A share code is a nine-character code you generate yourself, which lets an employer view your right to work status online. You give them the code and your date of birth, and they see what you are permitted to do. A share code issued for right to work is valid for 90 days. Employers cannot generate one for you, and British and Irish citizens cannot get one at all.
That last point causes more confusion than anything else in UK hiring paperwork, so it is worth dealing with first.
Who Needs a Share Code and Who Does Not
Share codes exist for people whose permission to work sits in the immigration system and is held digitally. If you hold a biometric residence permit, settled or pre-settled status, an eVisa, or a visa granted in recent years, your status is online and a share code is how an employer reads it.
British and Irish citizens are outside that system. You prove status with a passport, including an expired one, or with a birth certificate together with official evidence of your National Insurance number. If a recruiter asks a British citizen for a share code, the form has been built by someone who has misunderstood the rules. Say so plainly and offer a passport instead.
The Three Routes an Employer Can Use
- A manual document check, where they see and copy an original document
- An online check using your share code, for anyone with digital status
- A certified identity service provider, which digitally verifies a valid British or Irish passport
How to Generate a Share Code
You generate the code through the government service for proving your right to work, signing in with the details attached to your immigration record. That usually means your passport or residence permit number, your date of birth, and access to the phone number or email on the account.
- Sign in to the prove your right to work service on GOV.UK
- Confirm your identity using your document number and date of birth
- Choose the option for proving your right to work to an employer
- Copy the code, which begins with a letter and is nine characters long
- Send the code and your date of birth to the employer
Generate the code when the employer asks. Codes expire, and an expired code produces an error on the employer side that they will often read as a problem with you rather than with the timing.
The Mistake That Delays Offers
There is more than one kind of share code. The service also issues codes for proving your right to rent and for viewing your own status. They look similar and they are not interchangeable. An employer entering a right to rent code into the employer checking service will be told the code is invalid.
When you generate the code, read the heading on the page. If it does not say it is for proving your right to work to an employer, go back and start again. This single error accounts for a large share of the delays people experience between verbal offer and start date.
What the Employer Sees
They see your photograph, your name, and a statement of what you are permitted to do. That may be unrestricted work, or work with conditions such as a maximum number of hours during term time, or work only in a specified job for a specified sponsor. They do not see your full immigration history, your application correspondence, or your reasons for being in the UK.
Time-Limited Status and Follow-Up Checks
If your permission has an end date, the employer is expected to check again before it expires. Keep your own note of that date. Relying on an employer's HR calendar to protect your employment is a poor bet, and a lapsed check can result in you being suspended from work while it is sorted out.
Where you have applied to extend your permission before it expired, your existing conditions generally continue while the application is outstanding. Employers unfamiliar with this often panic. Being able to explain it calmly, and to point them at the relevant employer guidance, resolves most of these conversations.
Why More Employers Are Asking From October 2026
Section 48 of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 takes effect on 1 October 2026 and widens the right to work scheme beyond employees. It reaches people engaged under a worker's contract, individual sub-contractors, and work sourced through online platforms. If you freelance, contract or pick up app-based work, expect share code requests from organisations that never asked before.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Long Does a Share Code Last?
A right to work share code is valid for 90 days from the day you generate it. After that the employer will need a new one.
Can I Reuse the Same Code for Several Employers?
Yes, while it remains valid. Each employer will conduct their own check and keep their own dated record of it.
What If I Do Not Have a Smartphone or Reliable Internet?
You can use the service on any browser. If you cannot access it at all, there is an assisted digital route by telephone for people who need help proving status online.
Does an Employer Have to Accept a Share Code?
For anyone with digital status, the online check is the route that gives the employer a statutory excuse. They should accept it, and asking instead for a physical document they cannot lawfully rely on is a sign of an out-of-date process.
Is It Safe to Send a Share Code by Email?
A code on its own reveals nothing without your date of birth, and it expires. Send it to a named company contact rather than posting it anywhere public, and do not send scans of your passport alongside it unless the employer has explained why they need them.
Getting This Right Saves Weeks
Right to work checks are the most common reason a start date slips after everything else has been agreed. The candidates who move fastest are not the ones with the simplest immigration status. They are the ones who know which code to generate, generate it on the day it is asked for, and keep a note of when their own permission expires.
Sources
UK Government. Prove your right to work to an employer.
https://www.gov.uk/prove-right-to-work
UK Government (Home Office). Extension of prohibition on employment to other working arrangements: impact assessment.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/border-security-asylum-and-immigration-bill-2025-impact-assessment/extension-of-prohibition-on-employment-to-other-working-arrangements-impact-assessment-accessible
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