PAPERWORK IN THE UK

Sorry for the long silence. Guess I'm a bit too busy with life to update this blog!

Of interest to some of you will be the endless paperwork I need to fill out to set up life in a new country. This is annoying enough, but it's made worse by the fact that I want to get a new passport (now that I can!) stating my sex as male before I do a lot of this paperwork. It's all a bit of a mess! Here are some individual updates:

Australian passport. I've talked to the passports office and, having seen the letter from my doctor, they've said they'll issue me an updated passport for free. I am yet to go to the office here in London with the printed out emails to put that to the test. I've got the form filled out and waiting to go, though.

UK visa. Unfortunately, I will need to get a "transfer of conditions" stamp (though I'm going to push for a new actual visa) in my new passport so that I can continue to live and work here. That will cost me either about 215 pounds (>$300) or, if I do it in person (which would probably be the better option) about 650 pounds (>$900). Really not happy about this, since it's not like my passport has expired or been lost, just been issued with the wrong details.

National Insurance number. You'd think that, with the granting of a visa, they would send you a starter pack of all the things you need to set up life in the UK. They don't. I had no idea I would need an NI number until someone mentioned it in passing after I'd been here for a month and a half and had already been looking for work. You can't actually work without an NI number. I've sent off my application form and I'm waiting to hear back. I would have liked to wait until I got my new passport so I wouldn't have to deal with the whole "yes, it says F but please use M" thing, but I need to be ready to work ASAP. I've sent my doctor's letter with it, so hopefully they'll accept it and just put M on the records.

Bank account. Oh, man. So, when I arrived, I went to Barclays and was told that I couldn't open an account until I had three months worth of UK utilities bills in my name to prove my address. How I was meant to get work to earn enough money to rent a house and pay said bills when I don't have a UK bank account, I'm not sure. Anyway, my in-laws talked to their bank manager who said I wouldn't need that evidence (the website says otherwise). I got as many things as I could sent to me at this address and took them all into the bank for my appointment. The person who opened my accounts looked at my passport and visa, took a copy of my doctor's letter (so I could have 'Mr' as a title) and didn't look at any of the other residency evidence. Apparently Australians are just that trustworthy. So, that was a lot of hassle over nothing! I now have a bank account - or rather, two bank accounts: a savings account, which earns interest (the tiny amount that bank accounts earn here - 1.something%) and a current account, which is connected to my Visa debit card. So, you are meant to keep your money in your savings account to accrue interest and you have to manually transfer it into your current account if you want to use it. Unnecessarily complex, isn't it?

Jobseeking. I'm doing it. I've applied for 4 jobs and 1 internship, received 1 letter of rejection and I assume haven't got the first job I applied for. I've talked to an HR person at an org of which I'm a member (I helped her update the org's diversity monitoring form) and she said she'll put me in contact with some other orgs where she's worked. I've got another 10 or so volunteer/intern and paid positions lined up to apply for. I'm also setting up a LinkedIn profile, since everyone here seems to use it. Networking is a much bigger thing in the UK than in Australia, it seems.

That's it, apart from I hope you're all well and please consider donating to this fundraiser for my friend's musical documentary: