Expats: Have You Registered With Your Embassy?

[david96]

Just a thought -

If you are a UK citizen under 65, and you are intending to claim the UK pension but you have not 'earned' enough pension credits for a full pension (ie-40 years worth) - the government will give you 1 year of credits for each of the last 5 years (ie- between the ages of 60 and 65) regardless of whether you are working or paying National Insurance contributions.

This could make quite a difference to your pension income.

The reason I mention this is that the government do not give the 5 years free credits if you are residing outside the EC - regardless of whether you are still paying UK income tax on your earnings or private pension.

I do know that some ex-pats keep a UK address and intend to claim the free credits.

I wonder whether British Embassies exchange information with other govt. agencies.

If the British government use the same procedures as Australia they will know exactly when you leave the UK and using data matching this information is linked to social security and taxation.

[pop_corn]

We are like 30 Chilean people in here, they know us pretty well .... hohohoho!

[Tagaa]

hel_l no..

None of their business. The fewer people knowing where or who I am, the better it is for me.

Well said.

In this day & age the government already knows more about me than I want them to know. Why on earth would I want to give them more info.

Edited May 31, 2008 by Tagaa

[kangeroo]

well i registered because it was a standard procedure in the place i worked for when i was working over seas , and i must say when my father died back in 2005 they contacted me and i thank them for that because nobody back home thought about me at the time .

cheers.

[slackula]

Absolutely not. I keep my dealings with the UK govt to the absolute minimum necessary and I see no reason for them to know where I am. I left the country at the ripe old age of 21 to work abroad have been back basically only for funerals ever since (20 years now).

I have zero faith that they would be of any use whatsoever if I got into trouble, and every time I have been to the embassy they have been surly and expensive* (that is during the few minutes per day that the embassy is actually open for business). I am quite sure if I registered they would figure out some tax or something that applied to me.

I see these ambassadorships as the ultimate doss jobs, an outdated throw-back to the past and the taxpayer money they cost would be far better spent elsewhere than maintaining these anachronisms in a cushy lifestyle in the sun.

If I drop dead tomorrow my wife knows what she needs to do, and I am also quite certain that the embassy would be of no help to her also. H*ll, we were married (officially, she has my surname etc. etc.) for seven years before I took her to the UK for a visit and even then they were difficult, we had traveled abroad together several times as her passport showed but they still asked a bunch of stupid questions, and this to a woman with a farking master's degree in economics! One day we were walking around a shopping center and some chavs made a few comments about the fact that I was with a "chink"; my wife commented that perhaps the UK made it difficult to visit because they were ashamed of the place. I know I was.

*1,800 Baht or whatever it was for some clerk to have a quick peep on a computer and find out if I had ever been married? Puhleeeeze.

/And <deleted> names their son "Quinton Quayle"??? I bet he was REALLY popular in the playground!

[twschw]

So, considering the political situation here in Thailand now has anyone registered or changed their mind about registering?

[henryalleman]

What for?

very simply because if you are of Belgian nationality and emigrate to a foreign country you must ask to cancel your name in the population register of your home town and cancel your ID card . You must report to the embassy to get a new "Belgian ID card for citizens abroad", who stated that you are a Belgian citizen who is a resident in a foreign country. You also get a new passport. And you are able to participate in the elections. From that moment on you can also ask an tax exemption on your pension. And all documents of the government are send to your adress abroad.

From that moment on the Belgian embassy also take over all mumbo jumbo of legal documents. They even have an notary's office. Its also necessary for your pension, because every 6 months you must prove that you are still alive to keep on receiving your pension, they also can arrange all pension problems. This to avoid that you have to travel up and down back to Belgium to arrange some legal documents. So its just to make life more easy and avoiding to pay taxes.

if you don't follow this procedure the Belgian embassy can not arrange any legal document concerning pension, notary and etc. etc.

You must do the reverse when you move back to Belgium or to some other foreign country.

[lazygourmet]

What for?

very simply because if you are of Belgian nationality and emigrate to a foreign country you must ask to cancel your name in the population register of your home town and cancel your ID card . You must report to the embassy to get a new "Belgian ID card for citizens abroad", who stated that you are a Belgian citizen who is a resident in a foreign country. You also get a new passport. And you are able to participate in the elections. From that moment on you can also ask an tax exemption on your pension. And all documents of the government are send to your adress abroad.

From that moment on the Belgian embassy also take over all mumbo jumbo of legal documents. They even have an notary's office. Its also necessary for your pension, because every 6 months you must prove that you are still alive to keep on receiving your pension, they also can arrange all pension problems. This to avoid that you have to travel up and down back to Belgium to arrange some legal documents. So its just to make life more easy and avoiding to pay taxes.

if you don't follow this procedure the Belgian embassy can not arrange any legal document concerning pension, notary and etc. etc.

You must do the reverse when you move back to Belgium or to some other foreign country.

Belgian citizen, I was living in Jakarta during the riots 1n 1998. Most of my friends and colleagues received notifications from their respective embassies about meeting points for quick evacuations. I called mine to know how to react, local clerk told me that all Belgian staff where already in Singapore! Helpful, indeed...