National Insurance?
Does anybody here know if it's possible to get a national insurance number while we're here as international students? Some serious employers (such as Boots!) require national insurance number in order to be able to pay for part time work.
All employees in the UK require NI number. The best way is to call your local job center and they will arrange you an interview to get a NI number, It is a tough interview, they even ask your grandmum's name, so be pepared and get all the documents ready for interview:) But your NI number could take awhile to be issued during this time you could use your temporary NI number which is your intials followed by your date of birth followed by M or F, M for males and F for females! for Example if you are Nazanin Afshari born in 01 Jan 1980, your NI number is gonna be NF010180F. I would check with my local job center to make sure it's a correct. Hope that helped :)
(at July 27, 2004 12:41 PM)
You don't need an NI number to start a job.you can start without one and then your employer will apply for a temporary one;by having this you can apply for a permanent one which is not so hard to get.Just have to go to Social Security Services office and make an appointment for an interview.The rest is the formalities.Hope it helps.
(at July 27, 2004 12:57 PM)
Inland Revenue happens to be our client so I am pretty good when it comes to Tax and NI stuff!
Anyone who works in the UK (including international students) can apply for NI number.
If you are employed and resident (currently living) in the UK, are over the age of 16 and under state pension age which is 65 (I assume you are ;) ), and earn as much or more than primary threshold (£91 per week for 2004-5), you HAVE to pay your NI contributions and hence you will need to apply for a NI number.
You can use your temporary NI number for now (employer's accountant will tell them what it is) to pay your contributions. Once you get your permanent NI number, you will receive a letter from Inland Revenue, asking for your temporary NI number so that they can transfer your previous contributions to your permanent number.
For the interview, you will need your passport, student card and a letter from university, a letter from your employer (and/or employment contract, payslips) plus proof of address. During the interview, they will ask why you came into the UK, are you seeking asylum or planning to do so, etc. Most of these questions are asked because they want to make sure you don't want to claim any housing/unemployment/etc benefits and has nothing to do with your immigration status. At the end they may need to keep your passport in order to validate it (and/or the visa), which is not a problem.
(This is a general advice whenever you are giving/sending your passport to somewhere)
If that is the case, I recommend you to ask them to either keep your passport with them (not to send it by post) so that you can collect it, or provide a paid self-addressed special delivery envelope. Otherwise they will send it by Royal Mail first class, and you could loose your passport! Also do not forget to make a note of the special delivery reference number printed on the stickers, so that you can track it online or over the phone.
Hope that helps.
(at July 27, 2004 01:33 PM)
The explanations given are very comprehensive, I just wanted to give you my own experience. In order to apply for the NI number, I got a letter from my employer and another one from the university (which happened to be the same in my case). Applied for an appointment with the Social Security office, and went to the interview. They asked me some questions but as far as I remember all they asked was just formalities, nothing really serious: (obviously they expect you to be able to answer the questions regarding the job you're gonna do for the employer). Then they kept my passport, and gave me a temporary number, and told me that I would receive my NI card in 8 weeks. I got my passport back in 3 weeks and got my NI Card in about 8-9 weeks.
The only point is they might keep your passport for a while, so you won't be able to travel outside the UK.
(at July 27, 2004 03:26 PM)
Thanks very much to all of you for your helpful tips. So I guess my first step would be to get a letter from the university confirming my status as a student and also get a letter from my employer confirming the type of job they're offering me. With those letters in hand I will then go to the social security office and apply. Fingers crossed.
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