Is there anyone British or living in the UK out there that would be able to tell me what I would need to metriculate into society as a citizen in the UK? I've got a British Passport through my father but have never lived there and was born in America. I'd like to move to the UK next year after my graduation but am unsure whether there is something like a social security number or card that I must also get in order to be able to take advantage of the citizenship. Any advice on the subject will be much appreciated
cheers

We are expats living in CA US , search for the British Embassy site Washington USA they should be able to answer your questions .

You should talk to the British embassy for advice.
In the first instance visit the Home office site:

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/passports-and-immigration/

Good Luck

Muck

Hi there - congratulations on your decision to make a move to the UK. In 1993, I was in the same situation as you. Although I am an American citizen, I was actually raised in Canada by British parents. I have had British nationality since 5 months, when my father registerd my birth with the British consulate in Chicago. At 16, I got my first passport (having always travelled on my mother's). Back in 93, I moved to the UK. The fact that you have the passport is the most important thing because that gives you the right to live and work in the UK. After that, you will need a National Insurance number for when you start working. Here are some more websites:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/nic/work/ni-uk.htm

http://www.uknationality.gov.uk/cont.../homepage.html

You will probably be issued with a temporary number before being issued with a permanent one. If you want healthcare, you will simply need to register with a doctor in the area in which you choose to live. Compared to the way things are done in Canada and, I assume, the US, I found the system over here (I live in London) to be enormously slack. For example, the first time I went to see my doctor, I brought my passport as I assumed they would demand proof of identity, citizenship, etc. No, they only needed to know where I lived. I registered with a new GP recently and it's still the same.

Anyway, I think you will find it surprisingly easy to move here to live and work. I have been in constant employment since 1993 and the fact that I wasn't born in the UK has never been an issue. Many of my friends are in the same situation - we all have British parents who left here in the 50s and 60s and now their offspring are coming back to experience life in the UK. There's a bit of a joke in London that if they rounded up all the Aussies and Kiwis working here and sent them home, the pubs would have to close because they're the ones pulling the pints! (my husband is Australian and we reckon you need a minimum of 2-3 years living here to start really settling in)

What you will need to prepare yourself if the fact that you were raised by your British father will count for nothing here. You will be treated as an American and all the associated jokes that go with that! The Brits do like to pull your leg about things and you will be an easy target.

Most of all, I cannot overstate to you how complex this island is - its people and its landscape. The 2,000 years of empire building, monarchy, class, migration, etc. have all combined to make this one of the most fascinating places to live. Frequently I read comments posted on this board by people who spent 7 days in Britain and moan about the food, the weather, the facilities, etc. without acknowledging that they merely skimmed the surface of life here. Hey, there are a lot of things in Britain that I find incredibly annoying. But have I ever been bored here? Never! I have always tried to just live like a normal citizen - I never gravitated towards the American/Canadian expat communities (having said that, I still get my friends to ship candy corn to me around Halloween which I eat at my desk, much to the disgust of my British colleagues).

I really hope you come. I recommend you get a book called 'The English' by the journalist Jeremy Paxman - essential reading for anyone who wants to put roots down here.

Best,
AP

YOu have a passport; you are a citizen. No further action needed.

YOu beed, as Ally Pally told you, an NI number, and that will give you access to the whole panoply of Social security benefitss. End of story.

Welcome, and enjoy yourself.

Sorry to correct you, Sheila, but I think a lot of social benefits depend on residency rather than, or as well as, citizenship. So it's important to follow up on the official sources of information. Also, I think there are a number of old threads on this forum with links to useful sites for American expatriates in the UK: and I'd recommend Kate Fox's "Watching the English" for some insights into social habits.

Patrick, I'm sorry, you're right; I was taking residency for granted, given the question.

Opening a bank account here is a bit of a pain but I heard from a new U.S. colleague of mine that she opened an account with HSBC bank before she left and they just transferred it across. After you arrive, you should get yourself registered on the electoral register. This is important for obtaining any kind of credit in the UK, not just for voting or being selected for jury service (not that this is your top priority right now!). I hear variously that obtaining a cellphone on a contract is also a pain if you haven't lived here very long but you can buy one on "pay as you go". Are there other things you are interested in knowing?

AP-
Thanks so much for the great information. It looks like I've got some more research to do. First I'll work on the National Insurance Number. I had a suspicion about benefits being inherent upon residency but got excited when I heard about the health benefits.
If you don't mind can I ask what business you are in? Oh, also I'm almost sure I want to move to Edinburgh but when looking at listings for housing I'm not sure which neighborhoods are good and which are bad.........have any ideas?

Most of Edinburgh's good. And expesnive. What do you do?

There's no need to "work" on a National Insurance number. When you arrive here, simply make an appointment at a Jobcentre or Social Security office (search at dwp.gov.uk) to get one. While the bureaucratic mills are grinding, you'll simply be given an emergency number so an employer can allocate your tax to the right pot. I don't think you can actually get an NI number before you live here anyway.

A National Insurance number doesn't give you access to health benefits, since practically all of the 4.5 million non-resident Brits have a NI number, but virtualluy none ofthose living outside Europe qualify for free health care. For free health care you need to demonstrate to a GP or hospital that you live here full time (details at http://tinyurl.co.uk/qup0). Don't confuse this requirement with the fact that emergency healthcare here is free to everyone, or with AllyPally's anecdote about how doctors traditionally haven't bothered checking. Medical practices - especially in communities where people tend to settle from abroad - are under increasing pressure to follow the rules on this.

