Getting sorted

To be able to live and work in the UK, you need a few things. And you need them in the right order, or the sky falls down on you.

The essentials are: a signed contract for employment, a signed contract for a house, a UK phone number, a council tax bill or utilities bill sent to the UK address, a bank account, a NI (National Insurance) number. Then you are good to go (if you are from within the EU, otherwise you'll have to jump through some more hoops).

The interesting thing is that the easiest parts were the contract for employment and the contract for the house. The contract for the house was on the verge of falling through because of the lack of a UK bank account though, which would have been fatal, as you cannot get a UK bank account without a UK address. Did anyone say Catch 22? I got that a lot...

Getting the bank account proved to be close to impossible. I applied online as I thought that was going to be the most efficient, and even got someone to chat with me to apply for the proper account. A few days later, a welcome pack arrived with a note telling me to finish the application at the branch of my choice. I chose the closest branch to work to be able to sort it during a lunch break and brought the items necessary according to the welcome pack; the job contract, house contract and passport.

In the branch, the advisor told me that I had applied for the wrong account, and that I needed to re-apply. I could do that the next day.

Next day, I wandered into the bank, happily thinking that I would soon have a UK bank account. It didn't work out quite so easily...

The nice advisor, Jasmin, went through my application for an hour, until we came to the crucial bit - proof of identity. I had my various contracts and passport. It wasn't enough. I needed my employment contract to be addressed to my UK address. No problem, I got a new one with the correct address on and went in again. That time, I needed a utility bill to prove my identity and address. The next time I needed a bank statement from my previous bank, then a bank statement sent to my UK address. And finally they found a spelling error on my gas bill, that rendered it invalid as proof of address. During the month I went back and forth to the bank, I saw more of Jasmin than of my own family... Not a good sign.

Finally, with Jasmin on well-earned holiday (I guess she was as exhausted as I was), I got every possible piece of paper together, and got my bank account. Two minutes after stepping out of the bank, I got a phone call from them saying that I had got the wrong kind of account and that I needed another... I nearly dropped the phone in exasperation.

A week later I got a call from Jasmin checking that everything was ok - I guess she missed me :-)

I finally got it! The magic debit card!

All the rest was a walk in the park. Getting to pay for gas, electricity, tv license and council tax is not difficult - getting them to spell a name correctly on the bill is a bit more difficult.

I was told that getting the NI number was really difficult, but that proved to be really easy, and I got it in less than two weeks, by booking an appointment with the Job Centre in Woking, rather than in London.