Payroll statements, employment contracts and amendments, transfer and secondment letters, leave approvals, resignation and rehire letters, pension or social insurance records, and passport pages showing entries and exits. Employer letters help, but they carry more weight when the underlying dated records sit behind them.
Request archives early
Old payroll files, closed pension accounts and records held by a predecessor entity can take weeks to retrieve, and a former manager may need to be located before a letter can be written. Start those requests at the first conversation rather than after counsel asks. Keep foreign-language records with certified translations and note who prepared each one, so the same source can be produced again if a later question arrives.
Start the archive requests at the first conversation rather than after counsel asks, because old payroll files, closed pension accounts, and records held by a predecessor entity can take weeks, and a former manager may need to be located before a letter can be written. The records that prove rather than describe are payroll statements, employment contracts and amendments, transfer and secondment letters, leave approvals, resignation and rehire letters, pension or social insurance records, and passport pages showing entries and exits. Employer letters help, but they carry more weight with dated records behind them.
Keep certified translations and note who prepared each one.