Skilled Worker visa from Turkey: documents and translations

Start with the job, not the documents

A Skilled Worker application cannot begin until a UK employer with a sponsor licence has assigned you a certificate of sponsorship (CoS) for a specific role. Since 22 July 2025 that role must be at RQF level 6 (graduate level) for most new applicants and pay at least the general threshold of £41,700 or the going rate for the occupation, whichever is higher, with reduced thresholds for certain shortage, health and education roles and for people already in the route before the change. Whether your job qualifies is the employer’s and the adviser’s question; our part starts when the CoS exists and the list of personal documents is known. The Skilled Worker page explains the translation format; this guide is the sequence.

The personal documents, in the order you will need them

1. Passport. The Turkish passport’s data page is bilingual and needs no translation.
2. Certificate of sponsorship reference. Provided by the employer, in English.
3. Criminal record certificate (adli sicil kaydı). Required if the occupation code of your job is on the Home Office list of health, education and social-care codes (26 codes at the time of writing), and also for your adult partner if applying with you. Download it from e-Devlet, add the free e-apostille from the same portal, and have it translated. It must be recent. Details.
4. Evidence of maintenance funds. Unless the sponsor certifies maintenance on the CoS, you show the required sum held for 28 consecutive days ending within the permitted window before the application; the amount is set on GOV.UK. Turkish bank statements are translated in full. Details.
5. English language evidence. An approved test at B1, or a degree taught in English confirmed by a UK ENIC statement. A Turkish degree used for this purpose is translated for ENIC.
6. Qualifications. Not required by the Home Office for the visa itself, but the employer or a professional regulator (GMC, NMC, GDC, GPhC, TRA) often needs the diploma and transcript translated for their own process. Details.
7. Tuberculosis test. Not required for applicants from Türkiye at the time of writing; check GOV.UK’s list before applying.
8. Dependants’ documents. Marriage record or nüfus kayıt örneği for a partner; birth certificates for children; the partner’s own criminal record certificate if your job is on the list.

The translation format the Home Office describes

The Skilled Worker route uses the general GOV.UK rule for certified translations: the translator or company confirms in writing that the document is a true and accurate translation of the original document, dates it, and gives the full name and contact details of the translator or a representative of the translation company. There is no list of recognised translators and no notarisation; our certification meets the wording and adds the signatory’s signature and the company’s Ankara registry number so the translation can be verified. The apostille page on the adli sicil kaydı is translated together with the certificate, and both record lines (adli sicil and arşiv kaydı) are rendered even when they read “none”.

Timing and money

Advisers plan around three clocks. The CoS has a validity period within which the application must be submitted. The bank statement must cover 28 consecutive days and end no more than a month before the application date. The criminal record certificate should be issued shortly before applying. The application fee depends on the length of the CoS and the occupation, and the immigration health surcharge is charged per year of leave; both figures are on GOV.UK and change, so check on the day. Processing from outside the UK is usually a few weeks once biometrics are given at a visa application centre in Türkiye, and a priority service is sometimes available. Translation of a single applicant’s Turkish documents typically costs £50–120 with us: adli sicil kaydı with e-apostille £10–20, a diploma £10, a transcript £30–60, a one-month statement £10–30, ready in one to two working days, no UK VAT.

Errors that delay Skilled Worker files

• Downloading the adli sicil kaydı as a screenshot so the verification code is cut off.
• Applying with a bank statement whose 28-day period is broken by a missing page.
• The diploma translated from the English back page rather than the Turkish front, so the degree title differs from the one the regulator holds.
• Dependants added after the main application with untranslated family documents.
• A partner’s criminal record certificate forgotten because only the main applicant’s job was checked against the code list.

Order of operations with us

Send the CoS document list, the e-Devlet PDFs and any diplomas in one message with your passport. We confirm which items need translation, quote by page count, and return certified PDFs with originals attached. Employers can be invoiced directly in pounds. The Skilled Worker checklist matches the steps below, and the e-Apostil page shows the two-minute apostille on e-Devlet. Immigration advice, including whether your role meets the 2025 skill and salary rules, comes from a solicitor or OISC adviser, not from us.