For candidates · Staying safe · Readiness test
What you need before your first shift
Turning up without the right piece of paper costs you the day, and it is almost always something that could have been sorted the night before. This is the list, and then the part most agencies leave out: what nobody is allowed to ask you for.
The share code, which is now most people's answer
Where. gov.uk/prove-right-to-work
Cost. Free. Always free, and you can make as many as you need.
What it looks like. Nine characters, beginning with the letter W.
How long it lasts. 90 days, and the same code can be used more than once inside that time.
The employer puts the code and your date of birth into a different government page, gov.uk/view-right-to-work, and reads your record straight from the Home Office. They are not trusting a photograph of anything, which is why this route is better for you as well as for them.
Do not mix this up with the DVLA code. A driving licence check code from gov.uk/view-driving-licence is a DIFFERENT code: it lasts 21 DAYS, not 90, and it can only be used ONCE, so four employers means four codes. The right to work code lasts 90 days and can be reused. Two codes, two sets of rules, and the same word for both.
If you are British or Irish
One document that shows who you are, and one that shows your National Insurance number. You will usually have both already.
One of these, to show who you are
- A British or Irish passport. It may be EXPIRED and it still counts, as long as it has not been clipped or cut.
- A UK or Irish birth certificate, short or long, showing at least one parent's name.
- A UK or Irish adoption certificate showing at least one adoptive parent's name.
- A certificate of registration or naturalisation as a British or Irish citizen.
And one of these, for your National Insurance number
- A P45 or P60 from a previous employer.
- A payslip from a previous employer showing the number.
- A National Insurance card, both sides.
- A letter from a government department showing the number.
You can also use a digital identity check through a certified provider instead, which some agencies prefer. It is still free to you.
If you are any other nationality
Almost always the share code, because almost everybody now has an eVisa rather than a card.
| What you hold | What to bring |
|---|---|
| An eVisa | The share code. That is the whole answer. |
| Indefinite leave to remain | A passport with the indefinite leave visa in it, or an immigration status document confirming it together with proof of your National Insurance number. |
| Limited leave to remain | A passport showing permission to stay and to do this kind of work, or a status document with a valid endorsement plus National Insurance proof. A certificate of application or an application registration card can work, but the employer has to verify it with the Home Office before you start, so allow time. |
| A student visa | Everything above AND a letter from your university, signed or stamped, giving your course dates and your term and vacation periods. Your hours are capped in term time and the letter is how an employer knows which weeks are which. |
What nobody is allowed to ask you for
This is the half that is usually missing. A list of documents on its own does not tell you where a lawful request stops and a scam begins, and at six in the morning in a portacabin the two look identical.
Money. For anything.
A right to work check is free. A share code is free. Checking one is free. NOBODY MAY CHARGE YOU A PENNY for finding you work or for any part of getting you started, and that is section 6 of the Employment Agencies Act 1973 rather than our opinion.
Your bank details before there is a job
Payroll needs them eventually and there is nothing sinister about that. But they are needed to PAY you, not to consider you, so a bank account asked for at the application stage is the commonest shape a recruitment scam takes.
To keep your original documents
An employer or agency takes a copy and gives the original straight back. Nobody holds a passport. If somebody is keeping your documents, that is one of the recognised signs of forced labour and it is on our forced labour page for that reason.
Documents from you and not from the person next to you
An employer must run the same check on EVERYBODY, including people who sound and look British. Asking only the applicants who seem foreign is race discrimination under the Equality Act 2010, and the Home Office code of practice on avoiding discrimination while preventing illegal working says so directly. If you were the only one asked, that is worth saying out loud.
A check after you have already started
The check has to happen BEFORE the first shift. That is not about you, it is about the employer: done properly and in time it gives them a statutory excuse against a civil penalty, and done late it gives them nothing at all. An employer trying to do it in week three has already lost the protection, whatever they tell you.
If any of that happens to you, tell us and we will act on it. You can also report it to JobsAware, which is free, is backed by the Metropolitan Police and the DWP among others, and does not depend on us agreeing with you.
Four things that save a wasted morning
- Get the share code the night before, not in the car park. It takes a few minutes and the government site occasionally has a queue.
- Take the originals, not photographs of them. A photograph of a passport on a phone is not a document anybody can accept.
- Check your name matches across everything. A middle name on one and not the other is the single commonest reason a start gets delayed.
- If something is missing, say so before the shift rather than on the morning. Almost everything can be sorted out with a day's notice and almost nothing can be sorted out at five to six.