Control of Housing and Work Law 2012
Residential status explained
Jersey residential status is a single classification, held by everyone living on the island, that answers two separate questions at once: which housing you may occupy, and who may employ you. There are six statuses since 14 September 2026, when Standard replaced Registered. Which one you hold matters more to daily life than almost anything else about the move.
Why this is the first thing to establish
People moving to Jersey usually think about the job, then the house, then the paperwork. The order that avoids trouble is exactly the reverse, because your residential status decides which houses are open to you before you have looked at a single one.
Jersey controls both housing and employment through one law, the Control of Housing and Work (Jersey) Law 2012, and one classification. A job offer settles half the question and leaves the other half untouched.
The six statuses
There are six, set under the same law by the Residential and Employment Status Regulations, which took effect on 14 September 2026. Each one answers two separate questions: what you may occupy, and who you may work for. Almost every surprise in a Jersey move comes from assuming one answer settles the other.
The controls are administered by the Business Hub (Employment, Social Security and Housing), the office older guidance calls the Population Office.
Permanent Entitled and Entitled
Entitled status follows ten years of continuous ordinary residence. Permanent Entitled is reached by other routes — for example, a person born in Jersey who completes ten years’ ordinary residence, where breaks are permitted, or someone with 25 years’ continuous residence.
Both give full access: buy, sell or lease property, and work for anyone or for yourself. Entitled is what almost everyone is working towards, and the ten-year requirement is why so much of Jersey life is organised around how long someone has been here.
Licensed
Granted through an employer, for a specific role the employer cannot fill from the existing resident workforce.
Licensed status lets you buy or rent one property, which you must live in, and work only in the licensed role. The permission belongs to the business. If the job ends, the basis of the status ends with it, which makes accepting a licensed role a different proposition from accepting an ordinary one.
Licences are deliberately limited, because Jersey’s population policy limits them. What that means for employers, and how licensed status works in detail.
Licensed for Lease Only
The same arrangement with a narrower housing right: you may rent one property, not buy, and work only in the specific role your employer’s permission covers.
Entitled for Work
Five years of continuous residence, or an eligible partner — a spouse, civil partner or partner in an enduring relationship — who holds Permanent Entitled, Entitled, Entitled for Work, Licensed or Licensed for Lease Only status.
This status frees the work side completely — you may work for anyone, or for yourself, without an employer holding a permission. Housing stays restricted to registered property. It is the status that lets people build a career here while still living in a constrained part of the market.
Resident business licences are issued to people holding Permanent Entitled, Entitled or Entitled for Work status, with other statuses considered case by case — which is why entrepreneurs planning to move and trade under a Jersey business licence need to solve the personal status question first.
Standard
Everyone else. The default on arrival, and the status that replaced Registered on 14 September 2026.
Standard status means an employer needs a permission to employ you, and your housing options are the narrowest of the six. It is workable — a large number of people live and work in Jersey this way — but it is the most constrained position, and it is where new arrivals are most often surprised. The gov.je residential status table sets out what each status permits.
The two things people get wrong
Assuming a job offer solves housing. Unless the role is licensed, it does not. An employer’s permission to employ you on Standard status says nothing about which homes you may occupy, and the housing half is usually the harder one.
Assuming time on the island accrues automatically. Continuous residence has to be continuous and it has to be evidenced. Reconstructing years of address history from memory, several years after the fact, is a genuinely miserable exercise. Keep the paperwork from day one.
The card that ties all of this together is the registration card. How to get one, and when.