My national Insurance Number Interview...

Your story sounds similar to mine, Peedal.

It was really easy and quicker than I thought. It only took me my lunch hour. Like you, the woman filled the form out for me and all I had to do was plop all my documentation on the table and initial where she told me to.

I did take a month, though, to get my number and even then all I got was a letter with my number. I'll get my card in a few more months.

Congratulations peedal, and good luck on your job search! Hope I get my number that quickly.

 Had to note all the variations of my name on said documents - full name, maiden name, new married name, etc.

That's one of the things that seemed to take along time with me.  I seemed to have a dozen different variations of my name, plus there was confusion over the American tradition of  First-Name Maiden-Name Last-Name and the English tradition of First-Name Middle-Name Last-Name.  

My advise to anyone is don't leave it thirteen years.  

All that stuff is now a distant blur to me. I do recall it taking what seemed like a long time, but it was more paperwork and the woman apologizing for the "standard procedure". What I do remember is what I endured waiting in the queue beforehand. Those who know me, do I look like I have a stash of weed in my purse? The number of times I was asked made me wonder if that's how folks on the dole make their side money...while standing in the dole queue.

I got my national insurance number in the mail today! It said that I should get my car in the next 8 weeks. At that point I'll send it back and change my name, since I'm still using my maiden name and my NI number will change with my married name as they start with a different letter, but hey - I'm legal!

Also got my first Inland Revenue letters... Good God, I actually live here. !!!

I know I shouldn't be surprised by all the red tape and long interviews, but JHC, if the home office has given me permission to work, why all the scare tactics? I bet I will be treated like royalty though, since I live in an area where there are a number of asylum seakers and we know how gov't workers will discriminate against them and prefer little ole white me. Scary.

Yeah, I thought little white innocent looking me would have quite an easy time with Immigration too (not the NHS thing) and was proved quite wrong! I guess they are just jerks to most people getting their NHS number because it's like a final step to "weed" people out, she didn't care that I was a young, white female - she just cared that I was foreign. To be fair, I'm talking more about Immgiration here than the NHS interview but still... it's hard to take anything involved with the government for granted anymore, no such thing as smooth sailing.  :-/ Also, I had my NHS interview in an area just East of London that seems to have fewer English-speaking people that any other part of England I'd been in... but red tape is red tape is red tape. Good luck on yours though, didn't mean to scare the cheese out of you.