NI Number

According to Wikipedia, National Insurance was first introduced by the National Insurance Act of 1911. An NI number is a tax number and determines your tax contributions. Residents of the UK receive a NI number before their 16th birthday and use this number for their entire life. Citizens from abroad who want to work must apply for a NI number. Without this number, they will be unable to work in the UK or for a UK company. This explains my day trip to Edinburgh.

I had been fretting over getting an NI appointment as soon as I received my job offer. There are several stressful elements to obtaining an NI number. One must be able to claim a UK residency. Secondly, you must be present during the interview. Thirdly, the interview cannot be made until you arrived in the UK. Fourthly, you have to have all necessary paperwork available to present during your interview, otherwise you can forget it. Fifthly, one must be a UK or EU citizen. Fortunately for me, I believe I was able to check off and complete all pertinent steps without conducting in any fraudulent activities.

I flew up to Edinburgh from Koeln yesterday and had my appointment this morning. I had hired a company to assist me with this. They helped set up a UK bank account for me as well as this interview. I was initially planning on going to London for my interview, however, all appointments are booked until the middle of December. My only other option as I saw it was to fly to Edinburgh. Fortunately, they were able to get me in at the last moment.

I met with Stewart this morning. In usual German style, I arrived half and hour early. I was banking on the thought that this could possibly increase my chances of getting an NI number. Who am I kidding? I was nervous and wanted to get it over with. After chatting with Stewart about the weather, skiing, the nights he spent sleeping in a field outside of Koeln, we proceeded to the interview. I was asked all sorts of standard questions. As I am not a fraud, I was able to answer all. I think some elements of my story did seem a bit shady as I have resided at several addresses all over the world in the last month. I technically have two in Germany, one in Edinburgh, and two in Portland. Yes, they did want to know this and yes I did need to explain myself a bit. I tried my best not to stutter.

After half an hour of chatting, he determined that my paperwork was complete. It is now in the hands of the Department of Work and Pensions and I should hear back in 2 weeks as to whether or not I was granted a number. Luckily he told me that I had nothing to worry about and that I should take off and enjoy my time in France. Therefore, my two overweight bags and I am now on a train headed to London. I am flying out to Geneva tomorrow at 12:20 on Easy Jet's flight # EZY 8472. From the looks of it I wont be able to sleep tonight due to all the excitement.