Proving right to work.

Deep_In_Debt

My employers just wanted a passport, expired or not, they weren't bothered about anything else.

Savvy_Sue

liney wrote: »

If they call the Employers Helpline, they will confirm that a UK passport if expired is fine to accept as long as the photgraph still resembles you. We were also advised to copy another form of photo ID such as a DL when a potential employee had this problem.

That's particularly helpful to know: when DS2 had to prove his 'right to work' last year his passport had expired, and they wouldn't accept his expired one. Fortunately he'd got a P60 and a birth certificate which he'd actually put in the right place, so we could find them!

The daft thing is that he was being paid by the university where he's a student: I suppose being a 'home' rather than an 'overseas' student doesn't guarantee 'right to work', but it must be close!

liney

anamenottaken wrote: »

Just to clarify that, though a driving licence might be acceptable as ID, it does not prove the right to work in the UK?

In fact "a driving licence issued by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency" is specifically named as something which does NOT provide an excuse for employing someone illegally. (See http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/employersandsponsors/preventingillegalworking/currentguidanceandcodes/summaryguidance0208.pdf?view=Binary )

However, I can see that a photo driving licence together with an expired passport would be acceptable - the passport showing the named person had the right to work in the UK and the driving licence showing that the named person was the one who also presented the licence.

A DL does not give the right to work, but provides the employer with additional defense should they need to prove the expired passport was taken in good faith.

As a general rule a British person will provide either:

A passport

Or

Full British Birth certificate plus documented national insurance number from a recognised source ie IR, ex employer, goverment body.

caeler

As an employer I would accept an expired UK passport or a NI Card with P45. Hope this helps.

ableandy

I agree with bluefuzzybug, I would accept an expired passport but would limit it to 1 year out of date.

bitsandpieces

Try to relax and focus on the interview, for several reasons:
- It is very unlikely to be a problem. Enforcement of this can be very slack, anyway. Even if they are on the ball, the worst that is likely to happen is they ask you to get further documents to them ASAP (or, more likely, if you're offered the job).
- It's too late to do anything about it now. No point in stressing about something you can't change.
- What is important is to impress them at interview. No-one will want to lose out on a great employee just cause their passport is out-of-date and they will need a couple of weeks to get ID together - so convince them that you're a great candidate!

Good luck with the interview

jen_br

Are we talking Years expired or just a few months and are you a british citizen (is this a Brit passport)

If its not been exipred for like 5 years and its a British passport then you should be ok using it... along with NI card and P45

soolin

I work for a Government body and interview hundreds of people. We would not accept an expired passport, but to save our efforts we would probably interview them if I had a panel convened, but tell them if they were not able to return by the time of the last interview with the correct paperwork their application would not be considered.

We would not waste our time offering a job to someone who could not fulfil the obligations of proving the right to work as outlined by the Border Agency. If we did offer th ejob and it later turned out that the person could not prove their right to work we would have lost our other candidates, so much easier for us to just offer to the next best candidate anyway.

We work to very tight timelines and our interview processes are very thorough and expensive and as we have dozens of candidates for every job we would not risk a fine over this. However, once the correct paperwork was available we would not prevent that candidate from applying again if a suitable position became available.

MrTomato

jen_br wrote: »

Are we talking Years expired or just a few months and are you a british citizen (is this a Brit passport)

If its not been exipred for like 5 years and its a British passport then you should be ok using it... along with NI card and P45

it's been expired since december. and yes I'm a British citizen.

My interview has been postponed anyway as the person was ill, so maybe my certificate will be sent back soon.

Savvy_Sue

soolin wrote: »

I work for a Government body and interview hundreds of people. We would not accept an expired passport,

but I hope you WOULD accept alternatives: as I said before, what seems to be scuppering MrT is the absence of a full birth certificate. With that and his other documentation, I think his passport status is neither here nor there.

MrTomato wrote: »

My interview has been postponed anyway as the person was ill, so maybe my certificate will be sent back soon.

If you can possibly afford to order a new one, I'd recommend doing that. The turn around is fast, and it's less than £10. Not worth the stress, plus you'll have a spare for the future ...