National Insurance Number for US citizen on a fixed-term contract job

Greetings!  My query: I am a US citizen on a non-settlement visa working in the UK  for 14 months.  I was told by my employer that I need to apply for a national insurance number for tax purposes.  When I visited my local JobCentrePlus to make an appointment for an interview I was told that because the policy requiring all workers in the UK to have a NIN before they begin work had changed AND because I was a temporary resident, I would not have to apply for a permanent NIN.  I have a couple of questions regarding this information:

1.  Will I continue to be taxed at the highest tax bracket until I apply for and receive (could take a year?) a permanent NIN that I evidently don't even need?
2.  Do I need to apply for a temporary NIN or can my employer assign a number for me?
3.  If I use a temporary NIN, will I ever need to apply for a permanent one?

Thanks for any advice!

I've never heard of that happeneing before but if that is the case, you will be charged tax at a slightly higher rate - only 1% above the usual. I would ask the payroll people at your work to check the situation out with IRD because it sounds a bit weird to me, I thought everyone had to have a NI number.

Also, it shouldn't take a year to get one.  Yes, sometimes they are sllloooowww and you have to stay on them (like I did - having to go there in person twice to get them to find my number which had been "lost" in the channels), but, still, all in all, I had mine in just over a couple of months.

It will be better for you if you do have one, you really don't want to be paying emergency tax for the entire time you work here (and, once you do get your number, they will pay you back the money you do pay in emergency tax)...but, yeah...I'd go back and tell them you want/need one.

 

NB if you leave the UK permanently part way through a tax year you can claim back all the tax paid in that year. There's a form you can get from IRD to do that. That applies to anyone, even British citizens.