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Good day to all,

I am an Indian citizen working and living in Germany, and would like to visit the UK for the Christmas holidays. My question is regarding the translation of the supporting documents. Since I live in Germany, all my documents are in German.

Of course, it would cost me an awful lot of money to translate all the documents from German to English. Hence, I would like to know if anyone have the experience of attaining a UK visa from Germany, and if yes, what documents were translated.

Following is the list of documents which I plan to submit in the order of priority:

  1. Work contract (I will translate this).
  2. Salary slip (I will translate this too).
  3. Bank statements (this would rip me off, if I attempt to translate, as it is around 10 pages).
  4. Apartment contract (it is also 5 pages, which is a no-go for translation).
  5. City registration (also an additional document, means more translation costs).

If anyone could throw some light in this issue, it would be a huge help for me.

EDIT:

So I applied for the visa. Here is what I submitted, and the experience of the visa application. First of all, thanks a lot to all those who provided valuable suggestions - @simbabque, @phoog

I submitted following 1.Passport and visa(german) 2.Work contract (German original and English translated) 3.Salary statement(German orignial and English translated) 4.Bank statement (in German WITHOUT translation) 5. City Registration (in German WITHOUT translation)

One caution to all who apply in Germany : The visa application centre has no role in providing any help on which documents to submit. You have to decide yourself and give them all what you think is necessary for the application success. The application centre just takes all the papers that you give, put them in a cover, and send it to the UK. They do not review, do not ask for any document. This is entirely our personal responsibility. It is also well stated by them. So in the end cannot blame anyone if you are not well informed with the process.

I received the visa after two weeks.

Here is my conclusion. As long as the embassy is convinced that your application is genuine, there is no issue with the visa application process. I found the entire process quite straight forward and logical.

I decided to translate work contract and salary statement, as an Officer reading the document in German clearly would have no clue as to what is written in the contract, or what the numbers mean in the salary statement.

For the bank statement, it is very easy to skim through it and clearly see the monthly incoming of the salary and the expeditures. This , according to my logic did not need a transaltion, and I was proven right!! Also, the city registration document, is to verify the address of your stay. Here I took a chance, but as long as you have the same address in all other documents submitted by you (german visa, bank statement, work contract, salary statement) , this is clearly enough. I did not book any flight, nor submit any flight details. This also does not make any sense , without having the visa.

Just for credibitlity of my intended dates of travel, I booked a hotel, with an option to cancel any time. Also I submitted a short itinierary of what I plan to do during my visit(this is inside the application).

All in all, the visa application is quite straight forward and logical, as long as you stick to their requirements.

I wish all good luck pursuing the same.

Now I am looking forward to my visit in the UK for the Holidays.

Cheers Everyone!!

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  • 2
    Note that your documents must be accompanied by a certified translation. You cannot translate them yourself.
    – DJClayworth
    Commented Oct 30, 2017 at 12:32
  • The question is not a duplicate as the person in the other question is enrolled in a university in Italy. This case is different. Anyways, I am disappointed to see that people have only asked questions , but no one has bothered to come back later and provide a feedback as how the process went. I will provide a feedback in detail regarding how the visa processing goes once its finished. Cheers Everyone!
    – Vijil Subash
    Commented Nov 2, 2017 at 9:40
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    Also note that the UK embassy in Berlin does not have a consulate. You cannot apply for visas there. There are some private companies that help with the visa application though. It's an expensive process in its own. Their requirements document lists a lot of things as maybe, and that they would ask for them if needed. We decided not to translate, and not to submit the ones that were not mandatory. They did not ask. They simply refused the express visa application. That's about 400 Euros lost. Re your work contract, your company can give that to you for free probably.
    – simbabque
    Commented Nov 2, 2017 at 13:21
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    Some banks (like Deutsche Bank) can produce English bank statements, but the printouts from the online banking might not be official enough.
    – simbabque
    Commented Nov 2, 2017 at 13:22
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    At that point we submitted the passport with a Niederlassungserlaubnis inside, a German/English work contract and possibly more. My friend needs to get a lot of visas so she has some things translated. There might have been the Anmeldebescheinigung, but definitely not bank statement. I remember discussing those and we decided it would be easier if they ask for them. They never did, and refused the visa. Business trip didn't happen, company lost a client.
    – simbabque
    Commented Nov 3, 2017 at 9:33

1 Answer 1

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My mother in law was denied a UK visa in part because she did not translate her bank statements. They say that documents not in English or Welsh must be accompanied by a translation, and they mean it. That the documents would be costly to translate does not have any bearing on this requirement.

For your own cost-benefit analysis, weigh the cost of translating the documents against the cost of submitting an application that will almost certainly be refused. Throwing away your application fees is also costly.

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  • Thank you for your reply. Was the bank statements only supporting document for your mother in law, or was she also able to prove a stable income flow? The reason I ask is to understand how considerate are the people in British embassy regarding the documents. In my case, if they are considerate enough, they would be able to come to a conclusion that my employment contract and salary slip supports my financial stability for the visit. If they are just looking for reasons for rejection, then I completely agree with you.
    – Vijil Subash
    Commented Oct 30, 2017 at 9:16
  • @VijilSubash Please do not ask supplementary questions in comments. Please ask a separate question, or edit the extra request into the original question.
    – DJClayworth
    Commented Oct 30, 2017 at 12:28
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    @VijilSubash if you do not submit your bank statements, the entry clearance officer will have no idea whether your salary is sufficient to support your visit to the UK because there will be no way to know how much you spend every month.
    – phoog
    Commented Oct 30, 2017 at 13:42
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    @VijilSubash the embassy has nothing to do with this process. All your stuff gets forwarded to the UK, including your passport (which you will not have for a while). See my question here for details on exactly that process, but from a different point of view.
    – simbabque
    Commented Nov 2, 2017 at 13:25

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