skip to main |
skip to sidebar
If you have any intention of staying in the UK for longer than one year then you might as well get your British drivers license as soon as you can after you've arrived. Getting you British drivers license is a relatively simple process because the South African drivers license is acceptable for direct conversion to a Brtish drivers license. You will be allowed to drive using your South African drivers license for the first 12 months in the UK. After 12 months you will have to stop driving until you have converted your license. For some reason you have 5 years in which you can do this.
In the UK all motor vehicle and driver licensing is controlled by the DVLA - Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency. Go to their website, find the office nearest to you and take the following along;
- passport
- proof of address
- South African drivers license
- 1 x passport size photograph
- £50
Once there you can complete the necessary forms. Be aware however that you will have to forfeit your South African drivers license and you will have to leave your passport at the DVLA. They do return it, but suggest you allow them one month. I had mine back in under two weeks.
The card drivers license that you will be issued with is a handy thing to have. It has both your photo and address on it so can be used as proof of identity in most circumstances.
You will also be issued with a paper version. This is best kept in your personal files. It will be needed for changes of address. It is illegal not to register a change of address with the DVLA and as soon as you do you will be issued with a new card license with the new address. Don't worry this is a free service.
Housing and houses in the UK are completely different to those in South Africa.
I'll do my best to explain what is meant by the various types of houses or names given to houses in the UK.
House: just about always refers to a double storey house but could be anything from a free-standing house to what we would call a duplex in South Africa, to one of a row of houses joined together.
Detached: normally means a free-standing double storey house. It doesn't share walls with any other property.
Semi-detached: normally means two double-storey houses joined together. They normally look like one big house from the road. But looking more closely you will see two front doors. It's a symetrical building with one house on either side seperated by a central wall.
Bungalow: normally a single-storey house, the type we are most accustomed to in South Africa. These are few and far between in the UK
Terraced: a row of, what we South Africans would call duplexes joined together. These would be the most common type of house especially in and around city and town centres. All the houses in the row look similar and share a wall with the house on either side, except for the houses on each end of the row.
End-of-terrace: as for terraced, above, but the house at either end of the row. It only shares a wall with a house on one side.
Cottage: normally a small house on some one elses property.
Flats: these are the same as in South Africa
Have a look at Property Investment Project which also has some good descriptions and photos of the different types of houses in the UK.
If you've settled in the UK then sooner or later the time will come that you need to renew your, or your family's South African passports. Although the renewal process is not that difficult there are a few problem areas.
This post is intended to help point out what you need to do to renew your passport.
Applications to renew your passport can be made by post or in person at the South African High Commission, 15 Whitehall, London, SW1A 2DD.
However renewing an adult passport requires a full set of finger prints which will be done for you if you apply in person. Obviously then, if a postal application is made you will have to have the finger printing done elsewhere. This can be a problem because in the UK, not all Police Stations can do this. Only those with a finger printing bureau will. They will also charge £63.00
The SA High Commission also require that the finger prints are completed on a specific form - BI-9. The form cannot be downloaded from the internet. One will be sent to you however, if you send a request for the form with a self addressed stamped envelope to the SA High Commission. From what I read elsewhere, you will also then need to convince the British Police to do the finger prints on the South African form and not their own. There have been a number of cases where the British Police say that their UK form is suitable. Its not - it has to be on the SA from BI-9.
The choice to get your own finger prints done as opposed to making an application in person then depends really on how much of a hassle it is to get into London.
Obviously there other forms and supporting documents required. These are as follows;
- Passport application form - BI-73
- Determination of citizenship form - BI-529
- 4 x passport photographs (6 x photographs if older than 15 and a half and do not have a 13 digit identity number).
- 2 x certified copies of the bio page of your passport or identity book. (That's the page with the your photo on it.)
If you have had your passport lost or stolen you will need the original police report or the case number and a completed form CMO219.
If your passport has been damaged or destroyed then a sworn statement of how it was destroyed or damaged will be required.
If you're renewing a child's passport then the written consent of both parents is required.
The fees are as follows;
- Adult passport - £14.00
- Child's passport - £10.00
Payment must be made in British Pounds by cash, bank draft or postal order. Bank drafts and postal orders must be made payable to SA HIGH COMMISSION.
Postal applications must sent by special delivery and must include a prepaid self addressed special delivery envelope. This is for the return of issued documents or, if there is anything wrong with the application, for the return of the application and supporting documents.
A further word of warning - once the passport arrives you will need to send in your existing passport so that it can be cancelled before the renewal passport is issued.
For full details and further information you can view the South African High Commission's Passport Renewal page
Imagine moving into a new house in 3 or 4 days time and you don't have any furniture?? Imagine trying to find the best deal on a car and you don't have one to run around to all the car sales lots to find it?? Imagine trying to find your way around a new country and not knowing where to go?? Imagine trying to find a house to rent in an area in your price range??
