There is a lot to see in the UK – you can go south to the cliffs of Dover, west to Wales, north to the Lake District, and even further north to Scotland. You can hop a ferry or plane over to Northern Ireland and explore Giants Causeway. It’s gorgeous here.

However, at some point you’ll decide you want to take a trip out of the country. When you do that, remember to take not just your passport but also your biometric residency permit — you’ll need both to get back in.

The other consideration you should take is securing health insurance. The NHS covers you in the UK, and you can also apply for a European Health Insurance Card, which allows you to access the public health care in European Economic Area nations.* I’d recommend applying for the card once you have your NHS number, and keep it with your passport and residency permit.

As it says right on that page, however, this is not the same as travel insurance; it won’t cover evacuating you back to the UK, for example. For that — and for travel anywhere outside the EEA — you’ll need to get travel insurance.

If you’ve been living the UK for at least six months this isn’t an issue. But if you plan to travel to the US within the first six months of living in the UK, your options will be limited. I found myself traveling back to Seattle just about three months after we moved to the UK, and had to do a bit of scrambling to find one that would work.

Bupa is the big private insurance provider here, but they’ll only allow you to purchase travel insurance if you’ve been living in the UK for six months. The Post Office is another option, but has a similar rule — in their case, you can’t have spent more than six months abroad in the year leading up to the purchase of the insurance. They also require that you be registered with a GP here.

Because neither of those options were available to me, I ended up doing a lot of Googling until I found options. Now, I cannot stress enough that I have no idea as to the QUALITY of these providers; I am not endorsing them at all, but instead wanted to share what I found in my research. If you need to travel for more than two weeks, one option is Diplomat American. Because my trip is shorter, this didn’t work for me, so I picked an option I found on Visitors Coverage.

If you think you’ll be doing a lot of traveling, you can purchase annual insurance that will probably work out to be cheaper than purchasing individual policies every time. Additionally, if you have private insurance through your or your partner’s employer, see if it includes travel insurance. If it does, then you’re all set.

Note: When the UK leaves the EU in 2020, the European Health Insurance scheme may no longer be an option, so you’ll need to get travel health insurance whenever you leave the UK.

he UK tax year runs from April 6 – April 5. That sounded kind of odd to me, so I did a little research, and apparently it’s because of this:

On the old British Calendar the tax year began on March 25 (the old New Year’s Day). In order to ensure against losing revenue it was decided by the British Treasury that the tax year, which started on March 25 1752, would be of the usual length (365 days) and therefore it would end on April 4, the following tax year beginning on April 5.

Huh. Okay. If you’re just working a regular job that takes your taxes out, you don’t have to do anything special. Just make sure taxes have been taken out of your paychecks!

Before we moved, we met with our tax guy, who told us about the tax rules related to earning money overseas. He prepares US taxes for another client who lives and works abroad, so he’s well-versed in what that entails.

As I understand it, the US is one of like two nations that taxes the income you earn outside of the US. I know. I went to graduate school with a guy who had lived in the UK for a couple of decades and was trying to drop his US citizenship because he was never moving back, but it was really hard because the US likes collecting those taxes. (I’m sure there are other reasons they make it hard, but that’s got to be one of them).

Regardless, no matter how annoying it is, YOU MUST PAY YOUR US TAXES EVERY YEAR.

Good news though: the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion means that as long as you’re out of the country for at least 330 days a year, you’re only taxed on foreign income earned above a certain amount, and that amount is per adult. It’s something like $103,000, so if you’re making less than that each year, you’re fine. Anything above that will be taxed, and it’ll be your responsibility to keep track of that so you have the money available to pay come April next year.

We are lucky that we moved to the UK on January 10; as we didn’t spend more than and additional 25 days in the US the rest of that year, that income exclusion applied to us when we filed our taxes. If you move in the middle of the year, however, or end up spending more than 35 days in the US in any given year, that exclusion will not apply, and you’ll owe taxes on that income.

To recap:

• If you’re going to be in the US for more than 35 days in a year, you should save some money each paycheck, as you’re going to owe taxes on that next year.
• Make a note on your calendar in February to do your US taxes; the UK has a different tax year, so you won’t be seeing the same reminders that bombard us in the US every February and March.
• If possible, find a CPA to talk to before moving to see if there are other things you should know specific to your own financial circumstances.

If you’ve got furry friends, you’ll want to find a vet for them pretty quickly because, again, who knows what will come up. One of our buddies came down with a cold just a few days after we arrived, so I found a nice vet online that let us come on down the same day. That vet was near our temporary housing, but once we moved to our permanent flat, we needed something closer.

There’s nothing magical with veterinarians here; I found mine by Googling and by taking into account which ones were easily accessible by bus. Some were closer but I’d have to walk, and I don’t know about you, but I don’t enjoy carrying 25 pounds of cats for long distances.

If you had pet insurance in the US, consider keeping it, because as long as you have a US address you can keep it and submit claims. They’ll just convert to US dollars and reimburse that way.

When you picked up your biometric residency permits after arriving in the UK, you may have noticed that the employed partner has been assigned a National Insurance (NI) number but you haven’t. If you want to work in the UK, you’ll need one of these, but it’s pretty easy to get in my experience.

First, clarification: your NI number is not the same thing as your NHS number. I associate health care with insurance, so it took awhile for me to sort this out. Think of it as the UK’s version of a Social Security Number. I don’t think it maps exactly, but close enough. You need it so that the taxes that are withheld from your paycheck are associated with you, and while you’t don’t need it to get a job, you will need it soon after you start working.

The bad news? You can’t apply for this online. But it’s still an easy process.

First, you call the number listed on this site. They’ll ask for your address, and a couple of other questions. Within about a week or so you’ll receive a paper application to complete. It’s straightforward; you just need to include copies of your passport, visa, and biometric residency permit (there are instructions included). You mail that all in and either you’ll get called in for an interview, or you’ll just receive a letter with your NI number included.

I didn’t have to go through the interview process, so I’m not sure what that involves.

If getting a job in the UK is high on your list, consider calling for that application as soon as you have your address. You can get the process moving quickly and hopefully have your NI number within the month.

The NHS covers dental care for free, but only for young people, some students, people over 65, and those receiving benefits. As someone on a visa, you likely aren’t eligible for the free NHS services. But, you can choose the NHS flat fee for certain procedures, like fillings, crowns, and root canals.

UK dental service is a bit different than in the US. When you find a dentist and book an appointment, you’re booking an exam. The hygienist, which in my experience is always part of the deal with a US dental appointment, is a separate visit and cost. Without any NHS cover, a check-up can cost £30 (including a couple of x-rays), and a hygienist visit can cost over £70.

In my case, I also needed a root canal early in my time here. I could have paid £60 for NHS care, which would have been delayed and likely used adequate but old technology. I instead chose to pay a bunch more to go to a private dentist. Yes, just like in the US, people who have access to money are always going to be okay, but at least here, if you don’t have a few hundred pounds to spare, you can still get your dental health needs met.