With a British passport, you simply walk through the Europeans queue at the airport, then get yourself a job and somewhere to live. Worry about the free medicine and the NI later: your first priority is to get a UK bank account (getting a place to live is infinitely easier with one), and a huge amount of energy will be saved if you can get an HSBC account in the US and transfer it.

You can go on the electoral register (to be honest, a second-order priority) only when you've got a permanent UK address. You can register online by starting from the aboutmyvote.co.uk site

To register for healthcare at a GP surgery, you need, as flanner points out, to prove yo live where you say you do. For this, you're normally asked to provide 2 forms of proof of address, normally in the form of recent utility bills (water, electricity etc).

In fact, these utlity bills are demanded for all sorts of things (opening a bank account, getting a mortgage), so you can see how important proof of address is. Joining the electoral register is also an important way to prove your home address. BTW, joining the electoral register here is obligatory. You don't have to vote of you don't want to, but you DO have to register (every time you move address).

Don't know much about Edinburgh, I'm afraid. I lived in Bristol to start with but being a big city girl, I left for London 9 months later.

Flanner and Kate are correct that your address is the most important thing to start with. As for a bank account, in 1993 it took me 1 week to open a bank account. Not sure what the process is now. Most "colonials" find the UK incredibly backwards but you learn to go with it. Having registered with a GP about 6 weeks ago, I was never asked for any proof of address, identity, nothing and I have yet to receive anything in the post. Not to say that you shouldn't bring as many pieces of identity with you as you can. It's just that if you're used to a system which is a lot tighter, I think you will find the UK surprisingly easier to navigate. (When my family moved to Quebec back in 1979, we were issued with a plastic healthcard which you could produce in any clinic - no need to register anywhere).

Opening a bank account has actually gotten a bit more difficult rather than easy due to the recently introduced Anti-Money Laundering laws... not sure about transferring a Dollar-based HSBC account into a Sterling-based account or having a multi-currency account. I think there could be some hoops with that. If it were easier, I think most of my US/UK friends would have them, and they don't... nor do I and I'm US/UK and have been here since 1993. Good luck.

Edinburgh is lovely. My suggestion is to land somewhere short term (possibly a hostel for the first couple of nights) while you check out the town and look for work and decide where you want to live, then you'll probably move in with a roommate. Check out gumtree.com as a good first stop for jobs and room-mate situations etc. It was set up originally for the Aussie community but is widely used by young people...

AP, great post!

Hi Kate! How is Apulian life treating you?

thanks guys,
sounds like the most immediate concern upon arrival will be a bank account. The HSBC bank account sounds like a good plan if it's still feasible i'll check it out. trvlgirl-thanks for the website hook up......always a good place to start

" BTW, joining the electoral register here is obligatory."

Totally untrue.

It can be difficult to get credit if you're not on the register at the address you're giving to the credit company.

But legally it's entirely up to you whether you go on the register, whether you bother announcing your change of address to the register, and how many of the houses you own you might choose to be on the register at.

This remains a free country, in spite of B Liar's determination to make it not so by the time we get rid of him.

>>>>>
a huge amount of energy will be saved if you can get an HSBC account in the US and transfer it.
>>>>>

i doubt this. HSBC (despite their pitch as the world bank) is just a series of loosely connected entities. when my HSBC cash card did not work in beijing (at an HSBC machine), the bank told me that the error code was produced by "the issuing bank" and it has nothing to do with them. i politely explained that the issuing bank was HSBC and i was standing in an HSBC bank!!! he would have none of it and it was clear that the banks don't talk to one another and are completely separate.

prior to this, i had hsbc come to my home to discuss their "seemless" banking that i could do with offshore, USA, and RMB accounts (including investment accounts). visions of being able to shift money as needed on the internet were quickly squashed as they finally admitted that the banks are completely separate and no such mechanisms exist and all fees are the same as if i were transferring among completely different banks...in short, no advantage.

that said, having an HSBC account in the US MIGHT help as a reference as you can't just walk into a UK bank and open an account. but frankly, i would be surprised if this were the case. it will probably carry the same weight (which is very little) as you showing bank statements from any US bank and a letter from your US bank manager saying you have been a good customer for x years...blah blah.

so forget being able to just "transfer" your account from hsbc US to hsbc britain. the $ will be treated like any $ from any US bank (high fees, long "holds" on funds, etc).

if anyone offers a truly international banking solution, i would rush out to sign up....so far, i know of none that even come close.

Flanneur,

You're a bit out of date. You do have to go on the Electoral Register - but you can ask to go on the bit that is hidden from the public.

For further information on this see Madonna Richie vs LB Kensington and Chelsea, currently wending its way through the courts. (The daft bint won't register as she thinks she'll get stalked). If she loses she faces a fine that could run into the hundreds of pounds. Some deterrent. (in fact local authorities in general can't be arsed to enforce the law, buut it is the law).

Re the bank account - even in the relatively easy days of opening up an account in 1993, it still took at least a week...
We recently opened up an on-line savings account (to take advantage of higher interest rates) and even though it is being funded by direct deposit from my bank, it still took about two weeks until they were able to complete the background checks and open the account. And about three years ago, when my daughter was born, I went to my bank to open up an account for her, made an appt with my bank manager and brought all the papers they told me to bring and we were still missing something (can't remember what it was... perhaps a passport as she was still too young to have one) and they refused to open the account.

Anyway, best advice is for you to keep your US account alive and use your ATM card until you find a place to live. Once you have established your address, then you can open up your UK account. Good luck!