New employer wants your ID: what you can't redact
A statutory right-to-work check needs the whole document. The extra copy for the HR folder does not.
Short answer
- Do not redact for the statutory check. Right-to-work rules require a copy of exactly what the employer saw; a covered field invalidates it.
- Your document number is payroll data, not a secret to keep from HR — in Spain the DNI/NIE goes on your Social Security registration.
- The second, third and fourth requests are the ones to redact — a re-send for a background check, an onboarding portal upload, a copy “for the file”.
A job offer arrives, and with it: “Please attach a copy of your passport or ID.” The useful thing to notice is that this is almost never one request. It is a statutory check bundled together with a handful of administrative habits, and those two halves deserve opposite answers.
The half you cannot redact
Where an employer is running a statutory identity or right-to-work check, the law generally requires them to keep a copy of exactly what they were shown. In the UK, a manual right-to-work check requires copying the pages carrying the photograph, date of birth, expiry date, signature and any endorsement showing permission to work — the standard the Home Office applies is that the copy must let them see precisely what the employer saw on the date of the check. A redacted copy does not meet it.
The same logic applies to payroll. In Spain your DNI or NIE number is the key your Social Security registration and payslips are built on; it is on your contract already. Hiding it from your own employer is not a privacy win, it is a payroll problem.
So: for the statutory check, send the document whole, through whatever system the employer’s process uses. This is one of the cases covered in when redacting your ID won’t work.
The half you should redact
Everything else. And in most onboardings there is a surprising amount of “everything else”:
- A scan requested “for your file” with no stated basis.
- An onboarding portal that asks for a document upload the statutory check did not need.
- A manager asking you to WhatsApp a photo because the portal was awkward.
- A background-check firm or a new HR system asking again, months later.
- A copy for a staff directory, badge or building pass.
None of those is the statutory check, and for all of them a redacted, watermarked copy showing your name, photo and — where relevant — your right-to-work status is entirely appropriate. Cover the machine-readable zone and your signature, and watermark it “For [Company] onboarding — [date]” so it is useless anywhere else.
| The request | Redact? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Statutory right-to-work check | No | The copy must show what the employer saw |
| Social Security / payroll registration | No | Keyed on your document number |
| “A copy for your file” | Yes | No stated basis; minimisation applies |
| Onboarding portal upload | Yes | Unless it is the statutory check |
| WhatsApp photo to a manager | Yes | Wrong channel for an unredacted document |
| Background check, months later | Yes | Fresh copy, watermarked for that request |
Ask the one question that sorts them
“Is this for the right-to-work check, or for the file?” It is a normal question, HR can answer it in a sentence, and the answer tells you which of the two halves you are in.
Do it on your phone
For the requests in the second half: photograph the document, cover the fields above, add a watermark, and send that instead of the original — all on-device, nothing uploaded. That is what Anonymize my ID does. For exactly which fields to cover, see how to redact a passport or ID card; for how long an employer may hold what it does keep, see can a company legally keep a copy of your ID.
Frequently asked questions
Can I send my employer a redacted passport for a right-to-work check?
No. Where the check is statutory the employer has to retain a copy showing exactly what they saw on the day — in the UK that means the pages carrying the photograph, date of birth, expiry date, signature and any visa endorsement. A redacted copy does not satisfy that and the employer will have to redo the check.
Then what is safe to redact for an employer?
Anything outside the statutory check. HR asking for a scan "for your file", an onboarding portal that wants a document upload it does not legally need, a manager asking you to WhatsApp a photo of your ID, or a background-check firm months later — all of those are ordinary requests where a redacted, watermarked copy is appropriate.
Does my employer need my document number?
Usually yes, and this is worth being clear about: in Spain your DNI or NIE number is what your Social Security registration and your payslip are keyed on. Treating it as a field to hide from your own employer is the wrong instinct — the field worth guarding is the *image* of the document, not the number your contract already carries.
HR asked for my ID again for a background check months later — same copy?
Send a fresh redacted, watermarked copy naming that request and date, rather than forwarding the original attachment. A photo sitting unprotected in an old email thread is a liability whether or not the job worked out.
Can my employer keep the copy forever?
Only as long as the lawful basis lasts. Statutory right-to-work copies have a defined retention period; a copy taken "for the file" with no such basis is exactly the kind the GDPR's data-minimisation principle is aimed at. See can a company legally keep a copy of your ID.