Work Checklist in each situation as a guide.
All documents must be originals and must be checked in person, face-to-face, before an individual can be offered employment. Where it is not possible to carry out an interview face-to-face, documents should be verified face-to-face at an appropriate time prior to their proposed start date and prior to an unconditional offer being made.
As a general rule, the front cover of the passport, personal details page, any pages containing a UK Government stamp or endorsement which allows the individual to do the type of work being offered should be copied and verified using the correct stamp.
If you are unsure whether the documents an individual has presented gives them an automatic right to work in the UK, please contact your local HR team before making an offer of employment.
If you require a stamp, please also contact your local HR team.
List A
Documents from List A demonstrate that an individual has the right to work in the UK with no restrictions.
If documents from List A are presented, no further checks relating to that person´s eligibility to work in the UK need to be carried out for the duration of their employment with the University.
List B
Documents from List B indicate that the person has limitations on their eligibility to work in the UK (normally time limits).
If documents from List B are presented, then the checks should be repeated for that individual at least once every twelve months from the start of their employment.
All subsequent checks should involve the copying and verifying of documents (using the relevant stamp) and these copies should be forwarded to the local HR team.
Only those documents, or combinations of documents, shown in List A and List B can be relied upon to demonstrate an applicant´s eligibility to work in the UK.
In the absence of such documents, the applicant will not have a right to work in the UK however, the University of Edinburgh may be able to apply for a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) to employ the individual.
See the guidance for applying for a CoS:
This article was published on Apr 26, 2013