Imperial College London has a legal obligation to:

  • ensure that all prospective workers have the right to work (RTW) in the UK before they start work.
  • undertake follow up RTW checks (during employment) on workers who have time limited leave to enter or remain in the UK before their current permission expires
  • undertake appropriate RTW document checks for workers acquired following a TUPE transfer within 60 days

There are three types of right to work (RTW) checks that the College may carry out:

  • an in person manual RTW check; or
  • an IDSP digital RTW check (Casual Worker Team only); or
  • a Home Office online RTW check

These checks may be conducted by departments, the Staff Compliance Team or the Casual Worker Team, dependent on the type of check i.e. initial or follow-up, and your employment type i.e. employee or casual worker, and nationality and immigration status.

Additionally, where you have an outstanding visa/immigration status application or your immigration status requires additional verification, the Staff Compliance Team or Casual Worker Team will check this using the Home Office Employers Checking Service (ECS).

Please note the following which will impact upon your work start date:

  • You will not be permitted to start work until a satisfactory RTW check has been undertaken.
  • If you require an in person check and you are unable to attend an in person check before your proposed work start date for any reason (health, location, etc), your start date will be delayed until you are able to do so.

In order to demonstrate your right to work in the UK you are required to provide:

For in person manual RTW checks

Original documents from one of the lists of acceptable documents for right to work checks, either List A or List B Group 1 or List B Group 2, below:

  • If you have a continuous right to work in the UK, you must provide documents from List A.
  • If you have a time limited right to work in the UK until the expiry date of your leave, you must provide documents from List B Group 1. 
  • If you have a time limited right to work in the UK for 6 months, you must provide documents from List B Group 2. 

Please note that:

  • From 1 October 2022, temporary COVID-19 adjusted RTW check measures will end and manual checks must be conducted in person, as checks conducted remotely by video call will no longer be compliant with Home Office RTW legislation.
  • From 6 April 2022, manual checks of Biometric Residence Permits/Cards and Frontier Worker Permits are no longer permissible and must be verified via a Home Office online RTW check.

or

For IDSP digital RTW checks (Casual Worker Team only)

Your RTW documents and photo via the digital RTW check portal.

The digital RTW check portal supports checks for UK or Irish nationals with a valid biometric British/Irish passport or Irish passport card.

or

For Home Office online RTW check

A good quality scanned copy of your RTW documents and your RTW share code.

The online RTW check portal supports checks for those who hold: 

  • a biometric residence permit; 
  • a biometric residence card; 
  • status issued under the EU Settlement Scheme;
  • an EU Settlement Scheme Certificate of Application (CoA)
  • status issued under the points-based immigration system;
  • British National Overseas (BNO) visa;
  • Frontier workers permit  

and

For all manual, digital and online RTW checks

If you are a Tier 4/Student visa holder or a Tier 2/Skilled worker or Tier 5/Temporary worker, you must provide the additional documents specified under List B.

List A B

List A

List A - documents providing continuous permission

  1. A passport (current or expired) showing the holder is a British citizen or a citizen of the UK and Colonies having the right of abode in the UK.     
           
  2. A passport or passport card (in either case, whether current or expired) showing that the holder is an Irish citizen.       
                                                      
  3. A document issued by the Bailiwick of Jersey, the Bailiwick of Guernsey or the Isle of Man, which has been verified as valid by the Home Office Employer Checking Service, showing that the holder has been granted unlimited leave to enter or remain under Appendix EU(J) to the Jersey Immigration Rules, Appendix EU to the Immigration (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Rules 2008 or Appendix EU to the Isle of Man Immigration Rules.                             
                                                                                                 
  4. A current passport endorsed to show that the holder is exempt from immigration control, is allowed to stay indefinitely in the UK, has the right of abode in the UK, or has no time limit on their stay in the UK. 
                 
  5. A current Immigration Status Document issued by the Home Office to the holder with an endorsement indicating that the named person is allowed to stay indefinitely in the UK, or has no time limit on their stay in the UK, together with an official document giving the person’s permanent National Insurance number and their name issued by a government agency or a previous employer.     
                                                          
  6. A birth or adoption certificate issued in the UK, together with an official document giving the person’s permanent National Insurance number and their name issued by a government agency or a previous employer. Includes a full birth certificate issued by a UK diplomatic mission (British Embassy or British High Commission.                                                             
                             
  7. A birth or adoption certificate issued in the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man or Ireland, together with an official document giving the person’s permanent National Insurance number and their name issued by a government agency or a previous employer.                                               
            
  8. A certificate of registration or naturalisation as a British citizen, together with an official document giving the person’s permanent National Insurance number and their name issued by a government agency or a previous employer. 
List B

Group 1 – documents providing time-limited permission until the expiry date of leave

  1. A current passport endorsed to show that the holder is allowed to stay in the UK and is currently allowed to do the type of work in question. This includes a current passport endorsed with a stamp showing an individual has been granted leave to enter and there are no work-related conditions attached.  If, under the conditions of the individual’s leave, work was restricted or prohibited the endorsement placed in the individual’s passport would explicitly set that out as a condition.
                     
