How to run right to work checks and keep sponsor records

Check every hire at the same stage

Carry out an appropriate right-to-work check before employment begins. The check confirms whether the person may do the offered work. Completing the prescribed steps can also give the organisation a statutory excuse against a civil penalty.

Use the same point in the recruitment process for everyone you are considering at that stage, including British and Irish citizens. Do not decide who needs a check from their name, accent, appearance or assumed nationality. The Home Office code on avoiding discrimination explains the consistent approach employers should take.

Name the person responsible for the check and make completion a condition before the start date, not an informal task for the first week. If evidence is missing or unclear, pause the start and use the correct Home Office route rather than improvising.

Choose the prescribed route

Start with the evidence the candidate can provide, then use the matching route in the current employer's guide:

• Home Office online check: use the employer service with the candidate's share code and date of birth. Save the profile page that shows their photograph, work status, restrictions and the date of your check.
• Digital verification service: this route covers British and Irish passports and, from 1 October 2026, some other documents issued digitally. People with an eVisa use the Home Office online check instead. The employer must still compare the result with the person and retain the required evidence.
• Manual document check: obtain the original acceptable documents, check them in the presence of the holder and make clear, dated copies in a form that cannot be altered manually. Use the current right-to-work checklist, not a document list saved years ago.
• Employer Checking Service: use this where the Home Office route requires it, for example when a person has a qualifying outstanding application or cannot show the usual evidence. A Positive Verification Notice normally gives a time-limited statutory excuse.

Do not mix steps from different routes and assume the combined result is valid. Record which route was used, the date, who completed it and the output that was retained.

Match the result to the person and the job

The result must belong to the person in front of you. Compare the photograph and biographical details, resolve name differences and make sure there is no obvious reason to think the evidence belongs to someone else. This can be done in person or, where the prescribed route allows it, by live video.

Then read what the result actually permits. Check whether the person can do the role, whether their hours or type of work are restricted, and whether permission has an end date. A simple “check complete” tick loses the information that determines what happens next.

Keep the recruitment decision separate from immigration assumptions. Ask only what you need to establish the right to work and any relevant restriction. Select the best candidate for the job, then run the same documented process at the same stage.

Keep the evidence and the next date together

For an online check, retain the profile page that includes the person's photograph and the date of the check. For a manual or digital check, retain the evidence specified for that route. The Home Office employer guide requires right-to-work evidence to be kept securely throughout employment and for two years afterwards, then securely destroyed.

If the result gives a time-limited statutory excuse, record the expiry and arrange the follow-up before it ends. A Positive Verification Notice normally lasts six months. A person's immigration permission and your statutory-excuse period are related, but they are not always the same date, so copy the date from the actual result rather than calculating it from memory.

Keep access narrow. A hiring manager may need to know that the check is complete and whether a work restriction affects the role. They do not automatically need a copy of the identity evidence.

Add sponsor controls only if you hold a licence

A sponsor licence adds duties that continue after the right-to-work check. The organisation must keep required records, monitor sponsored workers, report specified changes, maintain suitable systems and co-operate with Home Office checks. The right-to-work receipt belongs in that evidence trail, but it does not prove that the wider duties have been met.

The current sponsor duties guidance, Part 3 normally requires specified worker changes within 10 working days and specified organisation changes within 20 working days, unless the guidance gives a different deadline. Do not turn those headline periods into a generic timer for every event. Identify the event, check the live rule and record who will submit any report through the Sponsor Management System.

Choose a primary sponsor-licence owner and a deputy. Managers need one route for reporting changes to role, salary, work location, absence or employment status.

Build the sponsor file around the real employment

Use Appendix D as the live record list. Depending on the route and recruitment, the file can include:

• right-to-work and entry evidence
• contact details and absence records
• recruitment evidence
• qualifications or registrations needed for the role
• the job, salary and working arrangements
• documents required by the route-specific sponsor guidance

Connect those records to the employment record so a change in one place prompts the right question elsewhere. A salary change, for example, should not update payroll while leaving the Certificate of Sponsorship facts and reporting decision untouched.

Sponsor retention is not identical to right-to-work retention. Unless Appendix D says otherwise, sponsor documents are generally kept throughout sponsorship until the earlier of one year after sponsorship ends or the date a compliance officer has examined and approved them. Another legal or operational purpose may require a longer period. Record the purpose and disposal rule for each record rather than applying one deletion date to the whole folder.

Test the route from a change to a report

Test the route with a work-location change. Confirm how the manager reports it, who checks the current rule, where the deadline and decision are recorded, and where submission confirmation is saved. Repeat the exercise for an unauthorised absence and an organisation change.

Use HollyHR to keep private evidence, decisions, documents and expiry dates beside the employment record. The Home Office check and sponsor reporting still happen outside HollyHR and need an authorised owner.