'Can I open a pension without a National Insurance number?'

Iwant to open a self-invested personal pension (Sipp) but some providers’ online subscription processes require a National Insurance (NI) number.

I moved to the UK a few years ago, having also been based there between 1990 and 1994, and tried to get a NI number in both 2020 and 2021. But it proved impossible because my revenues were from French sources and I didn’t pay UK NI contributions, although I might have UK revenues in future because I created two UK limited liability companies in early 2022, one of which has investments worth £3mn underway.

In the meantime, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has given me a unique taxpayer reference number with 10 numerical digits to pay income tax. So I could open a Sipp on Hargreaves Lansdown because its application form offers the option of ticking “I do not have a National Insurance Number”.

However, when I contacted AJ Bell, Fidelity and Interactive Investor, the people I spoke to said that they couldn’t open a Sipp without a NI number.

What should I do?

PD