  2. A document issued by the Bailiwick of Jersey, the Bailiwick of Guernsey or the Isle of Man, which has been verified as valid by the Home Office Employer Checking Service, showing that the holder has been granted limited leave to enter or remain under Appendix EU(J) to the Jersey Immigration Rules, Appendix EU to the Immigration (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Rules 2008 or Appendix EU to the Isle of Man Immigration Rules.                                                                                                                     
  3.  A current Immigration Status Document containing a photograph issued by the Home Office to the holder with a valid endorsement indicating that the named person may stay in the UK, and is allowed to do the type of work in question, together with an official document giving the person’s permanent National Insurance number and their name issued by a government agency or a previous employer. This excludes holders of Biometric Residence Permits, Biometric Residence Cards and Frontier Worker Permits.
 
Group 2 - documents providing time-limited permission for 6 months

  1. A document issued by the Home Office showing that the holder has made an application for leave to enter or remain under Appendix EU to the immigration rules (known as the EU Settlement Scheme) on or before 30 June 2021 together with a Positive Verification Notice from the Home Office Employer Checking Service.

  2. A Certificate of Application (digital or non-digital) issued by the Home Office showing that the holder has made an application for leave to enter or remain under Appendix EU to the immigration rules (known as the EU Settlement Scheme), on or after 1 July 2021, together with a Positive Verification Notice from the Home Office Employer Checking Service.
     

  3. A document issued by the Bailiwick of Jersey, the Bailiwick of Guernsey or the Isle of Man showing that the holder has made an application for leave to enter or remain under Appendix EU(J) to the Jersey Immigration Rules or Appendix EU to the Immigration Rules (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Rules 2008, or Appendix EU to the Isle of Man Immigration Rules together with a Positive Verification Notice from the Home Office Employer Checking Service.

  4. An Application Registration Card issued by the Home Office stating that the holder is permitted to take the employment in question, together with a Positive Verification Notice from the Home Office Employer Checking Service.

  5. A Positive Verification Notice issued by the Home Office Employer Checking Service to the employer or prospective employer, which indicates that the named person may stay in the UK and is permitted to do the work in question.
Additional documents required by Tier 4/Student visa holders
  • As part of your RTW check, you are required to provide a completed Student Visa work form‌‌
  • You are required to provide the evidence of your institution’sterm and holiday dates specified on the form (ideally for full duration of the study programme however, if the evidence covers a lesser period, additional evidence will be needed for employment to continue past the expiry date).
  • If you are sponsored by another education institution, you are required to provide one of the following with your completed Student Visa work form‌
    • A printout from your education institution’s website or other material published by the institution setting out its timetable covering the full duration your course/programme; or 
    • A copy of a letter or email addressed to you or the recruiting manager from your education institution confirming term time dates covering the full duration of your course/programme.

This is needed in order to ensure that the College has on record details of when you are able to work part-time or full-time.

  • If you are at the end of your course, you must request (from your academic registry or student records office) and provide written evidence that you have completed all the academic requirements of the course (i.e. submitted the dissertation, attended the viva and completed corrections, or taken the resit exams) and that there is no further work and/or assessment outstanding. This is needed to confirm that your term-time working hours restriction no longer applies whilst your Tier 4/Student visa leave is valid.
Additional documents required by Tier 2/Skilled workers or Tier 5/Temporary workers

If you are sponsored by Imperial and newly arrived in UK, you are required to provide evidence of your UK Entry date (during your Entry Vignette validity period) e.g. stamp in passport / flight booking.

If you are sponsored by Imperial or another employer and will be undertaking supplementary work, you are required to provide

  • a copy of your Certificate of Sponsorship, Job descriptionand Contract (confirming normal working hours) for your sponsored employment; and
  • ATAS certificate, where undertaking relevant research activities

Please note: These documents must be checked by the Staff Compliance Team before you will be allowed to start work or access College campuses or IT network