Before You Can Start Working

Lo & Behold Coventry Conquerors!

How have you been this week? I hope the cold, chilly weather is not annoying you. Thanks to the snowfall (since last night) the pavements full of black ice and mushed dirty snow is really impeding my walk to wherever, whenever. No wonder "weather" is such a favorite topic in this country and the Brits talk about it ALL the time. (Point to be noted: Am I turning into a Brit? I just talked about the weather too.. Hmm.. question existing :P) Anyway, chit chats aside, this week I'm going to enlighten you about some of the stuff that you need to know before you can actually start working in Coventry.Lets start by talking about the work permit first. 

The working hours permitted to international students in UK, differ in accordance to the country you come from and as per the type of visa granted. For instance, if you are a Tier 4 visa student, you are permitted to work a maximum of 20 hours per week, and full-time during your vacations. If you don't know your visa type and your working hours, or even whether you're eligible to work at all, this information will be clearly mentioned in your passport. For those who had to obtain entry clearance before arriving here, check the UK entry clearance section in your passport for your work permit details.

If you have been issued a work permit and are allowed to work in the UK, the next thing you need to do before you can actually start working is get a National Insurance Number (NINo).Don't get flustered my friend - this is just your personal number that they use here to keep track of your contributions. Basically, its for the purpose of making sure your contributions and the taxes you pay are solely registered against your name. When you start working, your employer deducts a small portion of your wage - part of this deduction is marked as your contributions and this is paid back to you later, and part of it is considered a tax payment. You do not have to pay National Insurance if you earn less than £146 a week - a wide grin on that note :D Here's a guide from the UK government if you want to learn more about National Insurance. 

Having explained that, you need to ring Job Centre Plus via 0845 600 0643 between Monday to Friday from 8am to 6pm to apply for your NINo. Keep your driving license, marriage certificate and other essential documents at hand before you make the call - most importantly, keep your PASSPORT right in front of you! They will take down your details and either register you or call you for an interview to confirm your identity. The latter is rarely the case, so you should be able to register over the phone. Usually, they allocate your NINo in about 4 weeks, give or take a few, but they are as unpredictable as the weather here. By that I mean some of my friends got their NINo in as short as 10 days and I myself had to wait 11 loooooong weeks! Don't even ask me how mad I was. They can get really fussy at times so do ascertain that you follow-up at least once a week. And don't be surprised if the receiver on the other end sounds a bit lousy and disrespectful. Call 0198 327 3014 (and not the number I gave above) to learn about your NINo application process. 

If all goes well, and if you are very lucky like some of my friends, your NINo will be posted to your address in less than 2 weeks (:

Quick review 
 Before you can set about earning some dough in Coventry make sure you:
1. Check your work permit and your working hours limit - this will be in your passport
and
2. Apply for a National Insurance Number (NINo) by calling 0845 600 0643 between Monday to Friday from 8am to 6pm and call 0198 327 3014 (at least every week) to follow up.

Heaps of congratulations to those who have conquered their NINo (: 3 Cheers and a thumbs up to those who have already landed a job.

Hoping this article makes it a lot easier for you to set things up so that you can conquer the working students category in Coventry,

Signing off,

Tara (another word for cheerio - Don't know what's cheerio? :O You haven't read my first blog post yet :/ There you go (: )

--- Kunjika ---