The guidance on acceptable Right to Work (“RTW”) checks has been changed many times over the last few years, triggered mainly by the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent drive for digitalisation across both the Home Office and businesses.

In October 2023 it was updated again to reflect changes in the Immigration Rules relating to the EU Settlement Scheme for EEA nationals and their family members. The changes:

• Remove the requirement for employers to use the Employer Checking Service to verify a digital Certificate of Application received by a late (after 1 July 2021) applicant to the EU Settlement Scheme.

• Instead, the employer can now use the Home Office online RTW check service to check the employee’s ongoing RTW in the UK whilst their application is pending. This is in line with other types of employees’ checks.

It is important to note the wider context of this:

• Certificates of Application will only be issued when the application is confirmed as valid. Since the change in the EU Settlement Scheme in August 2023 where late applications were changed to being a validity criterion (no longer an eligibility criteria). Certificates of Application are less likely to be issued for applications being filed late (i.e. after 1 July 2021).

• Where the employee has not received a digital Certificate of Application and cannot generate a share code for the online RTW check, the Employer Checking Service may still need to be used.

How employers conduct RTW checks today is very different to pre-pandemic methods, with ever increasing electronic and entirely remote methods now possible. The use of the Home Office’s online RTW check service has expanded and is now the only acceptable method for a large cohort of employees.

The above changes show that RTW check processes need to be kept under regular review and any internal documents or training kept up to date.

This article is not intended to be used as legal advice. Should any of these updates be relevant to you, please seek expert legal advice from a regulated immigration practitioner. You can send us an enquiry to immigration@laytons.com.

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