Worker Registration Scheme

If you are a student from the EEA you are free to work and do not require permission to accept a job which is offered to you. However, on the 1st May 2004, ten new countries joined the European Union and became part of the EEA. Nationals from these countries are also free to come to the UK to live and seek work here.

In 2004, the Government established a Worker Registration Scheme to monitor the participation of workers from eight of these countries in the UK labour market, as follows: Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. Workers from these countries are often referred to as 'Accession State  workers'. These countries are referred to as 'A8 countries' and workers from these countries are required to register under the ‘Worker Registration Scheme’, within one month of starting work, unless they are exempt from the requirement to register. There is a one-off fee to register.

Once you have been working legally in the UK for 12 months without a break of no more than 30 days, you will have full rights of free movement as a worker. This means that you will no longer have to register your work and can then apply to the Home Office for an EEA residence permit confirming your status as a worker.

Further details about the Workers Registration Scheme, including exemptions, are available on the Borders and Immigration Agency website.