Checklist: ILR documents

Settlement applications are judged on continuity — that the relationship, residence and circumstances you described five years ago still hold. Turkish paperwork enters the file at exactly the points where the UK record is silent: a marriage registered in Türkiye, a long absence explained by a hospital stay in Ankara, a surname that changed by court decision.

Who this list is for

Turkish citizens applying for indefinite leave to remain after a partner, work or long-residence route, including ECAA holders settling under Appendix ECAA. Life in the UK test results, English language certificates and eVisa records are generated in English and are not listed below.

The documents

• Current civil registry extract (nüfus kayıt örneği, vukuatlı) — evidences that the marriage still subsists and lists children born since the last application. Take it within a month of applying; translation into English required.
• Evidence for absences from the UK — for a long trip, whatever explains it: a hospital discharge summary (epikriz), an employer's posting letter, or a court attendance record. Translated in full, because a caseworker counting days needs the dates to be readable.
• Change in the relationship — a divorce judgment with its finality endorsement or a death certificate where you are applying as a bereaved partner. Complete document, all pages, translated.
• Name change decision (isim/soyisim değişikliği kararı) — where the name on your Turkish documents differs from the name on your BRP or eVisa. Translation required; this is the document that reconciles the two identities.
• Children born in Türkiye — birth certificates for any child included in the application. Translation required.
• Turkish financial evidence — bank statements, a tapu or a pension statement, if you meet the financial requirement from Turkish sources rather than UK earnings. Every page translated.
• Criminal record certificate — not a settlement requirement on the family routes. Do not translate an adli sicil for ILR unless someone in writing has asked you for one.
• Original documents — supplied alongside the translations. The translation replaces neither the original nor the need to have it available.

What people most often get wrong

At this stage the translation itself becomes part of the requirement, and that surprises people who used a cheaper certificate five years ago for entry clearance. Appendix FM-SE asks in-country applicants for certification by a qualified translator plus details of the translator or translation company's credentials — a signature and a date are no longer enough on their own. The other frequent error is arithmetic: absences are counted from the actual travel dates, so a translated Turkish document showing a different date order than the UK evidence creates a discrepancy where none exists. We render dates as they appear and add a note explaining the format.

What we would translate and what it would cost

A partner-route settlement file we handled recently: a fresh vukuatlı registry extract (2 pages), a hospital discharge summary explaining a four-month absence (3 pages) and a name change decision (1 page). Six pages at £10.00 is £60.00, certification included, no UK VAT, delivered as a PDF carrying the company details that the credentials item calls for. Adding a Turkish bank statement set of six pages would take it to £120.00. There is no separate certification fee at any tier.

Before you rely on this list

Nothing here is legal advice; it is the pattern we see in settlement orders. UKVI's published guidance governs at every point, and Appendix FM-SE is the text to read first — gov.uk holds the current version.