A document checklist that works for any application

Programmes differ. The paperwork behind them differs much less. One pack, assembled properly, serves a residence application, a bank account, a mortgage, a school and a tax authority — and a large part of it can only be produced in the country you are leaving.

Identity and civil status

• Passports for every family member, with comfortable validity remaining.
• Birth certificates for everyone, as recent extracts rather than old originals.
• Marriage certificate, and divorce decrees where relevant.
• Where a name has changed, the document evidencing the change.
• Each of the above apostilled or legalised, and translated by an accepted translator.

Character

• Police clearance certificates from every country you have lived in recently — the qualifying period varies and is usually the last five to ten years.
• These expire quickly for application purposes, so they are obtained near the filing date rather than early.

Financial

• Bank statements over the period the programme specifies, from accounts in your own name.
• Tax returns for the same years.
• Evidence of income: employment contract, pension statements, dividend records, rental agreements.
• A written source of wealth narrative with documents attached — the sale of a business, an inheritance, a career.
• Property title documents and valuations where relevant.

Professional and educational

• Diplomas and transcripts, apostilled, with recognition assessments where a regulated profession is involved.
• Employment references and a curriculum vitae with dates that reconcile to everything else.

Health and insurance

• Medical certificates where required, and vaccination records for children's school admission.
• An insurance policy meeting the destination's stated minimum.

The two rules

Everything must reconcile. Names, dates and addresses across all of it must tell one story. A caseworker's job is to notice where they do not.

Do the home-country half at home. Certificates, apostilles and powers of attorney can only be obtained where they were issued. Assemble that half before departure and the rest is administration.