slowly becoming a person

I think that the quickest way to disappear off the face of the earth is to have your spouse's company relocate you to England. It's pretty easy to not exist in the eyes of anyone, officially. Being married and having the same name apparently doesn't prove you live together. They don't even want to take your money. But I'm sure they'll find me for taxes.

The company sets everything up in the employee's name. The lease, the utilities, etc. A great service, granted, but our bank requires proof of residency to sign up on a joint account, to get a debit card, a credit card. You could have a reference letter from your UK employer, but, ironically, most jobs require proof of residency. Unfortunately, library cards don't work as proof--I was able to get one of those. So one day, we got a very special piece of paper listing our council taxes addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Swindon. That was enough. Now I am a person, albeit Mrs. no name Swindon :)

Before we received this piece of paper, we had found one person at the bank who said having the same last name and being married was enough for a joint account. They were wrong, but no one told us so we wasted 2 weeks or more waiting for credit card that wouldn't come. So I brought in my magic piece of paper and they started the process again. Three weeks later, I have a debit card. Today we went back to find out why I hadn't gotten the credit card we originally asked for. They lost the paperwork. So 5-7 more business days and it will come. We've decided that the bank is the most visited place in York so far. And the internet people are the most frequently called, but that's another blog.

Ah, the jumbled mess of bureaucracy. Alive and well across the pond. So in 5-7 days I should be fully entitled to spend money in England without paying the overseas fees on our US credit cards. Yeah, one down. With official proof of residency, no one can stop me!