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One of my money-related goals has been to buy some foreign bonds, so I’ve started looking into gilts. Gilts are essentially bonds from the UK government, similar to US Treasury bonds. (Here’s a brief explanation about them from the UK Debt Management Office.)

After a bit of searching, I found that potential investors must first apply to join the approved group of investors, if they want to buy the gilts directly from the Debt Management Office. So I downloaded the application form and got it filled out. I encountered my first obstacle when I came up against the requirement to have my evidence of identity documents authenticated. The banker at first did not want to fill out the form, because they thought it meant they were authenticating my identity, not just certifying that my copies matched my passport, etc. Once we got that straightened out, there were no problems.

Except that it turns out I filled out the wrong form. Apparently there’s a different form for overseas investors, which they sent me in the mail. So now the second form is on its way, along with an additional form of ID. I imagine I could just buy the gilts from a broker, but something about buying them directly appeals to me.

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