Employing European nationals

Most nationals from the European Economic Area (EEA) can enter and work in the UK without restrictions. You will need to ask nationals from all EEA countries to produce a document showing their nationality since there are specific restrictions for certain nationalities.

Please refer to list A to see which documents will provide you with a statutory excuse if checked and copied.

The following is a list of EEA countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, UK, Switzerland.

If you employ a Bulgarian or Romanian national you must adhere to certain regulations:

• You must advertise the position.
• You must apply for a work permit on their behalf (free of charge).
• The candidate must fill in a BR3 form, which validates the work permit (if the application is successful).

Please note that the work permit application may not be successful if the Home Office consider that a UK national can competently do the type of work you are offering.

Once you have established the person has a right to work you will need to make sure that they register with the Home Office. For them to be able to do this you must provide them with evidence of the employment (a contract or a letter).

You must then take a copy of the completed application for registration before it is sent to the Home Office. You must keep this copy until you receive notification from the Home Office that the worker has been registered successfully.

The Home office will send to you a copy of the registration certificate and you must retain this copy.