How I applied for the National Insurance Number

Now that you have moved to the UK, you are probably going to have to work for a living. In UK, you need a National Insurance Number (abbreviated as NINo ...), which is similar to an IRD number in NZ.

The process is fairly straight forward and did not take as long as they adviced.

Here is my experience when I applied for my NINo after I arrived in UK 
Step 1. Call Jobcentre Plus at 0345 600 0643.
The line is open Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm and apparently least busy before 9am. You will need to have your visa on hand to confirm you have the right to work in UK and hence this is why you are applying for this number.
Unfortunately this number will cost you money (unless you have a line with 01/02/03 inclusive minutes), it costs approx. up to 9p/min phoning from landline or approx. 8 to 40p/min phoning from your mobile. I called just after 9am (I'm not a morning person), the whole call took me just under 6 min and I didn't have to wait at all before my call was picked up.
Step 2. Wait for an application pack to arrive.
They said it takes 6 - 10 days, and I received it in 8 days.
Step 3. Fill out the application.
I didn't turn my letter around and read the part that says you need to fill it out using a black ink ha!
Step 4. Post off your application.
They give you a freepost envelop and you also need to send photocopy of your passport and visa. By the way, the normal post box cut off time is 5.30pm.
Step 5. More waiting.
I was quoted it takes another 6 - 10 days for them to received and then 6 weeks to get your NINo. I received mine in 17 days (2.5 weeks) after posting it.

The whole thing took me just under one month - nice work!
You can only apply for this number when you are in UK, and you might as well do so before you get a job so you don't have to worry about getting a temporary number.

Additional info:
The NINo is alphanumeric in the format of AA 00 00 00 A and the temporary NINo is 00 A0 00 00
Note the above Jobcentre number have since changed from when I called it, apparently they consolidated some numbers. Always get the latest info from the Official information page

How I applied for the Tier-5 Youth Mobility Visa (UK)

Hello,

Assuming you satisfy all the requirements to apply for this visa to live & work at UK for 2 years, you can simply apply online here.

Requirements*:

• Between the age of 18 and 30 (ie before you are 31)
• Have £1890 in savings (ie the equivalent in your currency).
• From one of these countries: Australia, Canada, Japan, Monaco, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Republic of Korea, Taiwan
• Do not have children (that are dependent on you)
• Have not already have this or equivalent visa before
• Can pay the £208 fee

Here is my experience when I applied for this visa as a New Zealander (in Auckland):

Day 0 - Thursday

I filled out the online form and paid the fee online. This took a good hour as I was being careful and double checking. 

I made a biometrics appointment at the next available morning which happened to be after the weekend on Monday. 

Day 4 - Monday

Printed out all my paperwork as outlined online.

Attended the biometrics appointment, which is in Henderson and they took my fingerprints. They will give you a letter of all the items you need to send to them.

Posted via track courier (next day delivery) to an Auckland postbox. I got the smallest possible bag in the post shop which is the size of A4 folded in third. Bag plus the postage cost $9. You also needed to buy another postage paid courier bag for them to send your passport back.

Day 5

Courier bag delivered to the postbox

Day 6 - Day 20:
Presumably my application went from the Auckland address to their Manila visa processing centre and back.

About 2 weeks in (ie day 15), I received an email that my application has been approved (#excitement). However I am not sure if everyone gets this email.

Day 21

Return courier bag on way from Auckland postbox

Day 22

Received my passport back with the visa neatly pasted in!

Overall it took me just over 3 weeks! Pretty fast I thought! On their website they did say most application are processed within 15 days (ie 3 weeks of working days), with 85% processed in 10 days. 

The most challenging parts I found were:

1. Bank statement to show my saving. Being a responsible netizen, I haven't received any paper statement in forever. My saving was also kept in Rabobank so I had to find their Auckland branch-slash-actually-an-office at Britomart that was not marked in the lobby.
2. Not knowing what date to put in as my visa start date. You can only apply for this at most 3 months in advance. I wasn't sure when I'd get my visa back etc and I also wanted to get cheap flights (with a short weekend visit in Melbourne). Then I finished work a bit later as well so "wasted" some time of my 2 years.
3. I can imagine getting to Henderson would be a bit difficult without a car.
4. I renewed my passport even tho I had about one year left, just to make things simpler. I heard that if you renew your passport, you just need to keep your old passport with the visa in it when you travel.
5. You need proper passport photos. You don't even need to provide proper passport photos now when renewing your NZ passport. You can submit photo online and I just took digital photo at home and cropped to size.

And that's it. I was on my way to London...

*Note the above can change over time, ie the fee, the amount of saving etc. For example the fee was increased in April 2014 by 4%.