Before you start

A valid UK visa granted under the relevant route
A UKVI account linked to your immigration status
The Immigration Health Surcharge paid as part of your application
A UK address, for the NI number application and most services

Step-by-step

1
Create and check your UKVI account before you travel
Your eVisa is the only record of your status. Confirm your passport number, personal details and the permissions shown all match what you were granted. Errors are far easier to fix from outside the country than at a letting agency in Liverpool with a flat waiting on the answer.
OnlineWho: YouBefore travel
2
Learn to generate a share code before you need one
Employers and landlords check your status by entering a code you generate from your UKVI account. Codes are time-limited and purpose-specific — a right-to-work code will not satisfy a right-to-rent check. You will need both in your first fortnight.
OnlineWho: You
3
Apply for a National Insurance number as soon as you arrive
There is no way to apply from abroad. Check first whether you already have one printed in the remarks on an old BRP. Without it you can work legally but payroll will usually apply an emergency tax code.
OnlineWho: YouWeek 1
4
Register with a GP while you are still well
You have already paid the Immigration Health Surcharge, but nothing happens automatically — access to the NHS runs through a GP practice and you have to register with one. Liverpool practices in the student-heavy wards fill up in September, so do not leave it.
In personWho: YouWeek 1
5
Update the eVisa whenever your passport changes
The record is linked to your passport. Renewing a passport without updating the UKVI account causes problems at the border, and maintaining it is now a permanent responsibility rather than a one-off task.
OnlineWho: You
6
Separate what is UK-wide from what is English
Your visa, your NI number and the surcharge are identical everywhere in the UK. Income tax bands, the NHS prescription charge, tenancy law and university fees are devolved and materially different in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Advice written for Edinburgh is right about your visa and wrong about your payslip.
OnlineWho: You

Documents you’ll need

Passport with the visa granted
UKVI account credentials, including the phone and email used for two-step verification
Share codes, generated per purpose for employers and landlords
Proof of a Liverpool address
Evidence of Immigration Health Surcharge payment, included in the visa grant

Things most newcomers don’t know

There is no physical document any more, and that changes what can go wrong.

Vignette stickers ended for new applicants on 1 July 2026 and BRP cards before that. Your status exists only as an online record, so an account you cannot access, a passport you renewed without updating, or a detail entered wrongly are now the failure modes — and there is no card to show while you sort it out.

Source: GOV.UK — online immigration status (eVisa)

Right-to-rent checks are a real friction in Liverpool's small-landlord market.

A very large share of Liverpool's rented stock is owned by individuals with one or two terraced houses rather than by build-to-rent operators. Some of them have never processed a share code and will quietly prefer an applicant who does not need one. Offering the code unprompted at the viewing, with a one-line explanation of how to check it, removes the objection before it forms.

Source: GOV.UK — right to rent checks

You can only apply for a National Insurance number from inside the UK.

There is no advance route, so it is a first-week task, not a pre-departure one. Several visa categories already have a number printed on the reverse of the old BRP — check before you apply for a second one, which creates a records problem that takes months to unpick.

Source: GOV.UK — apply for a National Insurance number

The Immigration Health Surcharge is a lump sum, paid before you have earned anything.

It is charged per year of leave for every family member and paid with the application, on top of the visa fee. For a five-year visa with dependants it runs well into five figures. It is the single largest cost of moving to the UK and it lands months before your first UK payslip.

Source: GOV.UK — pay for UK healthcare as part of your immigration application