What to do when an employee loses their right to work

Losing the right to work in the UK can happen for several reasons, and for employers the key thing is knowing what to do next. Continuing to employ someone without lawful status can mean a civil penalty of £45,000 per worker for a first breach, rising to £60,000 per worker for a repeat, plus criminal liability and even sponsor licence revocation. This guide sets out your legal responsibilities, how to check immigration status, and the steps to follow if an employee loses their right to work.

Understanding right to work in the UK

The right to work is a person's legal permission to take employment in the UK. People with an automatic right to work include:

• British and Irish citizens;
• those with Indefinite Leave to Remain;
• those with settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme;
• holders of valid work visas, such as the Skilled Worker visa.

A temporary right to work usually applies to visa holders, who must keep to their visa conditions and extend or switch before expiry. Employers must check and monitor these rights, and act quickly if anything changes.

What causes someone to lose the right to work?

An employee can lose their right to work if their visa or permission expires, a visa application is refused, their sponsor loses its licence to sponsor, they change roles without Home Office permission, or there is a TUPE transfer to an employer with no licence.

Your responsibilities

Under the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006, employers must prevent illegal working, carry out and keep right to work checks, re-check visas with expiry dates, and end employment when lawful status ends, unless it is extended. You cannot simply suspend someone without pay and treat that as compliant, because they are still employed. Getting it wrong can mean a civil penalty of £45,000 per worker for a first breach in a three-year period and £60,000 per worker for a repeat, criminal prosecution of up to five years, and loss of your sponsor licence. Because the penalty is charged per worker rather than per incident, an employer with several people in scope can face a bill well into six figures. Our team can keep your Home Office compliance on track.

Step by step: what to do

1. Verify the reason

Find out why the right to work has ended: visa expiry, refusal, or an administrative error. Ask the employee for a share code from their UKVI account, and use the Home Office Employer Checking Service to confirm. If they applied for a new visa before their old one expired, they may have continuing rights while the application is decided.

2. Assess the timeline

If the employee has a valid pending application, they may keep working until a decision. If there is no pending application, or it was refused, you must take steps to end employment.

3. Take the right action

If they can no longer prove the right to work, hold a formal meeting, keep records, issue a termination letter stating the legal reason, pay final wages and remove them from payroll. If there is a valid pending application, keep documentation, request updates, and consider paid leave while you wait.

Dismissing an employee: legal points

Before dismissing, make sure they have no valid visa or pending application, you have evidence such as an Employer Checking Service response, you have given time to provide documents, and you have documented your decision to guard against unfair dismissal claims. Issue a formal notice, store the right to work records securely, and report the change through your Sponsor Management System.

If you are the sponsor and lose your licence

If you lose your sponsor licence, sponsored employees have 60 days to find a new sponsor, switch to another eligible visa, or leave the UK. You must report the sponsorship ending and cannot keep employing the worker unless they switch or find a new sponsor. See our guide to sponsor licence revocation.

Staying compliant with Borderless

We help employers avoid breaches with automated visa-expiry and right to work alerts, real-time status checks, mock audits, and centralised record-keeping for Home Office compliance. If you also need help getting or managing a sponsor licence, we can handle that too. Get in touch.