Hospitality employs a lot of people on visas, and a lot of people on short notice. That combination is exactly where right to work records slip, and the penalty for employing someone without the right to work falls on the business.
Check before the first shift
Carry out the right to work check before someone starts work, keep a copy of what you checked and record the date. A check done after the first shift does not protect you for the time before it.
Expiry is where it goes wrong
A check is only good for as long as the permission it shows. For anyone whose right to work is time-limited, the date it ends matters as much as the check itself:
- Record the expiry date of the visa or permission, not just the document.
- Get a reminder before it runs out, with time to arrange a follow-up check.
- Decide what happens on the day after it expires: the safest answer is that the person does not work another shift until it is renewed and checked.
Student visas: the 20-hour limit
Students on a visa are usually limited to 20 hours a week during term time. A rota that quietly goes to 24 hours in a busy week puts both the student and the business at risk. Check the weekly hours against the limit when the rota is built, not afterwards.
Keep the evidence together
When the Home Office asks, you need to show what you checked, when, and that you followed up. Keep the scans, the dates and every renewal, including the old paper the renewal replaced, in one place per person, and limit who can open them.
Working time, too
The Working Time Regulations sit alongside: 11 hours' rest between shifts, a 20-minute break after 6 hours, an average of 48 hours a week unless someone opts out, and stricter limits for under-18s.
In Feazio, each person's right to work, passport and visa are stored privately with their expiry dates. HR and the owner are warned 7 days before anything runs out, and with the lock switched on nobody can clock in from the business day after a paper expires until a renewal is uploaded and checked by a second person. The rota warns when a student visa holder goes over 20 hours. See how it works.
Feazio keeps records and reminds you; the right to work check itself is still yours to carry out. This is general information, not legal advice.