Digital right to work checks: The simplest way to stay compliant
Jaye Hackett
Right to work checks are a legal requirement for every UK employer, and getting them wrong can lead to fines of up to £60,000 per worker and possible prison time.
The old approach of checking passports in person is quickly being replaced by digital, remote checks that are faster, easier to manage, and more resistant to fraud.
Vouchsafe provides fully certified digital right to work checks you can run online in minutes, with a 14 day free trial and a simple pay as you go price of £1.98 per check.
Why do I need digital right to work checks?
Until recently, it was normal to ask employees to bring in a passport on day one and take a photocopy for your records.
Three things changed: the explosion in remote work, serious Home Office enforcement penalties and the greater ease of fraud all mean using a digital system is no longer the nice to-have it was a few years ago.
Using a digital system like Vouchsafe means you can onboard new workers remotely, with reduced fraud risk.
It also makes the whole operation easier to administer. You are guaranteed a good audit trail with no possibility of passport scans going missing, and Vouchsafe sends daily email reminders to workers until the check is done.
How do digital checks protect me from fraud?
A digital right to work system like Vouchsafe checks things that are hard to do manually, like:
- biometric face matching, based on a liveness check that has been tested against deepfakes and other presentation attacks
- document validation that detects minor issues that are difficult or impossible to spot by eye
Most importantly, you benefit from Radar; our fraud intelligence network backed by Cifas data. Every time you run a right to work check with Vouchsafe, we check the claimed identity against our own fraud data and the Cifas National Fraud Database.
Nearly half a million incidents were filed to the National Fraud Database in 2025 alone, making it the most comprehensive record of fraudsters and victims in the country.
This protection is built in and enabled by default at no extra cost.
What documents can I accept for a right to work check?
There are three ways the government allows employers to do a right to work check:
- checking a UK or Irish passport in person or with a certified digital verification service like Vouchsafe
- checking an eVisa share code
- checking paper documents like birth certificates or adoption paperwork in person
Employers must do one of these for each new hire and keep good records, or risk hefty Home Office fines of up to £60,000 per worker and even possible prison time.
Can I check a birth certificate?
If the worker doesn’t have a passport or eVisa, the only other way to confirm their right to work is with paper documents like birth certificates.
This can only be done by checking originals in person, not remotely, because a birth certificate has no security features that can be validated.
Are Vouchsafe’s checks compliant?
Yes, Vouchsafe is listed on the government’s DVS register and has been certified to the right to work supplementary code.
We provide a pre-certified template for right to work checks, so you can guarantee your setup meets compliance rules.
What does it cost?
A right to work check with Vouchsafe costs just £1.98 on our pay as you go plan. There is no expensive monthly or yearly commitment.
There’s even a 14 day free trial, so your first few checks will likely be completely free.
How can I get started?
- From your Vouchsafe dashboard, go to Flows and New flow.
- Choose our certified Right to work template, hit Publish and you’re ready to go.
- You can then send requests by email, or with the multiple-use link.
Vouchsafe is the only way to run easy, safe digital right to work checks for free, with our 14 day trial. Additional checks are just £1.98, with no minimum commitment.
Start now for free, or book a conversation to discuss larger volumes or more complex needs.
