use a UK stocks and shares isa they tax free and invest in ETFs accumulation . Try asap as the annual £20k allowance could be changing in the budget. Also premium bonds are great as a safety net. Hargreaves lansdown is a great platform for your portfolio which you could build upto 8 ETFs ideally and from H&L wealth list
yes I heard Barclays doing that. My NatWest was a standard current account and staff was great on the phone. It’s just you can’t open a account unless you live in the UK first with a UK address
I use NatWest with Thai number and no issues . They also have my Thai address and receive letters here from them. The only issue was premium bonds as I changed number but the foreign connection to send texts don’t work so I called them and gave a family UK number to receive log in text which only needed once so they sent me code and sorted
because you should apply for your visa 2-3 weeks before you fly and it has a valid date to use by but you still get the visa length you applied for when you arrive.