As of 13 August 2026, AI can only partly check a candidate's right to work in the UK.
This still needs a person who signs their name to it.
Can you do it?
15 minutesto a draft.
30 minutesto something you’d act on.
Cost, all in£0
Skill neededchat-fluent
Who has to check ityou
What the alternative costsThe available tool data gives no price for a compliant right-to-work checking service, so no alternative price is stated.
If this goes wrong, you may employ someone without establishing their right to work and may not have the evidence needed to show that the check was completed correctly.
What to actually do
Hand it to a person
The route this page recommends
A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.
Use a tool built for this
Second choiceDo it yourself
The distant thirdA chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 30 minutes until you can act on the result.
How to actually do it
- Open the employer right-to-work guidance and the official online checking service on GOV.UK before handling the candidate's evidence.
- Ask the candidate which checking route applies and obtain the required share code or original documents without pasting their personal details into the chatbot.
- Use the official GOV.UK service yourself for an online check, or follow the current GOV.UK document list and procedure for a manual check.
- Compare the candidate's identity and photograph with the person presenting for the role, and record any work restrictions and expiry information shown by the official result or documents.
- Paste only redacted, non-identifying facts into the prompt to generate an internal checklist or record, then compare it against the GOV.UK guidance and the evidence you actually checked.
- Save the required copy of the evidence and the date of the check in the candidate's secure recruitment record, and set a follow-up reminder where the permission to work is time-limited.
- If the evidence, identity or work conditions do not match, pause the hiring decision and ask an employment or immigration solicitor for advice before proceeding.
Prompt
You are helping an employer follow the current UK right-to-work checking process. Use only current GOV.UK guidance, and tell me when I must open GOV.UK myself rather than relying on your explanation. Do not decide whether the candidate has the right to work, do not give immigration advice, and do not ask me to paste a passport, identity document, date of birth, share code, or other unnecessary personal data into this chat. Create a practical checklist for this case: [candidate's checking route, with personal details removed]. Include what evidence I need to obtain, which official GOV.UK service or guidance I must use, what I must compare during the check, what work restrictions or expiry information I must record, and what evidence I must retain. Mark every step that requires me to inspect the original evidence or use the official GOV.UK service. If the facts are incomplete or conflicting, stop and list the questions I need to resolve with the candidate or an employment or immigration solicitor.
Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.
What it gets wrong
- AI cannot access the official GOV.UK result or inspect the candidate's original identity documents for you.
- AI cannot reliably judge whether the person presenting matches the photograph or whether a document is genuine.
- AI cannot take responsibility for the employer's statutory excuse or the accuracy of the retained evidence.
- AI cannot resolve unclear immigration status or conflicting work restrictions without a qualified human decision-maker.
What caps this at PARTLY: legal accountability, private data access and judgement under ambiguity.
How we scored this
Five axes, each scored nought to two by hand: ten means AI carries the task cleanly, and the thresholds that turn a total into YES, PARTLY or NO are published in the methodology. Each axis name links to its definition.
| Axis | Score (0–2) |
|---|---|
| Output | 1 |
| Inputs | 1 |
| Verification | 1 |
| Liability | 0 |
| Effort delta | 1 |
| Total | 4 / 10 |
The methodology and its thresholds are published in full.
FAQ
- Can ChatGPT check a candidate's right to work?
- It can prepare the steps and a record template, but it cannot perform the official check or take responsibility for the result. You must use the current GOV.UK service or document procedure and make the decision as the employer.
- Can AI check a UK share code?
- No, not by itself. Enter the share code into the official GOV.UK checking service yourself, compare the result with the candidate, and retain the required evidence.
- What documents do I need to check an employee's right to work?
- The answer depends on the candidate's checking route, so use the current employer guidance on GOV.UK rather than a chatbot's document list alone. This is not professional advice; ask an employment or immigration solicitor about an unusual or disputed case.
- What happens if I get a right to work check wrong?
- You may be unable to show that you completed a compliant check, and the employer carries the consequences rather than the AI tool. Stop the hiring process if the evidence does not match, and take serious cases to an employment or immigration solicitor.
Nearby answers
Assessed by gpt-5.6-luna (gpt-5.6-luna) on 2026-08-13, second-checked by an independent model. Wrong somewhere? Email [email protected] and it gets re-checked.
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