Which ILR documents need certified translation in 2026, route by route: what you can reuse from your first visa, what's new, and real costs from £15.59/page.
An ILR application is the biggest evidence file most people ever send the Home Office. It covers years, not months. Anything in it that isn't in English or Welsh needs a certified translation, and ILR has a stricter translation standard than the visa you came in on. This checklist goes route by route: which documents need translating, which old translations you can reuse, which ones you can't, and what the whole file typically costs.
The main routes are the 5-year partner route (SET(M)), Skilled Worker and Health and Care Worker after 5 years, and 10-year long residence. Each one proves something different, so each pulls in different foreign-language documents. Partners and children applying as dependants add their own family documents.
Every ILR route asks the same basic question: have you lived here lawfully, for long enough, in the circumstances the route requires? What changes is the evidence used to prove it.
On the partner route, the relationship is the evidence. UKVI looks at the marriage or civil partnership, cohabitation across the whole period, and the financial requirement at the point of application. On Skilled Worker and Health and Care Worker, it's continuous sponsored employment, plus the relationship documents for any partner and children applying with you. On long residence, it's ten years of continuous lawful residence. That puts absences and any time spent abroad under the microscope.
A note on the 'earned settlement' proposals. The government has consulted on raising the standard qualifying period from five years to ten. At the time of writing (October 2026), no draft rules have been laid and the existing 5-year routes still apply. Whatever happens to the qualifying period, the translation rules below don't change.
Foreign birth certificates for you and any children applying, your marriage or civil partnership certificate, and divorce or death certificates that end any previous marriage. These appear on almost every family ILR file, and each needs a full certified translation, stamps and marginal notes included.
These are the documents UKVI uses to confirm who you are and who you're related to, and they get read closely.
Birth certificates come first: yours, and every child applying as a dependant. A child born abroad since your last application is the classic gap. Their certificate has never been translated, and it's easy to forget until the checklist is half done. Our birth certificate translation covers marginal annotations, late-registration stamps and the reverse side, which is where half-translations usually go wrong.
Next is the marriage certificate, or the civil partnership certificate. If either of you was married before, UKVI wants proof the earlier marriage ended, so add the divorce decree or certificate (or a death certificate). A talaq or khula document counts here too, and it needs translating like any other civil record.
Foreign bank statements, payslips, tax returns and employer letters all need certified translation if they're in the file. On the partner route, the financial requirement is tested at the date of application. Income from overseas, rental property abroad or self-employment adds pages fast.
Financial evidence is where page counts climb. Most ILR applicants with only UK income and UK bank accounts have nothing to translate here. The ones who do usually have one of three things going on: income earned abroad, property or savings held abroad, or self-employment with foreign clients.
On the partner route, the financial requirement is tested at the point of application. That means the usual six or twelve months of bank statements and payslips, in full, for any account or employer outside the UK. Self-employed and rental income needs the full tax year behind it. That's where tax return translation comes in, along with a foreign accountant's letter if you have one.
On Skilled Worker and long residence, UK employment usually carries the file. Foreign evidence comes in where you worked abroad during the qualifying period, or where you're explaining a gap. An employment letter from an overseas employer confirming dates and role is a common one.
UKVI checks your time outside the UK and runs suitability checks on your character. Foreign documents that explain a long absence (a death certificate, medical letter or overseas employment letter) need translating. UKVI can also ask for police certificates from countries where you spent long periods.
Absences matter on every route, and most of all on long residence. If you spent a long stretch outside the UK, you'll usually explain why, and the explanation is often a foreign document: a parent's death certificate, a hospital letter, an overseas employer's secondment letter. If it's not in English, it needs a certified translation, the same as anything else in the file.
Suitability is the other side. ILR has a full character assessment, and UKVI can request a police certificate from a country where you lived for a significant period. Most foreign certificates aren't in English. They also expire quickly, so order the translation as soon as the certificate arrives. Our police certificate translation service handles the common formats. Our guide to police clearance certificate translation covers what each issuing country's certificate looks like.
Often yes, but check them first. For ILR, the Immigration Rules require the translation to be certified by a qualified translator and to include the translator's or company's credentials. That's stricter than for entry clearance. A translation that was fine for your first visa may not meet the ILR standard.
This is the part most checklists skip, and it can cost you a refusal.
Paragraph 39B of Part 1 of the Immigration Rules sets the format for every translation. It must confirm it's accurate, carry the translator's full name and signature, and give contact details. For leave to remain and indefinite leave to remain, it adds two more requirements: certification by a qualified translator, and details of the translator's or translation company's credentials. Entry clearance applications made from abroad don't carry those two extra requirements.
So a translation that sailed through your first spouse visa from overseas isn't automatically good for ILR. Pull out the old translations and check each one. Is there a statement of accuracy? Is the translator named and identified as qualified? Are their credentials stated? If all three are there and the original document hasn't changed, reuse it. If any are missing, get it re-done before you apply rather than after an RFI.
Everything new since your last application needs a fresh translation: new bank statements and payslips, a renewed foreign passport or ID card, a child born since, a new marriage, a death in the family that explains an absence. Our marriage certificate guide covers what UKVI looks for when the same certificate comes back years later.
Anything already fully in English or Welsh: your eVisa or old BRP, the Life in the UK test pass, UK-issued English language certificates, UK payslips and bank statements, and documents from English-speaking countries. Bilingual documents only need translating if the binding text isn't in English.
