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Leaving Belgium. Registration in UK

Question

I am a Belgium citizen from Hasselt and got a job offer (fulltime job) to start in Manchester UK from July 31st onwards. I have to accept/deny the offer by this Friday. I am offered 2300 GBP/month for a person with 5 years experience.

If I plan to take it up and as I am totally unware of the setup process in the UK could anyone suggest what steps I would need to do from now onwards. I am living with room mates here so housing wise there's nothing to do. I'm only concerned with the cityhall process in Belgium to de-register and the subsequent registration in the UK (Council, NI, NHS, etc).

Lastly, are month-month housing contracts available in the UK since as I start a new job, I dont know how well it will go and if it dosent work out, I may be stuck with a 1yr contract. Do I even need an apartment contract to do the initial setup or will a hotel, AirBnb suffice for let's say 2-3 months when I know the job is good to continue.

Any suggestions will help. And any other tips?

o sé

I wish you only the best wishes on your project, however Britain is not the most welcoming country in Europe that is why the majority voted to cut themselves off from Europe.I have lived in Belgium for 32 years and find it welcoming and friendly I live among Europeans that is not the case in Britain. Be aware that for one who welcomes in Britain two want you gone. Do not cut your ties.

Jul 6, 2017 21:32
anon

Jesus Christ, BECASSE and O SÉ. Are you both caught in severe depression?

Take a chill pill please.

The UK has just under 8 million foreign born residents, and hundreds of thousands are arriving every year.

Opening a bank account will be straightforward. Unlike Belgium, the UK is a service oriented economy well used to working with international customers.

And just to correct O SÉ, although a small majority of the electorate voted to leave the EU (not Europe), it certainly isn't the majority of the country. 17.4 million people voted to leave, there are 65.1 million people in the U.K.

Finally, the large metropolitan cities like London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds etc. ell voted by significant majorities to remain. They are all large cosmopolitan cities, that are very welcoming to foreigners EU and non-EU (you certainly won't see the institutional racism that is obvious in Belgium in most public services, police, administration etc.). Manchester in particular has a significant international population and is a great city.

Jul 7, 2017 12:07
J

> Opening a bank account will be straightforward
Will it ***k. The banks don't accept a passport as ID - they tend to want 2 utility bills in your name with and address on. You can bet they don't like your Belgian ID much either. Your driving license might come in useful though. And you have no UK credit rating.

And landlords now have to do background checks to make sure you can legally rent. That can be fun as well.

You do have to register with a Dr's surgery, and you'll also have to go for an interview to get a National Insurance number (without which you will pay emergency tax rates).

Jul 7, 2017 14:55
becasse

Actually, a Belgian driving licence, even the plastic card version, won't be as useful as one might think. British driving licences have one's address on them, Belgian ones don't, a fact that might well bemuse a bank "clerk" into thinking that it is a forgery. Remember, this is Little Britain where the majority can't think outside their little box let alone check validity with official sources - and as for the fact that something might be written in Dutch or French ............

Jul 7, 2017 17:00
anon

@ J - "And landlords now have to do background checks to make sure you can legally rent."

That's not actually correct - for a citizen of the EU, which the original poster is, the landlord needs to keep a copy of your passport. That's it.

See the governments own guidelines and code of practice; section 5.2 (List A, section 2) here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/right-to-rent-landlords-code-...

Jul 10, 2017 10:27

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