What is a Frontier Worker permit?

A Frontier Worker permit is a Home Office document for citizens of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein who live outside the UK but work in it, and who began working here by 31 December 2020. It allows them to enter the UK as a frontier worker and proves their right to benefits and services.

How a Frontier Worker permit works

You need a Frontier Worker permit if you want to work in the UK but live in another country. You may be eligible if you are from the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein, you live outside the UK and you began working in the UK by 31 December 2020.^{[1]Home Office, Frontier Worker permit} The EU Settlement Scheme is a different route, which we explain on its own page.

The permit allows you to enter the UK as a frontier worker. It proves your right to access benefits and services, including NHS healthcare, if you meet the relevant eligibility requirements. A digital permit can also prove your right to work or rent. If you have a physical permit, you must prove your right to work and your right to rent online.^{[1]Home Office, Frontier Worker permit}

There is no fee to apply and you do not pay the immigration health surcharge. You may have to pay to submit your biometric information, such as a photograph or fingerprints.^{[1]Home Office, Frontier Worker permit}

You apply online. You need a valid passport or national identity card, and documents such as an employment contract, payslips or copies of invoices for work done in the UK.^{[3]Home Office, Frontier Worker permit: Apply} You prove your identity by scanning your document with the ‘UK Immigration: ID Check’ app, or by giving your photograph and fingerprints at a visa application centre if you apply from outside the UK. If you apply from inside the UK and cannot use the app, you have your photograph taken at a UKVCAS service point.^{[3]Home Office, Frontier Worker permit: Apply}

If you use the app, you are issued a digital permit. Otherwise you are sent a physical permit if you applied inside the UK, or an email explaining how to come to the UK and collect it if you applied outside. Your permit lasts 5 years, or 2 years if you apply with ‘retained’ status.^{[4]Home Office, Frontier Worker permit: After you've applied}

Who can apply

GOV.UK sets out the requirements.^{[2]Home Office, Frontier Worker permit: Who can apply}

Living primarily outside the UK. You are eligible if you have spent less than 180 days in total in the UK over any 12 month period. If you have spent 180 days or more in a 12 month period, you can still be eligible if you returned to the country you live in at least once every 6 months or twice in that period. Exceptional circumstances, such as an illness or accident that stopped you travelling, can also count.^{[2]Home Office, Frontier Worker permit: Who can apply}

Genuine and effective work. The work must be more than small, one-off tasks such as an interview, taking part in a one-off competition or audition or signing a contract.^{[2]Home Office, Frontier Worker permit: Who can apply}

Retained status. You may still be eligible if you were unable to work or unemployed during a 12 month period because you were temporarily unable to work through illness or accident, temporarily unable to work because of pregnancy or childbirth, voluntarily unemployed and doing vocational training related to your last occupation or involuntarily unemployed and either looking for work in the UK or doing vocational training. If you became involuntarily unemployed and are looking for work, you keep your status for 6 months if you worked in the UK for less than a year before becoming unemployed, and for as long as you keep looking if you worked for a year or more. You need to be registered as a jobseeker and provide evidence that you are looking for work.^{[2]Home Office, Frontier Worker permit: Who can apply}

If you are an Irish citizen you do not need to apply but can choose to. You cannot apply if you are a British citizen, which includes dual citizenship.^{[1]Home Office, Frontier Worker permit}

When you renew, you must show that you continued to meet the requirements since you last applied. If you are not working at that point, or are temporarily unable to work, you can still apply for a 2-year permit as someone with retained status, if you meet the requirements.^{[5]Home Office, Frontier Worker permit: Renewing your permit}

If an application is refused, you receive a decision notice that explains why. It also says whether you have a right to an administrative review or an immigration decision appeal.^{[4]Home Office, Frontier Worker permit: After you've applied}

Example

Lena is a Dutch citizen who lives in Belgium. She began working at a Leeds firm in 2019 and spends about 3 days a week in the UK. That is about 156 days in a year, which is under 180. She works in the UK regularly and has an employment contract and payslips. She applies online, scans her passport with the app and is issued a digital permit that lasts 5 years. She pays no application fee.^{[1]Home Office, Frontier Worker permit[2]Home Office, Frontier Worker permit: Who can apply[3]Home Office, Frontier Worker permit: Apply[4]Home Office, Frontier Worker permit: After you've applied}

Piotr is a Polish citizen who lives in Poland. He started working in the UK in 2019. He is then off work through illness for 8 months. When he applies to renew, he may rely on retained status for a temporary inability to work through illness, and he supports it with a letter from his doctor. A permit on that basis lasts 2 years.^{[3]Home Office, Frontier Worker permit: Apply[4]Home Office, Frontier Worker permit: After you've applied[5]Home Office, Frontier Worker permit: Renewing your permit}

What people get wrong

Many people think the permit is available to anyone who wants to live abroad and commute to the UK for work. It is not. You must have started working in the UK while living elsewhere by 31 December 2020. Someone starting later needs a visa.

GOV.UK says that if you want to work in the UK from 1 January 2021 and were not working here before, you need to apply for a visa.^{[1]Home Office, Frontier Worker permit}

A second mistake is to think the permit covers your family. It does not. Your family members may be eligible to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme.^{[1]Home Office, Frontier Worker permit}

A third is not telling the Home Office when work stops. You need to tell the Home Office if you stop working in the UK and do not meet one of the retained status criteria. You can change jobs, or move between employed and self-employed work, without telling it.^{[4]Home Office, Frontier Worker permit: After you've applied}

The bottom line

A Frontier Worker permit is for citizens of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein who live outside the UK and began working here by 31 December 2020. You must live primarily abroad and work in the UK regularly, with some allowance for illness, pregnancy, training and involuntary unemployment. It is free to apply and does not cover family members. It lasts 5 years, or 2 with retained status.