Every significant immigration application asks about a long past — where you lived, when you travelled, what you earned, whether you were insured. The answers must be evidenced, not remembered, and the evidence is only available if it was kept.
This is the least interesting part of the subject and one of the most consequential.
| Looks back over | five to ten years, commonly |
|---|---|
| Cannot be recreated | travel dates, insurance continuity |
| Hard to obtain later | foreign employment and tax records |
| Cost of keeping it | a few minutes a month |
What to keep, by category
Status. Every permit and visa, including expired ones. Every decision letter. Every application submitted. Registration certificates. Correspondence with the authority.
Presence and absence. Boarding passes or booking confirmations, entry and exit stamps photographed, a simple running log of trips with dates.
Work. Contracts, payslips, employer letters, tax returns and assessments, social security statements.
Home. Tenancies, mortgage documents, utility bills, address registrations and deregistrations.
Health cover. A certificate for every policy year, in sequence, with no gaps between end and start dates.
Family. Certificates, and the shared-life evidence described in the material on proving a relationship.
The second category is the one nobody keeps and everybody needs. Nothing reconstructs travel dates from years ago except records made at the time — stamps fade, airlines purge old bookings, and memory is not accepted.
The absence log
A single practice worth more than any other, and it takes a minute per trip:
- Date out and date in, every trip, without exception
- Destination and reason
- Whether the day of departure and arrival counts as present or absent under the rule that applies to you
- A running total per rolling period and per permit year
Why it matters: continuous residence, permanent residence and naturalisation all turn on absence totals, as covered elsewhere in this material — and an applicant who cannot evidence their absences is assessed on what the authority can see, which is usually less favourable.
The people most affected are those who travel often for short periods, precisely because those trips are the easiest to forget.
How to keep it
- One folder, digital, with subfolders by category
- Scan on receipt rather than in batches
- Name files by date so they sort chronologically
- Back up in two places, one not in your home
- Keep originals of certificates and permits physically, separately
- Update the travel log the week you return
- Review annually and fill gaps while they are still fillable
Point seven is what makes the system work. A gap noticed a year later can usually still be filled; the same gap noticed at application cannot.
An annual review takes an hour and is the difference between an application you assemble in a week and one that takes six months of chasing.
What becomes unobtainable
Worth knowing in advance, because these should be secured before you need them:
- Employer records after a company closes or is acquired
- Bank statements beyond a retention period, often seven years
- Tenancy references from a landlord who has moved on
- Foreign tax records, difficult to obtain once you have left
- Medical records after a practice closes
- Old airline bookings, purged within a few years
The first is the one people find hardest. An employment reference is easy to obtain while the employer exists and impossible afterwards, which is why the sensible practice is to request a letter confirming dates, role and salary when leaving any job — while somebody there still remembers you.
Frequently asked questions
What is the single most useful record to keep?
A travel log with dates out and in for every trip — nothing reconstructs absence totals years later, and continuous residence turns on them.
Why review the file annually?
Because a gap noticed a year later can usually still be filled, while the same gap noticed at application cannot.
What should be requested when leaving a job?
A letter confirming dates, role and salary. It is easy while the employer exists and impossible after the company closes.
How long do banks keep statements?
Often around seven years, so anything older should be downloaded and stored before it disappears.
