What is the Employer Checking Service?
The Employer Checking Service (ECS) is a free service provided by the Home Office that allows employers to verify the right to work of individuals whose immigration status cannot be confirmed through a standard share code check. It is particularly important in situations where a worker has a pending application or where their leave is protected but not yet visible on the UKVI online system.
When should you use the ECS?
You should use the ECS in the following situations:
A worker has submitted a visa application that is pending with the Home Office and their previous visa has now expired
A worker's previous sponsor has had their licence revoked and they are within the 60-day curtailment period
A worker has an Application Registration Card (ARC) or other document that cannot be verified through the standard online check
A worker has made an in-country claim for asylum and has permission to work
The standard share code check returns an inconclusive or unclear result
A worker has a pending EU Settlement Scheme application and cannot yet produce a valid share code
Pending EU Settlement Scheme applications
If a worker presents a share code that returns an error, or tells you they have a pending EU Settlement Scheme application, do not rely on a standard right to work check. EUSS decisions can take months, and during that time the worker's share code may not return a result. Request a check via the Employer Checking Service instead. The Home Office is expected to respond within 5 working days. A Positive Verification Notice confirms the right to work for 6 months and acts as a statutory excuse. A Negative Verification Notice confirms they cannot work, and employing them in that case risks a civil penalty.
How does it work?
The employer submits a request through the Home Office ECS portal. The Home Office typically responds within one to two working days with either a Positive Verification Notice (PVN) or a Negative Verification Notice (NVN).
A PVN confirms the worker has the right to work and provides the employer with a statutory excuse for six months
A NVN means the worker does not currently have the right to work and employment must not commence or continue
Important: You must wait for the PVN before allowing the worker to begin or continue working. Acting on the assumption that a PVN will be issued, without actually receiving it, does not provide a statutory excuse.
ECS and the share code check
The ECS is not a replacement for the standard online right to work check. Where a worker has a valid visa, you should use the share code system. The ECS is specifically for the situations listed above where the standard check is not sufficient.
Why a successful share code check does not replace an ECS check during a pending application
This is a common and reasonable point of confusion. A standard online share code check confirms an employee's right to work at a single point in time and gives you a statutory excuse at that moment. It cannot cover the period after an employee's leave has expired where they submitted a further application before that expiry date.
In that situation the employee's leave is extended by Section 3C of the Immigration Act 1971 while the application is pending. Section 3C leave does not appear on any document and cannot be confirmed through a share code check, even where the share code itself returns a result. The only way to obtain a Positive Verification Notice, which is the document that gives you a statutory excuse during the pending period, is to submit an ECS check directly with the Home Office. Best practice is to carry out the ECS check as soon as the employee submits their further application.
Government guidance: https://www.gov.uk/employee-immigration-employment-status
Using the ECS through Borderless
From 8 April 2026, Borderless automatically surfaces the ECS pathway within the sponsorship offer form when a share code check cannot confirm the worker's right to work. You no longer need to identify separately that an ECS check is required, the platform will prompt you at the right point in the offer flow.
Once you have submitted your ECS request through the Home Office portal and received the outcome, you record it in Borderless using a manual entry form. The form captures whether a PVN or NVN was issued and the relevant dates. The result is then stored against the worker's record and contributes to their compliance profile.
For workers with an undefined Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS), typically those already in the UK switching immigration category, Borderless sends an automated notification when the visa application is submitted, reminding you that an ECS check will be needed. This is because workers in this position may not yet be able to generate a share code reflecting their new permission. Once you have a PVN, you can upload it directly to the employment record using the document sub-type selector to classify it correctly.