Moving To the UK

Pregnant in the UK - Part 1 early pregnancy (First steps)

2015-02-09T04:16:00.002-08:00

First of all congratulations!

I hope that your pregnancy fills you with joy and I will assume that you want to see your baby born and healthy in a few months.

The first step is to confirm the pregnancy, to be honest, you do not need to make an appointment with your GP to test for your pregnancy, you also do not need to buy very expensive pregnancy tests.
I have researched and used various brands and 50p pregnancy tests from Tesco or Asda, or any supermarket are as accurate than expensive brands such as Clearblue. (and this is coming from someone who is a great fan of Clearblue ovulation sticks.
So, you test on your stick and it comes back positive, yay! Now what??

Try to remember when you had your last period and write it down. Count 7 weeks after the date of the last period start.
Why 7 weeks?, because this is when the Midwife will see you to start your pregnancy asessments.

In the UK most of the pregnancies are followed up by a midwife, not by a doctor, not by the GP. They are specialized healthcare professionals that are trained in evaluating pregnancy and delivering babies and helping with breast feeding training for the new mother and how to manage a baby in the first few months. Most of them are really nice and will be a source of endless information.

So you call your GP surgery and ask to make an appointment with the midwife around week 7.
If you have already past this week, ask to make an appointment as soon as possible and you will be seen at the first available slot.

Have your dates of last period at hand, as this is needed to make the appointment if you have it to hand, if you have no clue when your period was or you have irregular periods, do not worry, they will still give you an appointment but they might be slightly annoyed. (that is life!)

Opening a Bank account in the UK.

2011-04-15T00:50:00.000-07:00

First you need to hace a current account. Why?
Because it is the best way to get your salary paid in,
you can only do direct debit from current accounts,
in case you need an overdraft to pay for something necesary,
create credit history.
You may be thinking eew, I do not want to pay a bank fee, but NOT all current accounts have maintenance fees, many good ones are free. If you want to save some money it is OK because some pay interest up to a maximum and some can have a 0% overdraft interest IF you have arranged this overdraft with them.
So it pays off to be organized.
How can I open a bank account? first you must be legaly in the uk (you can be on a student visa or residency visa) Take your passport and visa stamp on it.
Then you need council tax and utility bill with your name and address on it. You need to call your local council (if you are unsure look at your bin trucks and check the name on the side) and arrange to pay council tax (if you are a student you need to call but you may not have to pay) For the utilities bill you need to find out in whose name the utility bill is under (energy company or water or gas company) and get them to add you and wait for paper proof that this has taken place.
then save these bills and put them together with your passport and national insurance and medical card. safe.
then look online for the best current accounts in the market at that time and pick a bank, if it is your first try to make sure it is a big bank or a known bank.
then go to their offices in your city/town to open an account. If you already have a job take details of employment as it will be useful. you need to provide addresses for the last 5 years which may include the ones from your life abroad.

Then what happens?

2011-04-15T00:36:00.000-07:00

I received after a couple of weeks my national insurance card attached to a letter, I kept the letter because it is an official document with my name and address on it and later prove to be very useful when i needed to prove my address when i had nothing else to show. You must keep the card safe for the rest of your life.
When do you need your national insurance number?
Anything to do with taxes, starting a new job, when you registrer with the NHS.
So it is important not to loose it!

National insurance number part 2

2011-01-13T07:03:00.000-08:00

Well 7 days after i sent the request my form to fill arrived through the post. I filled it and it comes with a pre paid envelope to send back to them. now all I have to do is keep on waiting o get the number sorted in order to be able to work in the uk.
I have also found out that my colombian drivers licence is good for 12 months to drive over here but i recommend to get a few lessons from a driving school in order to get used to drive on the other side of the road!!!

Newly wed, New year, New Life

2011-01-04T03:13:00.000-08:00

So, I just moved to the uk 4 days ago, i had been here before, but either on holiday or for a 6 month placement. My loving husband is away and the procedures are kind f complicated so i seem to be at this by myself. In the journey of finding a Job in the Uk, getting a National Insurance Number (NINO) and sorting myself out in a country so different to mine.
So I start off today, 4th of January waking up at 5 am to find out that there is snow! oh! how wonderful! since we do not have any back home, but as you soon will learn, be careful, the roads turn into ice skating rinks and a fall may be just around the corner....
But anyway, as i read on an official website, i went to the closest JOB CENTRE PLUS to get my national insurance number application. Big mistake. They send you off with the NINO starting work number 08456000643 do not try to call from your mobile from the Jobcentre since they do not allow it, sending me to the freezing cold to call. Never mind, not their fault i guess. but it would have been nice to know that you should have a PEN at hand to copy the reference number, your passport, address in the uk, postcode. As the form is sent via regular mail to your home and you fill it out and re-send it back to them to get a reply with the number. You need this number to apply to any job in the uk and for tax purposes. To get the form delivered it could takeup to 10 days the NINO lady said.
Looking at the snow outside.... hope it does not take forever. In the meanwhile Iwill have a look around the different job websites to get an idea of what is out there for me...