Certified Translation for UK Visa: What UKVI Requires

A certified translation for UK visa applications is a narrower thing than most people are told. It does not mean a notary, an apostille, a London agency or a stamp from a Chinese notary office. GOV.UK asks for a translation with a short written statement attached, confirming it is a “true and accurate translation of the original document”, dated, and carrying the translator’s full name and contact details. That statement is what makes it a UKVI certified translation, and there is nothing else to buy. I am Rex Su, a Chinese-to-English translator certified by the Institute of Translation and Interpreting, and this page sets out what the Home Office actually checks, where the wording changes by route, and which Chinese documents get queried most often.

At a glance

• The rule: written confirmation it is a “true and accurate translation of the original document”, the date, and the translator’s full name and contact details.
• Approved translator list: there isn’t one. UKVI publishes no register, so nobody is genuinely “UKVI approved”.
• Notary or apostille: not required for a standard visa application.
• Translator’s location: irrelevant — nothing requires a UK-based translator.
• Route differences are real: visitor guidance also asks for the translator’s signature. Check your own route.
• From me: a signed PDF, usually within 1–2 working days.

Does UKVI have a list of approved translators?

No. The UK government maintains no register of approved, licensed or sworn translators for immigration purposes. Search the phrase and you will find agency after agency describing itself as “UKVI approved” or “Home Office approved” in its page title. They are describing a status that does not formally exist.

What the guidance asks for instead is a translation that “can be independently verified by the Home Office”. That phrasing answers the whole question. A caseworker is not consulting an approved list; they are asking whether the person who signed the statement is a traceable professional who can be contacted and checked. In UK practice that means membership of a recognised professional body. I became certified by the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI) in 2023, I am a Chartered Linguist of the Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIOL), and I am an affiliated member of the American Translators Association — all checkable on public registers, which is the point of holding them.

The same logic rules out translating your own documents — and rules out your spouse, your sponsor, a relative, or the adviser handling your case. The requirement is independence, not language ability. Location is not a requirement at all: nothing in the guidance asks for a UK-based translator, whatever the London agencies imply, and translations produced in China are accepted routinely. For where self-translation goes wrong, see what happens when you translate a Chinese ID card yourself.

What must a certified translation for a UK visa include?

GOV.UK’s guidance page Certifying a document says that to certify a translation of a document not written in English or Welsh, you should ask the translator to confirm in writing on the translation:

that it’s a ‘true and accurate translation of the original document’; the date of the translation; their full name and contact details.

Three items, and that is the baseline every route points back to — the family visa guidance simply asks for “a certified translation of any document that is not in English or Welsh” and links straight to that page.

Some route guidance asks for more. Visiting the UK: guide to supporting documents states that each translation must contain confirmation from the translator that it is an accurate translation of the original, the date of translation, the translator’s full name and signature, and their contact details — four items, with the signature named explicitly. Include all four regardless of route: a signature costs nothing, and its absence is a cheap reason to query a file. Guidance also shifts over time, so check your own route’s page before submitting.

Note what is not on either list: a company letterhead, a UK address, a notary’s seal, an apostille, or a red chop from a Chinese translation company. None of those substitute for the statement itself.

Certified, notarised or apostilled — which does the Home Office want?

Agencies sell all three, so the words get used interchangeably. They are not the same thing.

Certified is the accuracy statement above, with the translator responsible for the content. This is what a UK visa application needs.

Notarised means a notary public has witnessed a signature or verified an identity. The notary does not read the Chinese and does not vouch for accuracy — precisely the thing UKVI cares about. Notarisation sits on top of certification; it does not replace or improve it.

Apostilled authenticates the origin of a public document so it can be used abroad. The Apostille Convention entered into force for mainland China on 7 November 2023, so Chinese public documents can now be apostilled by the issuing province’s Foreign Affairs Office instead of going through consular legalisation. Useful — but it applies to the Chinese document, not to the translation, and a UK visa application does not ask for it. Applicants keep paying for apostilles nobody requested.

Court proceedings, property matters and documents being sent to China do genuinely need notarisation or legalisation. If you have been told specifically to get one, get one. The full comparison is in certified vs notarised translation in the UK.

Which Chinese documents most often need translating for a UK visa?

Anything in Chinese that forms part of your evidence needs a full translation. The same documents come round again and again:

Four Chinese-specific problems account for most of the queries I see:

1. Name romanisation that does not match the passport. If the passport says ZHANG WEI, the translation says ZHANG WEI — not Wei Zhang, not Cheung Wai. A caseworker holding two documents with different name forms has to treat them as two people. Where a document genuinely carries a different name, it is translated as written and explained in a translator’s note, never quietly corrected.
2. Seals left undescribed. Chinese red seals carry legal weight, and a translation that skips them has dropped part of the document. Each seal belongs in the translation as a described element — issuing authority, text, position.
3. Missing pages. A 户口本 or a certificate booklet is one document. A page that exists belongs in the translation even if it carries only a header.
4. Dates and ID numbers transcribed loosely. Chinese dates run year-month-day, so 2024年3月5日 is 5 March 2024, not 3 May 2024, and an 18-digit ID number has to survive digit for digit.

Two warnings. 学位证书 and 毕业证书 are distinct documents, and UK institutions often ask for both without realising it — see UK university application requirements for Chinese students. And the 结婚证 booklet is more than its photograph page; the registration details inside belong in the translation, as the marriage certificate guide explains.

How Rex Su certifies a translation for UKVI

Every document I return carries this statement, on the same page as the translation:

I, Rex Su, MITI, confirm that I am fluent in Chinese and English and that the above is a true and accurate translation of the original document — signed and dated, with my full name, professional membership number and contact details.

The layout mirrors the original, so a caseworker can match each field without reading Chinese. Seals are described where they sit, and anything ambiguous gets a translator’s note rather than a silent guess.

One category of work comes back to me more than any other: translations certified in China. Chinese agencies routinely issue a translation carrying a company chop and no individual translator’s name, signature or contact details — exactly what the GOV.UK rule asks for. Expect those to be queried.

What to send for a quote

Send a clear photograph or scan of every page, including the ones that look blank; nothing needs posting and your originals stay with you. Pages must be legible and uncropped — seals cut off at the edge are the usual reason I ask for a re-shoot.

Back comes a PDF containing the translation and the signed certification, which you upload like any other supporting document; an online application needs no posted hard copy. Most single-document jobs are returned within 1–2 working days. See turnaround times for larger sets and how pages are counted for pricing. Unsure whether a document needs translating at all? Send it and I will tell you — get in touch here.