What a foreign employment letter must say for a UK visa, how an attestation de travail, Arbeitszeugnis or constancia laboral differ, and what to translate.
An employment letter translation is only as good as the letter behind it, and most employers abroad have never been asked to write one for the Home Office. You ask HR for "a letter confirming my job" and get back a warm reference about your teamwork, with no salary in sight. This guide covers what the letter needs to state for a spouse or partner visa and for a visitor visa, the local documents we see most often (and which ones miss the point), and how to get it translated without paying for pages you don't need.
Under Appendix FM-SE, the employer's letter must confirm the person's employment and gross annual salary, how long they've been employed, the period over which they've been paid at that level, and the type of employment: permanent, fixed-term contract or agency. For a job abroad, the evidence must be a reasonable equivalent.
That list is the whole job of the letter, and every item has to be there. The letter has to come from the employer that issued the payslips, and it works alongside them: the payslips show the money, the letter confirms what they add up to, and the bank statements show it arriving. Our payslip translation guide for spouse visas covers how the three line up month by month.
If the partner earning the money works outside the UK, the rules ask for a "reasonable equivalent" of the UK evidence. In practice that means the same facts, on the employer's letterhead, in whatever form the local employer can produce. A partner coming back to take up a UK job within three months of returning has extra documents to show, including evidence of the new UK job, so check the current guidance for that situation.
The Home Office's visitor guidance suggests a letter on company headed paper detailing your role, salary and length of employment, with the company's contact details. It shows you have a job and income to return to. If it isn't in English or Welsh, it needs a full certified translation.
A visitor application is a different question. Nobody is checking an income threshold; the caseworker wants to see that you have a life to go back to and the means to pay for the trip. A short, factual letter does that well: start date, job title, salary, and ideally a line confirming the leave you've been granted for the trip. Our visitor visa translation guide covers the rest of the file.
Self-employed visitors can use business registration documents or recent invoices instead, which tend to be shorter than you'd fear. Whatever you send, the translation must be dated and include the translator's confirmation of accuracy, their full name and signature, and their contact details.
Ask for a short letter confirming your job, salary, start date and contract type. Reference letters such as a German Arbeitszeugnis, and leaving certificates such as a French certificat de travail, often don't state your current salary, so they rarely prove what the Home Office is asking about on their own.
Every country has its own name for the document you need, and usually a second document with a similar name that isn't it. In France you want an attestation de travail or attestation d'emploi, which confirms you currently work there; the certificat de travail is what you get when you leave. In Germany, an Arbeitszeugnis is a performance reference written in a famously coded style. What you want is a plain Bestätigung or Bescheinigung from the employer confirming the job and gross salary. (Arbeitszeugnis grammar is a branch of literature in its own right, and we're happy to translate one, but it won't show the salary.)
In Spain and Latin America, ask for a certificado laboral or constancia laboral; a Spanish informe de vida laboral from the Seguridad Social is useful for employment history but doesn't show salary. Dutch employers often know the werkgeversverklaring from mortgage applications, which already contains most of what's needed. Italian employers can issue a dichiarazione del datore di lavoro.
Yes, and if they can, it's the easiest option. A letter written entirely in English on the employer's headed paper needs no translation. If the letter is in another language, or mixes languages, it needs a certified translation of the whole thing.
Plenty of multinationals and larger employers will happily produce a letter in English, and it saves you a translation entirely. Ask HR before you order anything. The cheapest translation is still the one you don't need, and our post on documents already in English explains when an English document is enough.
Watch for half-and-half letters: an English body with a stamp, signature block or footnote in the local language. Everything on the page needs to be in English for the caseworker, so those parts still need translating. A good certified translation reproduces the letterhead, signatures and stamps as described elements, so the caseworker can see exactly what the original contains.
It's best to. The letter, payslips and bank statements are read side by side, so the employer's name, the job title and the salary figures should be translated consistently across all of them. One order with one team keeps those terms identical.
A caseworker comparing an employment letter that says "Senior Accountant" with payslips that say "Chief Accounting Officer" will wonder whether they're looking at the same job. Usually both are fair translations of the same word, which is exactly why one translator should do the lot. Our payslip translation service and employment letter translation service are handled by the same team in a single order.
The same goes for amounts. A salary of 42.000,00 EUR on the letter should read the same on every payslip translation, decimal separators and all. We keep figures exactly as printed, in the original currency; the Home Office does its own conversion.
Certified translation is £15.59 per page, delivered within 24 business hours, or £29.99 per page for same-day rush. Most employment letters are a single page, so the letter itself is usually the cheapest document in the file.
The letter is rarely what makes a translation bill large. Payslips and statements are, so think about the whole financial file at once. For a spouse visa based on salaried income, that's usually the employer's letter, six months of payslips and the matching bank statements. Translate the months the rules ask for and no more.
Send everything in one order and tell us the spelling of each name as it appears on the passport, so the employee's name reads the same on the letter, the payslips and the bank statements. Every document includes two free revisions. Upload the files for an instant quote, or send them on WhatsApp or by email if you'd like us to check the letter covers what the rules ask for before we translate it.
About the author
Felipe Menendez
Head of Translation, VisaDocTranslation
Felipe leads the translation team at VisaDocTranslation, overseeing certified translations for UK visa, Home Office and HMCTS submissions. He sets the quality standards every translation is checked against and writes about what UKVI caseworkers actually look for.
More about our teamYes. For spouse and partner visas the letter should come from the employer on its official headed paper. The visitor guidance also suggests company headed paper. The translation reproduces the letterhead details in English.
A reference letter usually describes how well you did your job rather than confirming your current salary and contract type. For a spouse visa, the letter must confirm specific facts, so a reference letter on its own rarely does the job.
For a spouse visa, the rules ask the letter to confirm gross annual salary. If your employer has only stated net pay, ask them to add the gross figure before you get the letter translated.
Use a recent letter that reflects your current job and salary. Check the guidance for your route for any specific dating requirements, and get the translation done once you have the final version you will submit.
Yes. Contracts are sometimes requested alongside the letter, especially for fixed-term roles. They tend to run to several pages, so check whether the caseworker or your adviser actually needs the full contract before ordering.
UKVI-accepted certified translations from £15.59 per page. Statement of accuracy included. 24-hour delivery.
Employer letters, contracts, reference letters and certificates of employment translated and certified for UKVI, UK employers and mortgage lenders. From £15.59 per page.
Foreign payslips translated in full — every earning, deduction and net-pay line — for the UK spouse visa financial requirement and mortgage income checks. From £15.59 per page.
Foreign bank statements translated line by line — balances, transaction descriptions and bank stamps — for UKVI funds evidence and UK mortgage affordability checks. From £15.59 per page.
Everything you need translated for your spouse visa — marriage certificates, financial evidence, and relationship proof.
Bank statements, payslips, tax returns, pension statements, company accounts and more — translated and certified for UKVI, UK mortgage lenders, accountants and courts. From £15.59 per page.
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