Running electoral registration - England

Where you receive a response to the ECR from an elector on which they confirm that they meet the historical residency requirements, you should accept this response at face value and send a confirmation of maintained registration.1

Where you receive a response to the ECR from an elector on which they indicate that they do not meet the historical residency requirements, you should accept the response at face value and send a confirmation of forthcoming removal. For more information see our guidance on processing a response to the ECR.

However, where an elector provides a response that contains additional information that results in a request for further information and the elector provides either a view and prove code or statement of eligibility and any other supporting documentary evidence, you will need to take some further steps to be able to determine their eligibility. 

Where a view and prove code is provided you can use this by logging into the government’s website and on entering the code you should see: 

Conducting a Home Office online immigration status check

Step 1: Use the Home Office online service

To check the person’s immigration status, you will need to:

• access the service at Check someone's immigration status: use their share code - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
• enter the 9 character share code provided to you by the individual which must start with the letter S 
• enter their date of birth

If a share code has expired or starts with a letter other than S, you must ask the person to create a new share code.

The individual may provide the share code to you directly, or they may choose to send this to you via the service. If they choose to send it to you via the service, you will receive an email from [email protected] 

Here is an example image of the message a checker receives when an individual has sent their share code to the checker via the online service.

Step 2: Check

The result of the immigration status check will confirm the person’s current immigration status. 

Here is an image from the online service and shows the individual has pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme, otherwise known as limited leave to remain.

Here is an image from the online service and shows the individual has settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme, otherwise known as indefinite leave to remain. 

Step 3: Retaining evidence of the online check

You can retain a copy of the online immigration status check. This should be the profile page confirming the individual’s immigration status at the time the check was completed. This is the page that includes the individual’s photo and the date on which the check was conducted. You will have the option of printing the profile or saving it as a PDF or HTML file.  

Processing statements of eligibility

Where you have received a statement of eligibility with or without any additional supporting documentary evidence, you should review the content and determine if you have sufficient information to be able to determine whether the elector meets the eligibility requirements.

Any documentation you process for the purpose of determining the elector’s eligibility should be kept, in line with your existing document retention policies. For more information, see our guidance on document retention. 

If you determine they do meet the requirements, you can send the confirmation of maintained registration. If you believe they do not, you must send them a confirmation of forthcoming removal.