Hiring and probation

Right to work: follow-up check reminder letter

Tells an employee with time-limited permission that a repeat check is due, and what you need from them.

An existing employee's permission to work expires on a date you recorded at the first check. Write four to six weeks before it. If they have applied to extend, the Employer Checking Service can confirm an ongoing right while the application is pending.

Before it goes

  • Check your record of the expiry date from the original check.
  • Diarise the Employer Checking Service route in case the extension application is still pending on the expiry date.

The letter

[COMPANY NAME] [COMPANY ADDRESS] [DATE] [EMPLOYEE NAME] [EMPLOYEE ADDRESS] Dear [EMPLOYEE FIRST NAME], Follow-up right to work check due When you joined us we recorded that your current permission to work in the UK expires on [EXPIRY DATE]. We are required to carry out a follow-up check before that date to confirm that you continue to have the right to work. Please, by [DATE, two weeks before expiry], either: Send a new share code from gov.uk/prove-right-to-work to [EMAIL] together with your date of birth, so we can complete an online check; or If you have applied to extend your permission and are waiting for a decision, send us evidence of the application (for example the Home Office acknowledgement) and we will use the Home Office Employer Checking Service to confirm your position while the application is pending. If we are unable to confirm your continued right to work by [EXPIRY DATE], we will not be able to allow you to continue working after that date, and we would have to consider your employment. I very much hope that will not arise, so please contact me as soon as possible if there is any difficulty. Yours sincerely, [MANAGER NAME] [JOB TITLE] [COMPANY NAME]

Filling it in

Timing
Write early. A pending application takes the Home Office weeks; the Employer Checking Service takes five working days.
Tone
This is an administrative reminder to a colleague, not an accusation. Keep it warm and keep it factual.

What the law says

  • Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006: the statutory excuse for time-limited permission lasts only until the permission expires; a follow-up check is needed to keep it.
  • Home Office Employer's Guide to Right to Work Checks: follow-up checks and the Employer Checking Service.
Guidance, not legal advice. Employment law moves; check the current position before relying on any of it, and take advice on anything that could end someone's employment.

What turns this letter into a claim

  • Do not let the date pass and then ask. Once permission has expired without a check, the statutory excuse has gone.
  • Do not dismiss on the expiry date without taking advice. Where an in-time extension application is pending, the right to work usually continues and a dismissal can be unfair.

Questions people ask

What if their application is still pending on the expiry date?

An in-time application normally extends the existing permission until it is decided. Use the Employer Checking Service to get a Positive Verification Notice, which gives you a statutory excuse for six months. Do not dismiss on the day; check.

Do I need follow-up checks for everyone?

Only for people whose permission is time-limited. British and Irish citizens, and people with indefinite leave or settled status, need one check, done properly, once.

The letter, with the names already in

Employ AI drafts letters like this one from the employee's record, so the dates, service and pay are already right, and the disciplinary module writes the invitation and outcome letters from the case itself. All 44 letter families, 49 UK policies, GPS clock-in, rotas, leave and timesheets: £2.50 a month plus £1 per employee. 14 days free, no card.

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