When There Is No Document to Hand Over: Right to Work in the Age of the eVisa

For decades, proving the right to work in the United Kingdom was a tactile exercise. You produced a biometric residence permit, a vignette in a passport, or an endorsement in ink, and a prospective employer copied it. That world has largely gone. Since the biometric residence permit scheme was retired at the end of 2024, most people with permission to live and work here hold their status digitally, in a UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) account.

The difficulty is that workplace practice has not always kept pace with the policy. Recruitment teams still circulate old checklists. Line managers still ask for a card. Applicants are left explaining, sometimes to a sceptical audience, that the document they are being asked for was never going to exist. This article sets out how the system is meant to work, and how to navigate it calmly when it does not.

Why the card has gone

The Home Office moved to a digital status model because it removes the lag between a decision and a document, and because it allows status to be updated without a postal application. Your permission, its conditions and its expiry date now sit in an online record tied to the identity document you used when you created your account — usually a passport, and often the one you used in your original application.

This matters practically. If you have renewed your passport since applying, the account may still be linked to the old one. That is one of the most common reasons a check fails at the first attempt, and it has nothing to do with your underlying right to work.

The share code, in plain terms

A share code is a short, time-limited reference that allows an employer to view a defined slice of your immigration record. It is not a password and it does not give access to your whole file. A code generated for a right to work check shows only what the employer is entitled to see: your name, your photograph, your permission to work, any restriction on the type of work, and the expiry date.

Codes are valid for 90 days. They are not single-use in the strict sense, but best practice is to generate a fresh one for each employer and to treat an old code as spent. Employers must also be given your date of birth alongside the code, which acts as a second check against mis-keying.

Generating a code, step by step

1. Sign in to your UKVI account using the identity document linked to it.
2. Select the purpose of the check. Choose the right one — a right to work code is not the same as a right to rent code, and an employer cannot use one in place of the other.
3. Confirm your details and generate the code.
4. Save or screenshot the confirmation screen, which shows the code and its expiry date.
5. Send the code and your date of birth to the employer, ideally in writing, and note the date you did so.

You can also prove your status without a code by using the online checking service yourself and producing the result, though most employers prefer to run the check directly because doing so preserves their statutory excuse against a civil penalty.

When the employer asks for something that does not exist

This is the conversation that causes the most anxiety, and it is worth approaching it as an information problem rather than a confrontation. Employers have a legal duty to prevent illegal working, and they face a civil penalty if they get it wrong. Their caution is understandable, even when it is misdirected.

A useful way to frame the reply is: the check is still available, only the format has changed. The Home Office publishes employer guidance confirming that an online check through the service produces a statutory excuse in the same way a document check does. Offering to walk the employer through the process, or pointing their HR team to the current guidance, is usually more effective than asserting a right and leaving it there.

If a recruiter insists on a physical document, ask them to confirm the request in writing, provide the share code anyway, and keep a dated record of the exchange. In most cases a conversation with a supervisor or HR business partner resolves it. Where it does not, the matter may need to be escalated internally, and in rare cases advice on whether the refusal amounts to unlawful treatment.

Common errors and how to correct them

The code is not recognised. Check that it has not expired, that it was generated for the correct purpose, and that the date of birth has been entered in the format the service expects.

The name does not match. Employers sometimes key a middle name, a maiden name or a hyphen incorrectly. Ask them to compare against the confirmation screen rather than the passport.

The account is linked to an old passport. You can update the identity document in your UKVI account. Do this before generating a new code, and allow time for the change to take effect.

The status shown is wrong. If the record displays the wrong conditions, an incorrect expiry date or no status at all, report it to the Home Office through the online reporting route and keep evidence of the report. Do not simply resubmit codes in the hope the problem resolves itself.

If you hold an older document

Some people still rely on legacy evidence: an indefinite leave to enter stamp in a passport, a Home Office letter, or an old-style residence card. Many of these holders have since been asked to create a UKVI account to link that status digitally. If you have not yet done so, doing it now is the single most useful step you can take, because it removes the recurring need to explain a paper document to an employer who has never seen one.

Keeping your own record

Set a reminder to check your UKVI account before any job application, particularly after renewing a passport or changing your name. Keep your own file — the code confirmation, the date shared, the employer's acknowledgement, and any correspondence about a failed check. If a dispute ever arises, that file is worth more than recollection.

Miah Solicitors advises individuals and employers on right to work checks, digital status and the practicalities of the eVisa system. If a check has failed and no one can explain why, we can look at the record with you and identify the right route to correct it.