Key points
- Store every expiry as a date in its own field, next to the document it came from.
- Set a lead time for each document type from your own renewal process.
- Give every upcoming expiry one owner and review the list at a fixed time each week.
- Take renewal windows and fees from the issuing authority, not from a checklist copied from someone else.
A missed expiry is rarely a failure of effort. It is usually a failure of visibility: the date sat on a scan, in one person's head, or in a spreadsheet that nobody opened that week. When an agency looks after hundreds of workers across several employer clients, memory stops being a system.
This article describes a routine that works with a spreadsheet and works better with software built for it. It does not tell you what your renewal deadlines are. Those come from the authority that issues each document, and they differ by country, pass type and employer.
Decide what counts as an expiry
Start by listing every document or approval in your workflow that has an end date. Most agencies end up with a list like this:
- passport validity
- work permit or pass validity
- medical examination validity
- insurance and similar cover that must stay in force
- the employment contract end date, where it differs from the permit
Write the list down once and agree it with your team. A date that is not on the list will not be tracked, however obvious it seems to the person who knows it. Steps that follow arrival have due dates of their own, covered in the post-arrival clearance checklist.
Keep each expiry as a date, not a line on a scan
A scanned permit does not tell you when it ends. Someone has to open it, read it and remember it. Record each end date in its own field on the worker's record, with the document attached next to it.
Once dates are data, you can sort them, filter them by employer client and count how many fall in the next ninety days. The scan stays as the evidence behind the date, and a person confirms that the two match before the record is relied on.
Set a lead time for each document type
A lead time is how many days before expiry the item should reach someone's list. It is your agency's own number, built from how long your renewal steps actually take: gathering documents, booking a medical, waiting for a third party, and a margin for rework.
Two habits keep lead times honest:
- Take the legal or official renewal window from the issuing authority's own page, and note which page it came from. Singapore's work permit renewal checklist shows one authority's window turned into records.
- Measure your own steps on the last few renewals and set the lead time to cover the slowest realistic case.
Different documents will have different lead times. A passport renewal that depends on the worker's home country usually needs more notice than a document you can update in the office.
Give every item one owner and one list
An item with two owners has none. Assign each upcoming expiry to one person, and work from one list sorted by date, with the reason beside each row: the document, the worker, the employer client and the date.
Clear an item by fixing the source: upload the new document, enter the new date and have it reviewed. Do not clear it by ticking a box. A list that can be cleared without changing the record will drift away from the truth.
Review the list at the same time every week
A weekly review of thirty minutes beats a monthly clean-up. Agree a fixed slot, go through items in date order and ask three questions:
- Does every item have an owner?
- Is anything past its lead time with no action taken?
- Is there a date on a record that does not match its document?
Keep a short note of what changed. The note makes the next review faster and shows a manager what is moving.
Keep the history when a document is renewed
When a permit is renewed, add the new document as a newer version and keep the old one. Overwriting the file saves a click and costs you the answer to "what did we hold on that date?" later.
Where Worker Vault fits
Worker Vault is built around this routine. Each worker has one record with passport, permit and medical facts. An approaching expiry shows as an Expiry warning in the Work Queue, with the reason and a link to the record. The expiry forecast report looks ahead up to 12 months, and lead times are set per compliance category in Settings.
An expiry warning is not a verdict. A worker whose record is still valid stays Compliant while the warning shows. Worker Vault tracks the date; it does not renew the permit. Your team still files the renewal with the authority.
If you want to see how this looks on your own workers and employer clients, Book a Demo and we will walk through it with you. For the wider routine around records and evidence, see how to keep worker records and document expiry in order, the recruitment cost record, the Thailand guide, the Saudi Arabia guide, the UAE guide and the compliance follow-up page.
For plain definitions of the terms used in this routine, see the recruitment and worker record glossary.
See your workers, documents and deadlines in one place
Book a demo and we will walk through how your agency would run recruitment and worker records in Worker Vault.
