Proof of address, when yours is not a UK gas bill
Most guidance on this is written for someone living in Britain with a council tax bill. If you live abroad, the honest questions are different: does it need translating, does my landlord’s name on it ruin everything, is a screenshot of my banking app enough. Here are the answers, taken from the documents people actually send us.
Overseas Verify · Last updated 11 September 2026
It does not need to be in English
This is the single most common worry and the least necessary one. Across the proof-of-address documents we have assessed, French is the most common language, slightly ahead of English, followed by Vietnamese, Arabic, Turkish, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian. Send the document as it is. We arrange any translation needed at our end and you are not charged for it.
The address has to match what you type
This is what actually goes wrong, more than language and more than anything else. Roughly half the documents we see do not match the address the person entered, usually in small ways: an apartment number left off, a district written differently, a street spelled the way the post office spells it rather than the way the bank does. Copy the address exactly as it is printed on the document, not the way you would write it to a friend.
If it is not in your name
Living with family, renting a room, or holding accounts jointly are all ordinary, and a document in somebody else’s name is not an automatic refusal. It does mean we need something that ties you to that address, so send what you have: a tenancy agreement naming you, a bank statement to the same address, a letter from an employer or a government office. Tell us the situation when you upload. It is far quicker than sending a bill in a relative’s name and waiting to be asked.
Send the statement, not a photo of your phone
A screenshot of a banking app is the second most common thing we have to come back about. Most banks let you download a statement as a PDF, and that is what to send. If a paper document is all you have, photograph the whole page flat and in focus, including the header with the bank or utility name on it, not a corner of it.
It has to be recent
We accept a document issued in the last three months. Older than that and we have to ask again, which costs you days. If your bank issues statements quarterly, download the newest one on the day you start rather than reusing the one already on your computer.
What happens to the document
It is stored privately, read to check the name, address and date, and kept as evidence of the check we carried out, which anti-money-laundering law requires us to retain. It is never published, never added to the public register, and never shown to anyone outside our review team.
Start when your document is ready
A passport or national identity card, a phone or computer with a camera, and one proof of address from the last three months. A person reviews every case. If we cannot verify you, you are not charged.
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