Guide to Payslips And Salary Receipts For Your Schengen Visa

What Is A Payslip For The Schengen Visa Application?

A payslip (also referred to as a wage slip, salary slip, or salary receipt) for your Schengen Visa is a summary of the earnings and deductions of an employee provided by an employer. You should submit your payslips to the Embassy/Consulate for travel Visa purposes. 

Some Embassy/Consulate officers consider the submission of payslips as optional documents with regards to your Visa application. 

Nevertheless, we recommend you submit them as they can bring additional proof that you are an employee and outline the amount of money you receive weekly, fortnightly or monthly. 

Submitting the salary slips is highly important for every Visa applicant for the following reasons: 

A payslip can be in either paper or digital format, and may be sent by the employer via email, post or accessed through their internal website. Information included in each salary receipt can vary from country-to-country and company-to-company. 

However, no matter which country you come from or company you work for, the main purpose of your payslips is to record your earnings every pay period.

The law of each country can indicate the information that an employer must include on the payslips provided to their employees. Usually, there is no standard format for the salary slips, meaning that each company may use its own template and custom layout. 

While some Embassies require you to submit your latest 3 months of payslips, others may require up to 4, 5, or even 6 months of payslips.

However,we recommend that you submit your payslips for the last six months, regardless of the Embassy you are applying to. Providing extra evidence of your income can potentially improve your chances of having your application approved. 

The Importance Of The Payslips For Your Schengen Visa

You may ask yourself why it is so important that your payslips are submitted when applying for your Schengen Visa even though they are not a mandatory requirement for all the Embassies/Consulates:

Bear in mind that for the Embassy/Consulate officers it is important to know what your monthly net salary is in order for them to ensure that you have enough income to cover your expenses during your intended stay within the Schengen Territory, and you won’t be a burden for the Schengen Stateyou will be travelling to. 

If you cannot prove you have enough funds to cover the expenses during your trip to the Schengen Zone, you should consider getting a sponsor and submitting a sponsorship letter in order to travel to Europe. 

Do not forget that the Schengen Visa officers want to ensure when processing your Visa application that you will return to your country of residence after you travel to the Schengen Area (this is one of the main reasons why some Schengen Visa applicants are rejected and cannot get a short stay Visa – they are not able to prove their intentions to return to their countries of residence). 

Therefore, every document that can prove your rootedness (e.g., a marriage certificate) is highly important for your Visa application as your round-trip travel ticket cannot guarantee you will actually return to your home country and will not stay in a Schengen country illegally. 

In this case, the salary slips prove that a specific amount (the salary specified on your payslips) will be deposited into your account during your trip to Europe – meaning that you will have extra money, except for the amount in your account shown by your bank statements. This is also supported by your leave of absence and an employer’s No Objection Certificate (NOC) letter.

How To Get A Payslip From Your Employer For Your Schengen Visa?

In most countries, the employers are legally obligated to provide a payslip to their employees (there are only a few exceptions – for example, in some countries, contractors and freelancers are not entitled to receive a payslip). 

Therefore, it is your legal right to ask and receive a payslip/salary receipt, even if you work for a small company or a private employer.

Your employer should make your payslip available to you either on or before the day you’re getting paid.

Here is how you can get your payslips (in case your employer does not provide you one each month), according to the size and the organisation of the company you work for:

Some employers (usually the big corporations) allow you to access your salary slips through the company’s internal email system or intranet.

No matter how you receive your payslips, physical or digital copies have the same legal status. If you are provided payslips that are produced in a pdf format, just print them and submit them to the Embassy/Consulate. 

Common Mistakes To Avoid When Submitting Your Payslips For Your Schengen Visa

There are a few mistakes you should avoid making when submitting your salary slips to the Embassy/Consulate. Bear in mind that any error on your payslip can lead to the delay or rejection of your tourist Visa application.

Below, you can find a list of common mistakes that every Visa applicant should check before submitting the payslips to the Embassy/Consulate:

● Submitting payslips that are not printed on letter headed paper that contains the company’s logo or do not have the stamp and the signature of the employer 

If for any reason your company does not provide you salary slips on letter headed paper (digital payslips should be sent to the employees on a letter headed paper that contains the company’s logo – if they include a logo or all of the company’s details, then they are valid without having the signature of your employer). 

You can also submit to the Embassy/Consulate payslips that have both the company’s logo and the signature of your employer in order to bring additional proof that they are genuine.

● Submitting old payslips

Your salary slips are necessary to serve as proof of your income and you need to provide recent versions of these documents (you must submit your payslips of the last 6 months).

 Therefore, make sure that the most recent payslips you submit are the latest ones that you received from your company. If you submit old payslips (as well as old bank statements) the Embassy/Consulate officers cannot be sure that your earnings/income did not change within the last months. 

● The information on your payslips does not match the information on your other employment documents 

The information on your payslips must match the information on your other employment documents, such as your employment contract, Certificate of Employment (COE), or No Objection Certificate (NOC) Letter, and even your bank statement of the last 6 months (the amounts on your payslips must match the deposits into your bank account). 

Sometimes, employers can make errors. For example, you must check to see if your salary, your name, your position within the company, or the date you joined the company are the same on all the employment documents you submit. 

As a general rule, all of your documents must show consistency and not only your employment documents (e.g., the information provided on your Schengen Visa application form must match the information on all of your supporting documents, such as your travel insurance, travel document/passport, flight itinerary, invitation letter, birth certificate, etc.)

Applying for a Schengen Visa with a Sponsor and Need Your Sponsor’s Payslips?

If you have a sponsor who will be covering the expenses for your Europe trip, then you have to submit your sponsor’s payslips as part of your Schengen Visa application (if they get employment income).

This is a mandatory requirement for some Embassies because the Schengen Visa officers want to ensure that your sponsor is able to cover all of the expenses for your trip to Europe.

Please note that some Embassies require you to submit your sponsor’s payslips for the last 3 months, while others require you to submit your sponsor’s payslips for the last 4, 5, or even 6 months. 

As more is always better when it comes to your Schengen Visa application, we recommend you submit your sponsor’s payslips for the last 6 months.

It is important to read this guide thoroughly and inform your sponsor about the specific measures required to obtain their payslips. Alternatively, you can share this guide with your sponsor, allowing them to understand the necessary steps to acquire their payslips for your Visa application.