If you are an Australian starting a job in the UK, you must prove your right to work to your employer before your first day, and many Australians now do that with a share code generated from a UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) account. This guide walks through how the share code route works, how to pass the code to your employer, and which other documents or routes apply if you do not have a UKVI account or also hold British or Irish citizenship. Whether you actually hold permission to work in the UK depends on your own visa or immigration status; that eligibility question is for the official UK source, not something this page can decide for you.
The rule you are meeting
GOV.UK's "Prove your right to work to an employer" guide states that you will need to prove your right to work in the UK to your employer before you start working for them. How you do it depends on your nationality and the kind of permission to work you hold. Proving right to work is part of the pre-employment checks described in GOV.UK's "Start a new job: step by step", which also lists getting a National Insurance number as an earlier step — the two are separate tasks, and you may need both.
An Australian reader usually falls into one of the situations below.
Which route applies to you
| Your situation | How GOV.UK says you can prove it |
|---|---|
| Australian only (not British or Irish) | A share code from your UKVI account, or an eligible immigration document. You choose; your employer cannot reject your application because you gave an eligible immigration document instead of a share code. |
| Australian who also holds British or Irish citizenship | A British passport, or an Irish passport or passport card. These can be current or expired. If you have no passport or passport card, a UK or Irish birth or adoption certificate, or a certificate of registration or naturalisation as a British citizen — plus an official letter or document showing your name and National Insurance number. |
| Commonwealth citizen with the right of abode | A certificate of entitlement, either as a vignette sticker in your passport or as a digital certificate in your UKVI account (which needs a share code). |
| Cannot prove it with documents | Your employer can use the Home Office employer checking service. If you are a Commonwealth citizen, you may be able to get documents through the Windrush Scheme. |
Australia is a Commonwealth country, so the right of abode and Windrush lines can be relevant to some Australians — but the guide says right of abode applies to British citizens and some Commonwealth citizens, so you need to confirm your own position rather than assume.
Step by step: getting and sharing a share code
The GOV.UK guide has a dedicated "Get a share code online" step, and this is the route for most Australians who hold a UKVI account.
- Confirm you have a UKVI account. The guide refers to a "UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) account" as the place where a digital right to work or digital certificate of entitlement can be held, and as the route to "get a share code online". If you do not have one, or cannot access it, move to the immigration documents section below.
- Sign in and use the share code service. In your UKVI account, follow the "get a share code" option for right to work. The account shows you the code. The overview guide does not publish a fixed validity window for a share code in the material relied on here, so follow any timing or expiry information the service itself displays, and generate the code when your employer actually needs it.
- Give the code to your employer. Pass the code to the person doing your pre-employment checks. Your employer uses the code to check your immigration status with the Home Office's online service, rather than you emailing scans of a visa.
- Let the employer complete the check. After the check, your employer should confirm the outcome to you as part of onboarding. If anything does not match — for example, your name or date of birth on the code versus your job application — raise it with your employer before your start date.
Practical interpretation: do this in the window your employer gives you for pre-employment checks, not on your first morning, because the check has to be completed before you start work.
If you would rather use immigration documents
If you are not a British or Irish citizen, GOV.UK says you can prove your right to work with eligible immigration documents, and you can choose this instead of a share code. Your employer cannot reject your application because you used an eligible document rather than a share code. The documents set out in the guide are:
- A current passport with a Home Office "endorsement" — a stamp or a vignette (sticker). The passport must be current, not expired. The endorsement should show one of the following: indefinite leave to enter or remain; no time limit on your stay; that you can live in the UK and work (either any work or the type of work you are applying to do); a vignette certificate of entitlement to the right of abode; or that you are exempt from immigration control, such as a diplomat.
- An immigration status document — if you do not have a UKVI account and you could not get an endorsement in your passport when you were given permission to stay in the UK. It must be current, and you must also give your employer an official letter or document from a previous employer or a government agency (for example HMRC, DWP or the Social Security Agency in Northern Ireland) showing your name and National Insurance number.
- An application registration card — if you are waiting for a decision on an asylum application and the card says "Work permitted". Your employer shows it to the Home Office to check your status.
The guide also lists other circumstance-specific routes — an EU Settlement Scheme decision pending, settled or pre-settled status from Jersey, Guernsey or the Isle of Man, Ukrainian citizens, and frontier workers. If one describes you, read that part of the gov.uk guide directly, because the documents and checks differ.
If you also hold British or Irish citizenship
If you hold a British or Irish passport or passport card, you can prove your right to work with it, and it can be current or expired. If you have no passport or passport card, you can use a UK or Irish birth or adoption certificate, or a certificate of registration or naturalisation as a British citizen — but you must also give your employer an official letter or document from a previous employer or a government agency showing your name and National Insurance number, such as a letter from HMRC, DWP or the Social Security Agency in Northern Ireland. If you do have a passport or passport card, your employer may offer an online identity service provider (IDSP) check; ask them whether it is available.
Questions to verify yourself
- Confirm which nationality route you are actually in: Australian only, Australian plus British/Irish, or right of abode.
- Check whether your permission to work covers the job you are applying for; the guide refers to endorsements that allow "any work" versus a specific "type of work".
- Ask your employer which channel they use for the check (share code, document sighting, IDSP or employer checking service) and what deadline they have.
- If you are using an immigration status document, line up the official letter showing your name and National Insurance number early.
- Do not rely on this page for visa eligibility; use gov.uk/prove-right-to-work and any visa-specific Home Office pages for your own status.
Next steps
- Check your nationality and immigration position against the table above.
- If you are a non-British/Irish Australian with a UKVI account, sign in and use the "get a share code" service, then send the code to your employer.
- If you have no UKVI account, locate your current passport endorsement or immigration status document, plus any required official letter.
- If you also hold British or Irish citizenship, use your passport or passport card, or the certificate plus official letter route.
- Complete the check before your agreed start date, and keep your own record of what you provided.
- Separately, make sure you have a National Insurance number for payroll, which GOV.UK lists as the first step of starting a new job.
If you are staying in the UK longer term and later need to borrow, our UK home loans guide explains the borrowing basics in the same plain-language format.
General information only
This article is general information about the process described by GOV.UK. Australian.org.uk is an independent information publisher; it is not a UK government body, regulator, employer, lender, broker or comparison service, and nothing here is legal, tax, migration or financial advice. Right-to-work rules, acceptable documents and employer duties can change, and the authoritative source is the Home Office guidance at gov.uk/prove-right-to-work. No outcome is guaranteed; your employer completes the check. Verify your status and any employer request against the official source before you rely on it.