Snap Shot

No one needs to know how you came by your Irish passport. You could've been born in Ireland to parents of any nationality. Who then emigrated to anywhere, in your case America before you were old enough to walk.

Your passport is legit, good luck with all the hoopla and 'red tape' of getting all your admin done in Britain e.g. National Insurance number, bank account etc.

Car insurance could be expensive as you've got car insurance history in America so far I assume.

I don't know whether you will need a visa in your Irish passport to travel to any non-EU country. However, you might elect to use your American passport then.

mikelincs

NHS registration is simple, and all you need to do is to show an proof of ID, passport will do that, and proof of residency in UK, rental agreement is the quickest and simplest, as has been said, get onto the electoral roll ASAP, just contact your local council, they will provide the form, doesn't matter if you are only staying there 6 months, but it is something any credit agency will check. Bank account, your passport and rental agreement should be enough.

WhoFan63

Hi Sile...well done and how exciting for you.

I'll input some things here too, especially as I moved back here just a couple of weeks ago, so went through some of the things you're asking about.

Passport: If your passport has one of the biometric chips in in (and as it's a new one I can't see why it shouldn't), you can go through the e-gate at the airport which means you don't even have to speak to anyone. It just scans your passport, the gate opens and into the country you come. Hassle free. Even if you did line up with everyone and speak to someone, they wouldn't consider the 'new' passport as anything unusual. A lot of people have to apply for a new passport, so they'd just look at the identity page, look at you, compare the photo's and in you'd come. Easy !!

Bank Account: I opened a bank account with Lloyds TSB within a few days of arriving and I had no problems whatsoever. All I had was my passport and that was enough identification. So long as you have an address that they can put into the system you'll be okay. This is just with Lloyds of course, I have no experience with any of the other banks because from checking online and emailing others while I was still in the US, the majority wanted proof of income, proof of address and had to be employed, so I steered clear of those ones. At first I was staying at a B&B so I used that address as my residential address and a friend's address for the mailing address and they didn't have a problem with either of them. Although they did send my debit card to the B&B instead of sending it to the mailing address, but that was no biggie.

Rental: It all depends on where you end up deciding to live, and whether you rent privately or through an agency. It all boils down to them needing some sort of assurance that you can afford to pay the rent. I personally don't know how you would get on as you're self-employed, so they may or may not ask for 6mths rent up front. So long as you can show them you have a regular income coming in, or sufficient funds there shouldn't be a problem and it would just be 1 months rent up front and maybe a security deposit (Bond), once again all depending on whether it's private or through an agency.

NHS: That was as easy as simply going to a Dr's to register. Find a GP in the area you're living in and go in and ask to register with them. Some may or may not want you to get a health assessment done prior to completing the registration (which happened in my case), but that's just a 10 minute chat with a nurse who goes through your medical history and your family medical history. Once that's done you get your medical card with your NHS number on it in the mail. For identity purposes I just took in my passport and because I'd opened my bank account first I took in the letter from the bank that had my name and address on it and that was more than enough proof for them.

Hope this helps and if you have any other questions please ask, as I'm sure there are plenty here with the knowledge and experience who can answer the questions.

Good luck with the move and hope everything goes smoothly for you.

holly_1948

Expensive by British standards that is.
But still cheap compared with car insurance in USA.

sile

This is all great info!
How much less expensive is car ins. there? I have a great driving record here and zero claims.

sile

Thanks for this.

sile

Thanks!

I wonder what order in which to do these things...registering to vote, NHS, getting a National Insurance number ( do I need that if I am self employed?), bank acct., and why would a credit agency check to see if you are on the electoral roll?

sile

Thanks so much for all this. If you think of anything else,I'd love to hear it when you get a chance.

luvwelly

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/selfemployed/

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/migrantworkers/index.htm

WEBlue

You must get a National Insurance number to work in the UK, which includes self-employment. In fact, you must have an NI number first in order to register yourself as self-employed with HMRC (Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs), which you should do ASAP too:
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/migrantworkers/self-employed.htm

Because that's what they check! It's the way things work there. Getting on the electoral roll, even if you never vote (--as many Brits I knew did not, though I did--) is a huge part of proving that you are a legit member of British society with all the rights & privileges therein.

mikelincs

NI number and NHS first, then electoral roll, but just ring the council, they will POST you the form, can't do it on line AFAIK because it needs a signature.

Snap Shot

National Insurance number is needed to keep a record of National Insurance deductions from your pay. This is useful should you need to claim government assistance i.e. unemployment benefit in the future.

Most people don't know why there's income tax payable and National Insurance payable too. They just know it's deducted before anyone sees their earnings. Most people just say it's just another tax.

It's not a good idea to try and sidestep N.I. contributions. Some people working in the 'grey economy' i.e. not illegal but not strictly legal won't voluntarily pay tax and N.I. or their small time boss is to idle to make the deductions of N.I., or worse still, not forward the money to the govt. That's when a person could become unstuck should they need to claim government assistance on a financial basis. As happened to a neighbour of mine when we lived in Britain.

dunroving

I always used to think of NI as a minor deduction (it used to be called "buying your stamp" which is probably why I thought it was small).

Anyway, I took a good look at my paycheck recently and realised I pay just about the same in NI as I do in income tax!

There has been some talk of rolling it all into one deduction - that would make far too much sense for any government to implement it, though.

Rusty Chainsaw

Although almost everyone in the UK has a National Insurance number, we don't use them the same way as people in the US use their social security number - in the US, your SS# is used all over as proof of identity, whereas UK NI numbers are almost never used for that unless you're dealing with HMRC. So, instead, your address history is used as a point of reference, and that's recorded in the electoral roll.

Not being on the electoral roll doesn't disqualify you from getting credit, but you're viewed as being more settled and reliable if you are on there, and hence more creditworthy.

holly_1948

Totally.
You can get the NI number by post before you even come to the UK, all you need is a mailing address to send it to. This needs to be one of the very first things you do as an adult.

You can't accept an offer of employment until you have the NI number (or a paper receipt from having applied in person for one). Or to issue an invoice. Unlike US social security number it is used only in contexts of employment, self-employment, taxes and pensions.