Plenty of an ILR file is UK-issued and already in English: UK payslips, P60s, council tax bills, tenancy agreements, NHS letters. None of it needs touching. Nor does your proof of status, whether that's an eVisa share code or an expired BRP, or your Life in the UK pass notification.
The grey area is bilingual documents. A certificate with English headings but the details written in another script isn't an English document. UKVI reads it as foreign-language. Our guide to documents already in English covers that edge case in detail. Skipping an unnecessary translation saves money, but skipping a necessary one costs you an RFI.
Certified translation is £15.59 per page, with same-day rush at £29.99 per page. A typical partner-route file with new overseas documents runs 8–12 pages. A Skilled Worker family of four often needs about 6 pages. A long-residence file with time abroad can reach 15 pages or more.
Page counts vary wildly from file to file, so here are three typical ones at our standard rate of £15.59 per page.
Partner route, five years in. You have English translations of the marriage certificate and both birth certificates from the original application, done to the ILR standard. What's new: a child's birth certificate (1 page), an overseas rental agreement (3 pages) and six months of statements from the foreign account the rent lands in (6 pages). That's 10 pages: £155.90.
Skilled Worker, family of four. The original translations came from a provider that didn't state credentials, so they all need re-doing: marriage certificate (2 pages), both partners' birth certificates (2 pages) and two children's birth certificates (2 pages). That's 6 pages: £93.54. If those originals had met the ILR standard, the bill would have been zero.
Long residence, with two years abroad mid-route. An overseas employer's secondment letter (2 pages), foreign payslips (6 pages), a police certificate (2 pages) and a parent's death certificate explaining a long absence (2 pages). That's 12 pages: £187.08. If your current visa is close to expiry and you need the same file same-day, it's £29.99 per page: £359.88.
The quickest way to an exact figure is to upload everything at once and get a quote. Pages are counted per document, so you only pay for what's actually in the file.
An ILR file brings together documents from decades apart, so name spellings often drift. A translator's note explaining transliteration variants heads off RFIs. Handwritten, faded or very old registers can be translated too; the translator marks anything illegible rather than guessing.
Five years of evidence, plus birth certificates from thirty years earlier, means names rarely match perfectly. Muhammad on one document, Mohammed on another. A maiden name on the birth certificate, a married name on the payslips. UKVI doesn't refuse over this when it's explained. The explanation belongs in the translation itself, as a translator's note, so the caseworker doesn't have to piece it together. More on this in our guide to names spelled differently across documents.
Old family records are the other recurring issue: handwritten parish registers, faded civil records, typed certificates with handwritten amendments. They can all be translated. A good translation marks illegible text as illegible instead of filling the gap. Our guide to handwritten and old documents covers what to scan and how.
One order means one translation team working across the whole file. Names, dates and place names get spelled the same way on every document, the notes are consistent, and everything arrives together, ready to upload with the application.
Most ILR files are assembled over weeks: a birth certificate one month, the bank statements the next, a police certificate when it finally arrives. Ordering translations piecemeal from different providers is how one file ends up with three spellings of the same village.
Upload the full set together and the translator sees the whole file. Names match across documents, notes cross-reference each other, and every translation carries the same credentials block that ILR requires. Our UKVI translation service is built around exactly that format. For the route-by-route overview, see our ILR and settlement translation guide.
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, if the original document hasn't changed and the translation meets the ILR standard: certified by a qualified translator, with the translator's or company's credentials stated. Translations made for an entry clearance application don't always include those, so check before reusing them.
Yes, if they're applying with you and their birth certificates aren't in English. A child born abroad since your last application is the one most often missed. Children born in the UK have English birth certificates and need nothing translated.
No. UKVI accepts certified translations for ILR. Notarisation adds cost without improving acceptance. What ILR does require is certification by a qualified translator and the translator's credentials on the translation.
Standard certified translations are delivered within 24 business hours, and same-day rush is available at £29.99 per page. Order everything in one go so nothing holds up the application.
Yes. UKVI needs evidence that any previous marriage of either partner has ended, and a foreign divorce decree, talaq or death certificate needs a full certified translation, including court stamps and registration details.
Not the translation rules. The proposals change how long you need to have lived here, not how foreign documents must be translated. At the time of writing (October 2026) the existing 5-year routes still apply.
UKVI-accepted certified translations from £15.59 per page. Statement of accuracy included. 24-hour delivery.
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.
UKVI-accepted certified translations of birth certificates from any country, in any language. From £15.59, delivered within 24 hours.
Essential for spouse and partner visas. UKVI-accepted certified translations from £15.59.
Police clearance certificates, criminal record extracts and character certificates translated and certified for UKVI, with every stamp and reference number included. From £15.59 per page.
Foreign tax returns, assessments and tax certificates translated in full for UKVI, UK mortgage lenders and accountants. 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.
A US university, employer or DMV wants a notarized translation and you're in the UK? What it means, when USCIS doesn't need it, and how to order online.
Extending your UK spouse visa? Which certified translations you can reuse for FLR(M), the stricter in-country standard, and what needs translating fresh.
What UKVI expects from a certified marriage certificate translation, what gets rejected, 2026 costs from £15.59, and why a Nikah Nama isn't a single-page job.