Are scanned and printed supporting documents accepted for UK visitor visa?

Question

I am a freelance computer programmer who works on a contract basis with individual clients as well as companies.

As most of my clients are either overseas or far away, all of my work is done from home. This means that all contracts and invoices are handled digitally. e.g. I sign the contract and send it to the other party and vice versa.

Similarly the invoices for the client are also digitally generated and sent.

I do have tax returns available in original but it's not for a long period and my income now differs substantially from what it was during the last taxation period and the new financial year is not yet complete. Hence these invoices and contracts would be the only proof of my employment and income (apart from bank statements but that's not very reliable according to the case officers from last refusal).

So now If I wish to apply for a Standard UK visitor visa. How do I include these payslips, invoices and contracts in a form that would be considered reliable by the case officer?

Are printed copies of the documents acceptable as it'd be virtually impossible to get a physical paper invoice/payslip signed by the client over a courier in time.

Answer 1

So the answer to this is apparently yes, Scanned copies of invitation letters and filled out sponsorship forms , invoices ,bills etc are valid.

What did I include:

• Scanned copy of filled and signed Su07 form
• Scanned copies of sponsor's supporting docs (bills, bank statements , house deeds) for Su07
• Scanned copy of sponsor's invitation on his letterhead
• Scanned copy of ticket of an event that I am invited to attend by the sponsor
• Printed hard copies of invoices that I had sent to clients digitally (PDFs).
• Scanned copies of employment contracts
• Scanned copy of employer's bank transaction relating to invoices

I can state this because I just received my visa that had the scanned copies of above attached for all but my own documents.

However, I cannot guarantee it will be valid for all countries , cases or categories. This answer relates only to my case in which the only difference between the earlier rejected application and the successful application were sponsor's documents as scanned copies, which I believe were the sole factor for the application to be successful this time.