Guide
Right to work check documents list: List A and List B
Updated
A manual document check suits British and Irish citizens and is open to everyone. It only works with all three steps, in order, before employment starts.
Talk to a specialist One minute in the wizard against a civil penalty of up to £60,000 per illegal worker.
Question 1
What are you trying to do?
This wizard is written for employers. It follows the Home Office employer's guide, which since 1 October 2026 also covers people engaged under a worker's contract, individual sub-contractors and online matching services (see the subcontractors guide).
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The three steps, and why all three matter
- Obtain. Get the original documents from List A or List B of the Home Office employer's guide. Not a photo, not a scan sent ahead: the originals.
- Check. Satisfy yourself the documents are genuine, unchanged and belong to the person in front of you, that any permission has not expired, and that they are allowed to do the work you are offering. Do this in the person's presence, in person or over a live video link with the originals in your hands.
- Copy. Make a clear copy in a format that cannot be altered, and record the date you made the check. A dated declaration on the copy, or a separate secure record, both work.
Miss a step and you have a photocopy, not a statutory excuse. The guide is explicit that the check must be completed before employment commences: a check done in week two does not cover week one.
Right to work documents list: List A and List B, the difference that matters
- List A
- Documents held by people with a continuous right to work, for example a current British or Irish passport. A correct check gives a continuous statutory excuse for the whole of that person's employment, and no follow-up check is needed.
- List B
- Documents held by people with a temporary right to work. A correct check gives a time-limited statutory excuse, and you must do a follow-up check to keep it.
The full lists are in Annex A of the Home Office employer's guide. Read them there rather than from a recruiter's cheat sheet, because the lists change and an out-of-date list is how employers end up accepting documents that no longer count.
Right to work checklist: what to check on the documents
- Photographs and dates of birth are consistent across the documents and with the person in front of you.
- Expiry dates for permission to be in the UK have not passed.
- Any restriction on the type of work, or on hours, allows the job you are offering.
- The documents are genuine, have not been tampered with, and belong to the holder.
- Where names differ across documents, there is supporting evidence such as a marriage certificate, decree absolute or deed poll, and you copy that too.
Copying and keeping
For passports, copy any page with the expiry date, nationality, date of birth, signature, immigration permission and photograph. For everything else, copy the whole document.
Keep copies securely, electronically or on paper, for the employment and two years after the person leaves, then destroy them securely. You must be able to produce them quickly if the Home Office asks.
What you must not do
- You cannot delegate a manual check of original documents to a third party such as a recruitment agency and still hold the statutory excuse. The exception is a certified digital verification service used for British and Irish passport holders.
- You cannot accept a biometric residence permit or card. Ask for a share code instead (gov.uk).
- You cannot ask only some candidates, chosen by how they look or sound. Ask everyone the same question at the same stage.