What are List A right-to-work documents?
List A documents give a worker an unlimited, permanent right to work in the UK. A correct check on a List A document gives the employer a continuous statutory excuse for the whole of that person's employment — meaning there is no follow-up check, ever, for that specific right-to-work basis.
The most common List A documents are:
— A UK passport (or passport describing the holder as a British citizen or British subject). — An Irish passport or Irish passport card. — A birth or adoption certificate from the UK, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, or Ireland, combined with an official UK National Insurance number document. — A Home Office share code (confirmed via the online right-to-work checking service) showing settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme, or indefinite leave to remain.
British and Irish citizens cannot generate an online share code through the Home Office service. For them, you use original documents or an accredited Identity Service Provider using Identity Document Validation Technology (IDVT).
| Document | List | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| UK or British citizen passport | A | Manual check or IDVT via IDSP — no share code available |
| Irish passport / passport card | A | Manual check or IDVT — no re-check required |
| Birth certificate + National Insurance number document | A | Both documents must be originals |
| Share code confirming settled status (EUSS) | A | Check online at right-to-work.service.gov.uk |
| Share code confirming indefinite leave to remain | A | Check online — no re-check required |
| Certificate of registration / naturalisation as British citizen | A | Manual check — keep dated copy |
| Biometric Residence Permit with indefinite leave to remain | A | Most BRPs expired 31 Dec 2024 — see Note below |
| Share code (Skilled Worker visa) | B | Re-check when visa expires |
| Share code (Student visa with work permission) | B | Re-check when visa/permission expires |
| Share code (pre-settled status) | B | Re-check before pre-settled status expires |
| Biometric Residence Permit (if still valid) | B | Re-check when BRP expires (note: BRPs being phased out) |
| Certificate of Application (outstanding application) | B | Must use Employer Checking Service; PVN valid 6 months |
What are List B right-to-work documents?
List B documents prove a time-limited right to work. The permission expires on a specific date, and so does your statutory excuse. Before that date, you must re-check to confirm the worker's leave has been extended.
Common List B documents include:
— A share code confirmed via the online right-to-work checking service showing time-limited leave — for example, a Skilled Worker visa, a Student visa with permission to work, or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme. — A visa vignette (stamp or sticker) in a non-UK passport endorsed with the right to work. — A document issued by the Home Office stating the holder has an outstanding application or appeal (in which case you need to contact the Employer Checking Service rather than rely on the document alone).
The Home Office guidance subdivides List B into Group 1 and Group 2, which affects how long the statutory excuse lasts after a correct check, but the core obligation is the same: track the expiry date and re-check on or before it.
What happened to Biometric Residence Permits?
Biometric Residence Permits (BRPs) were the plastic cards that held a migrant's biometric data and visa details. The Home Office stopped issuing them on 31 October 2024. Most existing BRPs carried an expiry date of 31 December 2024 — not because the holder's leave ended, but because the card format was being retired.
Status is now digital. Workers who held a BRP have been issued an eVisa, which is a digital record of their immigration status held in a UKVI (UK Visas and Immigration) account. To prove right to work, they generate a share code from their UKVI account and give it to the employer, who checks it at right-to-work.service.gov.uk.
The Home Office employer's guide is clear: a manual check of an original, expired BRP is not acceptable proof of right to work. If a job applicant presents you with an expired BRP, you cannot accept it for right-to-work purposes. Ask them to generate a share code from their eVisa instead.
Why does the list matter for re-check obligations?
List A gives you a continuous statutory excuse — one correct check, correctly evidenced, covers the whole employment. List B gives you a time-limited excuse. The excuse lasts until the worker's permission expires, and it only continues if you carry out a correct re-check on or before that date.
The practical difference: a worker with settled status (List A) never needs a right-to-work re-check. A worker on a Skilled Worker visa that expires in eight months (List B) needs a re-check before that date, or you lose your statutory excuse even if the worker has already renewed their visa.
Most compliance failures happen at the re-check stage, not the initial check. Employers carry out the initial check because it is tied to onboarding. The re-check has no natural trigger except the expiry date itself — which is why tracking that date is the practical priority.