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Comment by tene80i | Hacker News Reader

What do you mean? Any major employer in the UK will need more than that for you to work there.

Yes my friend moved from Sydney to London for work and he said it was a nightmare. He had his job in London lined up but he needed a UK bank account. He couldn’t get a bank account until he had a UK residence. His apartment lease needed his proof of employment.

He had to use his friend’s address for the bank account and then changed it.

I also moved from Sydney to Britain and just paid my rent from my Australian bank account until I got my British bank account. Your friend may not have thought to do this because he probably expected the ‘prison guard LARP’ attitude that Australian real estate agents have to also exist here in Britain.

Oh for sure, he was working for the UK government in some capacity so wanted to make sure everything was by the book.

When? Renting is far harder now than it was 20 years ago, even without right to rent checks. References, guarantors etc.

That's the case now.

A decade ago a bank account, passport and bill with your home address was all that was needed to work legally.

But that’s exactly the point. A passport (assuming it’s a British passport) proves you have the right to work in the U.K. The commenter above is claiming all you need or ever needed is an address and a driving licence, and that’s nonsense.

I presented a foreign (EU) passport and opened a bank account in one of the biggest banks operating in the UK.

That was almost everything I needed, I didn't even have UK driving licence at the time.

So only a few times in many years, I think most need an NI number only

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