India: Acceptable Documents for Right to Work Verification

## What Is Valid Proof of Right to Work? To perform a right to work check in India, the following documents can be accepted: ### Natural Citizens - **Voter ID Card/e-EPIC Card** - **Birth Certificate** - **Overseas Indian Citizens Card (OCI)** - **PAN Card** - **Aadhaar Card** - **Domicile Certificate (has to be accompanied with an Indian Passport or other nationality document)** ### Foreign Nationals - **Employment Visa (only applies to that specific employer, is not general purpose)** All of these documents can be uploaded securely through Zinc but please note the extra guidance below for the different types of results to expect. ## What Are the Employer’s Responsibilities? As with any Right to Work check in any jurisdiction, it is the employer’s ultimate duty to ensure that their employees have the right to work from their very first day of employment at the very least. Ideally, this would be confirmed well in advance of their start date. In India, it is important to note that **all natural citizens automatically** have the right to work so conceptually proving right to work is different to other jurisdictions. Most Indian nationals hold either an Aadhaar or PAN card to prove their citizenship. Employers therefore commonly rely on these documents, using them to verify an individual’s right to work status. In India, the maximum punishment that can be imposed on an employer for employing a natural person who is later discovered not to have valid right to work status is imprisonment. Typically however, fines are much more common. ## What Do Clear and Consider Results Mean for India? A **clear** result means that a valid (in date) passport or a National ID Card such as Aadhaar Card or PAN Card has been uploaded to the Zinc portal by the candidate. This document passed both anti-spoofing and facial similarity checks and it was determined that the document was a valid document (i.e. not a forged document) and that the photograph uploaded by the candidate matched the photograph in the passport. No further action is required in this instance. A **consider** result could be flagged for multiple reasons. In India, the most common reason is that a candidate has uploaded a document that is valid proof of RTW but cannot be verified digitally. As such, a result of **consider** may be displayed on the report, highlighting the need for further investigation. Other reasons that a **consider** result may appear are that the document uploaded was not able to pass the facial similarity check or the anti-spoofing check. The worst case outcomes are that the document is forged or the candidate is an impersonator.