Compliance
Right to work
Permits, applications and the cases where somebody is working lawfully with no permit at all.
Authorisation is recorded, never inferred
Whether somebody has the right to work is a stored fact. It is not derived from holding an unexpired permit — because somebody can be working lawfully with no permit at all: a rule change removed the requirement, or an application was referred to the courts and work rights continue while it is decided. A compliance view that infers authorisation from an unexpired document reports those people as working illegally.
Such records carry no expiry date, so a review date is what keeps them from dropping out of every report and being forgotten.
Applications are tracked from submission
An application is recorded when it is made — with the date it was submitted, when a decision is due, and whether an appeal has been filed — not only once it is granted. The period while a case is in flight is exactly when somebody needs to be chasing it.
- A record under appeal keeps somebody resident and is answered before any date arithmetic.
- Dependants are tracked individually, because their residency expires on its own schedule and is the sponsor's problem too. See Dependants.
- Whether a permit grants residence is a separate fact from whether it grants the right to work, and both are set explicitly.