If you are a citizen of one of the following states, you can travel and work within the UK without permission.
Austria, Finland, Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal, Cyprus, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain, Denmark, Greece, Malta, Sweden.

Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland are not members of the European Union but under the EEA Agreement you have the same right to move and work freely in the UK without permission.

If you are from one of the new accession states (known as the A8 states) of eastern and south-eastern Europe, you can move and work freely in the UK but you must register on the Worker Registration Scheme (WRS). You can read more about the WRS on the Border and Immigration Agency website.
Czech Republic, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Latvia, Slovenia.

You can get advice on if you can live and work in the UK on the Border and Immigration Agency website.

The Worker Registration Scheme (WRS) has been set up in the UK to monitor the number of workers coming from the A8 member states.

If you intend to work for an employer in the UK for longer than one month and are from one of these eight countries, you must register on the WRS. You will be issued with a registration card and certificate. You can contact the WRS on 0114 207 6022 or fill in an online application form, which you can download from the Border and Immigration Agency website
If you have been working without permission since before 1 May 2004, you must still register

To register for the Worker Registration Scheme (WRS), you'll need to supply:

• personal and employment details
• two passport-size photographs
• a valid passport or ID card
• a one-off payment of £70.

If you change employers within the first 12 months, you must re-apply to the WRS for a new certificate. You do not have to make a further payment. After 12 months' continuous employment, you can leave the register and apply for an EEA residence permit, which confirms your right to free movement and work. To apply for a permit, visit the Border and Immigration Agency website.

You do not need an NI number to start work but once working, you can apply for a NI number to ensure your NI contributions are up to date. You can apply by contacting the nearest Department of Work and Pensions office in England, Scotland and Wales, or Department for Social Development in Northern Ireland.

If you are self-employed and from any EU state, you do not have to register with the WRS. However, on arrival in the UK, you must contact the Revenue and Customsimmediately for tax purposes. There is a penalty of £100 for late registration.

You can find full details, downloads and forms on the Border and Immigration Agency website.

If you are from a country other than those mentioned above, you should contact the UK Visas website to check if you need a permit or visa to work in the UK.

If you have qualifications from your home country, you can find out what they are equivalent to in the UK by contacting the National Recognition Information Centre (NARIC). This information may be required by employers for some jobs.

At the moment, London, East Anglia and the Midlands are attracting the most workers from overseas, with the most popular sectors being administration, business and management, hospitality and catering, agriculture, manufacturing, and food, fish and meat processing. See our job profiles for information on the pay, the training and the opportunities on over 700 different jobs.

There are lots of different ways to find job vacancies, including the press, Jobcentres and recruitment agencies. Or even by using the fastest UK job search engine Check4Jobs.

You must check that overseas workers have permission to work in the UK. The four steps for legal compliance are:

• Obtain the worker's documents - nationals from EEA countries can provide a variety of document types to prove they can work in the UK. You can find a full list of these on the Employing Migrant Workers website.
• Check the documents' validity - documents must be originals as copies are not acceptable
• Copy and save documents - make copies for your records and store securely.
• Check if the employee is from one of the eight countries that need to register for the Worker Registration Scheme (details on the Border and Immigration Agency website)