Each one of these tasks would blow my mind by itself - but we were faced with that situation shortly after arriving in the UK. Fotunately I had brought along my notebook computer and our family we were staying with had broadband access. Absoultely fantatsic!
We were able to find the right vehicle very quickly without having to drive around to too many places. How - Autotrader on the internet - of course. It even gave the distance we would have to travel from our current location to where the car we were interested in was.
We managed to order all our beds and matresses for next day delivery by searching on-line. Our TV and TV cabinet were also found and purchased on-line.
Yes you guessed it, we also found the house we rented - the delivery address for all these items on the internet as well.
Thinking back I'm not quite sure how we would have managed without broadband access.
The beauty of all this is that in the UK the monthly cost for unlimited broadband access (normally with a free wireless router/hub) is possible for under £20 from a number of different suppliers. So for South Afrcans this comes as a pleasant surprise bearing in mind the exhorbitant rates one has to pay there.
Opening a UK bank acount in South Africa before I left was probably the best thing that I ever did when it comes to my family's move to England. My tip to all South African's leaving for the UK would be to do the same. In case these comments are perceived as Financial Advice - they are not, they are simply my opinion on a matter that really helped me.
It wasn't even my idea, so I'm not claiming to be a genius. My relationship manager at ABSA Private Bank almost forced me to and I'm glad she did.
Why am I so glad? Firstly, I had a target account to move my SA money to before I left. Secondly, I didn't have to go through all the stress of proving residential address, identification and income when I arrived in England. Lastly, it meant that I could operate seamlessly from a financial perspective immediately on arrival.
My ATM card worked in all the cash machines and at all the EFTPOS machines at the checkouts at all stores. I also had a credit card to use in a country where I had no credit history. When I needed to pay for anything on-line or over the phone I did so with no problem whatsoever.
The alternative to the above is obviously opening a bank account once you have arrived in the UK. To do this you will have to prove who you are and where you live and more than likely that you are earning a monthly income.
This means a passport - no problem. Proof of address is a little more tricky as you will need a utility bill or a lease agreement. For these it means you've found a place to live, signed the agreements and have already had the utilities switched into your name. This can take some time - all time in which you will not be able to have a bank account.
Three months salary slips is self explanatory - you may have to wait three months once you've found a job before the banks will open an account for you.
I can't stress then how much easier things will be if you somehow get your account opened before you make the journey to the UK.
As a South African, in South Africa, this was always an easy concept. We all had our green ID books and, if ever asked, this was sufficient proof of who we were. More recently, with the repercussions of international terrorsim and some people living off the proceeds of illegal activites an additional requirement has been set that we also needed to prove where we lived. Again this was easy - as we all lived somewhere and had the relevant utility bills addressed to us at our residential addresses.
When you arrive in England for the first time to settle you need to remember that you basically do not exist, except for some record kept somewhere that the relevant visa was issued to you. You definitely won't have an English ID book or card - they don't use them - yet. And there is much political debate as to whether they ever will. You more than likely will not have a fixed residential address and neither will you have any utility bills being posted to you at the address that you don't yet have.
Why is proof of identity so important you may ask? Well the number one most critical reason is so that you can open bank accounts. Without a bank account it is very difficult to operate, as you could imagine. My recommendation would be to open a UK bank account before you leave South Africa. Once you arrive in the UK you can then update your details with the bank to reflect your new address. More on this in a later post.
But getting back to identity. The basic idea is that you need to start building a track record again so that various credit agencies and banks can check on your "new history".
The first thing you need is an address, and obviously this comes with having a place to live. By and large I think most people will start their lives in the UK renting a home. To do this you will have to sign a short term tenancy (rental) agreement and this then will provide you with proof of address.
Now, once you are in your "new"home you will need to apply for an electricity, gas and water account. This is easily done contacting your preferred supplier and registering with them. Once connected you should start to receive correspondence from them. So now you have a utility bill adressed to you at your new home address. Amazingly this can now be used as a form of identity!
The next important step in the ID process is to register yourself on the voters roll. This can be done very easily by contacting the local county council office or the local offices of one of the political parties. I found them to be very obliging and all the necessary forms were received in the mail within a day or two.
Having a form of photo ID other than your passport is also quite handy. The most common of these is the British driving license. Fortunately for South Africans the process to obtain a British license is relatively simple. You need to find the closest Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) Offices and get yourself there with a couple of passport photos, your South Afrcan driving license and passport as well as about £90. There are a couple of forms to fill in and you will need to hand in your South African driving license and passport. I must admit, coming from South Africa, I was a bit nervous about leaving my passport there. But true to the DVLA's word the passport arrived back in the mail about 10 days later. This was closely followed by the card drivers license with a photo on it.
All in all the process is not difficult but it does take a bit of time.
