Citizenship and Right to Work in the UK

What Changes When You Become a Citizen

On a visa, your right to work is conditional. It can depend on a sponsor, on the job you were sponsored for, on a limit to your hours, or on your permission not having expired. British citizenship carries no immigration conditions at all, so none of that survives it. You can work for any employer without sponsorship, be self-employed, work any hours, hold several jobs, and change all of it whenever you like.

Nothing about this needs an application. It follows from the status itself, from the day you become a citizen.

Proving Your Right to Work

Employers must check that everyone they employ has the right to work. The way a citizen proves it is different from the way a visa holder proves it, and this catches people out.

You cannot use an online share code. GOV.UK says British and Irish citizens cannot get one. The share code system is for people whose status is held digitally by the Home Office, and citizenship is not held that way. If your employer asks you for a share code, this is the page to show them.

Instead, an employer can:

• Check your original documents. A British passport is the straightforward one, and GOV.UK accepts an expired British passport as well as a current one for this purpose.
• Use an identity service provider that offers Identity Document Validation Technology, which does the check digitally against your document.

If you do not have a British passport, GOV.UK accepts a certificate of registration or naturalisation as a British citizen — but only together with an official letter or document from a previous employer or a government agency, such as HM Revenue and Customs, the Department for Work and Pensions, or the Social Security Agency in Northern Ireland, that shows your name and National Insurance number. The certificate alone does not do it, and another form of photo identity document is not the missing half. Applying for a British passport after your ceremony removes the problem.

Telling Your Current Employer

If your employer checked your right to work against a visa with an expiry date, they will have a follow-up check diarised for that date. Showing them your passport or certificate lets them record a check that does not expire, and the follow-up falls away. Employers keep a copy on file as their record of the check; our guide to employer right-to-work duties explains what they are keeping and why.

Which Jobs Nationality Actually Restricts

The list of work closed to non-citizens is shorter than it is usually described.

• Civil Service. Most posts are open to UK nationals, Commonwealth citizens and nationals of the European Economic Area. A minority are reserved posts, which require special allegiance to the state and are open only to UK nationals.
• Security and intelligence agencies. MI5, MI6 and GCHQ set their own nationality conditions, which are generally stricter than the Civil Service rules and can require British citizenship and long UK residence. Check the conditions the agency publishes for the specific role.
• Armed Forces. British citizenship is not required. The Armed Forces recruit British, Irish and Commonwealth citizens, subject to their own residency conditions, and particular roles can carry extra nationality or security requirements.
• Judiciary. British citizenship is not required here either. The Judicial Appointments Commission says applicants must be a citizen of the UK, the Republic of Ireland, or another Commonwealth country.
• Diplomatic service. Roles representing the UK abroad carry nationality conditions set by the department, and some require sole British nationality.

Security clearance is a separate process from nationality. Holding a British passport does not by itself grant clearance, and clearance for a sensitive role can look at where you have lived and at close family abroad.

Self-Employment and Business

A citizen can be self-employed or run a company with no immigration conditions on it: no restriction on the type of business, no investment level to maintain, and no salary or turnover figure to keep up for immigration purposes. Company law, tax and licensing rules still apply, as they do to anyone.

If you run a company with a spouse, our guide on director salary and dividends covers how that income is treated.

Working Abroad

British citizenship gives you no automatic right to work in another country. Each country sets its own rules, and a British passport simply changes which of those rules apply to you. Some countries operate working holiday schemes open to British citizens; others require a work permit like anyone else. Check the rules of the country itself.

Our guide on citizenship and travel covers the passport side.

Tax and National Insurance

Nothing about your tax changes because you became a citizen. UK tax is charged by reference to residence and domicile, not nationality, and income tax and National Insurance work exactly as they did before.

If you hold another nationality and have income abroad, the other country's rules are the ones to check — a small number of countries tax by nationality. Our guide on tax and citizenship covers this.

No More Sponsorship

On a Skilled Worker visa, permission is tied to a sponsor. If the sponsorship ends, the Home Office is told and can cut the permission short: its cancellation and curtailment guidance sets out how caseworkers decide the new end date, and 60 days is the period commonly used where more than 60 days of permission remain. Moving to a different sponsored job also needs a new application, and the new job starts once the new permission is granted, not when the application goes in.

None of that applies to a citizen. There is no sponsor to lose, no end date to curtail, and no application to make before changing job. Our guide to employer sponsor duties describes the system you have left.

Related Guides

• British citizenship requirements
• Citizenship and NHS access
• Getting a British passport after your ceremony
• UK visa fees: complete guide

Questions and answers