What previous visa and travel documents are required for a 10-year UK permanent residence application?

“For the ten-year permanent residence application, do I need to submit all previous visa approvals and every flight ticket?” “The official basic checklist includes current identity documents, all passports held whilst in the UK, and relevant proof of identity. As for historical approvals and travel documents, these should be prepared in accordance with the application checklist, any gaps in your records and any requests for supplementary documentation.”

My view is that, unless otherwise requested, there is no need to upload ten years’ worth of bank statements on a monthly basis; it is more useful to prioritise providing evidence of visa transition periods and the dates of return to the UK.

Please ensure you have all your old passports; UK visa applications are processed in batches.

1) Your passport and current proof of identity are essential documents. The ‘Required Documents’ page for the UK Government’s application for long-term residence specifies that you must provide your current passport or other valid travel document, as well as all passports you have held whilst in the UK. Proof of identity may take the form of an online certificate for an BRP (biometric residence permit; expired cards are also acceptable) or an eVisa (e-visa); for the latter, you will need to obtain a share code. When preparing scanned copies, I recommend organising them by passport number and retaining the pages containing personal details, visas and entry/exit stamps; follow the application and upload instructions regarding which specific pages to scan. If you have renewed your passport, please list the corresponding old and new passport numbers in the index.

2) Organise historical visa approvals by individual authorisation. Arrange the approval letters, decision emails, old visa stickers and scanned copies of existing BRP documents in chronological order; create a timeline listing the visa category, the start and end dates of the authorisation, the date of application submission, the decision date and the application reference number. If there was a waiting period between two approvals, retain the submission receipt for verification purposes.

3) Entry and exit records must be supported by evidence for each individual journey. For each journey, list the date of departure from the UK, the date of return to the UK, the destination, the reason for travel and the corresponding document name; cross-check against passport stamps, boarding passes and electronic records of completed journeys. The section on ‘Verification of Entry Dates’ in the Home Office ‘Guidance on Continuous Residence Cases’ lists reference materials such as flight tickets, boarding passes, expenditure statements reflecting the applicant’s activities in the UK, and letters from employers confirming the start date of employment. In this context, expenditure statements serve to assist in verifying the applicant’s whereabouts; regular direct debits for rent alone cannot be used to determine the date of return to the UK. Journeys made via self-service gates without an entry stamp should also be included accurately; one must not limit the count to journeys where a stamp has been applied.

If a letter is missing, a targeted search of the archives can be carried out

4) If an old approval letter is missing, you may apply to access your personal data. Section 2 of the Guidelines on Access to Personal Data, updated by Home Office on 4 August 2026, states that a ‘Specific request’ under the SAR (Access to Personal Data) may cover up to five separate documents at a time, including specific decision letters or application forms. When completing the form, please list the year, application number and document title to facilitate retrieval.

The SAR cannot be used as proof of current immigration status.

5) If an old passport has been lost, you must provide supporting documents covering the period during which it was missing. Prepare copies or scanned versions of any existing documents, stating which passport is missing, the years it covers, and why you are unable to provide it, then cross-reference this with the relevant approval letters and travel records. Evidence of address, education or employment may support your proof of residence, but ‘a record of living in the UK’ and ‘holding a permit that counts towards long-term residence’ must be verified separately; utility bills alone cannot prove lawful status. The Continuous Residence Guidance permits case officers to review existing documentation, carry out verification checks or request supplementary evidence; however, this does not guarantee that every application will receive a request for further evidence. For any critical periods that remain unproven, you should verify the impact on your eligibility before submitting your application.

6) Chinese-language documents must be submitted together with certified translations. The official checklist requires that documents not in English or Welsh be accompanied by certified translations. This also applies to Chinese-language certificates explaining travel arrangements or missing documents; the original and the translation must bear the same reference number to facilitate item-by-item cross-referencing.

Before submitting your application, you may prepare a document index: visa records should correspond to the names of the approval documents, whilst travel records should correspond to passport page numbers or proof of itinerary. If a newly identified date differs from that on a previous application form, list the original record, the corrected date and the basis for the correction separately, and explain the discrepancy in a correction note. Where existing evidence can only establish a time range, you should state the range and the results of your search, and continue to verify the details; do not present speculative dates as confirmed facts. Beyond the basic materials, the scope of documents to be uploaded is still governed by the online application checklist and any subsequent requests for supplementary documents; whilst this checklist focuses on historical records, all other application materials must still be prepared separately.

[Source] UK Government, ‘Application for Long-Term Residence: Required Documents’; Home Office, ‘Guidance on the Assessment of Continuous Residence’, sections on ‘Verification of Dates of Entry’ and ‘Missing or Insufficient Evidence’; ‘Guidance on Access to Personal Immigration Records’, Section 2.

This article is for information purposes only; please consult a qualified solicitor regarding specific matters.

Let’s have a chat in the comments section: when organising your documents covering the past ten years, which year’s visa approval or which record of your return to the UK was the hardest to track down?

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