Funnily enough it took them like ~ 5 years to ask me to verify my account ...
Curiously enough all these years until they came to that idea i had no problems to withdraw there ...
I had my account even longer, not sure how long but I made it back when Full Tilt was still a major player.
888 finally had me verify about 3 years ago, then had me verify a second time a few months ago.
As for the OP, I'd suggest making the bare minimum deposit ($10 I think) then before even starting to play ask 888 to get verified and only after being confirmed that you are verified start playing.
If I ever try a new site that is what I plan to do.
I got annoyed with
party poker, I had built a
bankroll to $35 and asked to be verified before I put in more effort and built a bankroll I'd be concerned about losing, sent the documents they asked for (I still had scans of them from re-verifying at 888, and they were accepted there) and they denied me and asked for more documents.
I had nothing invested at PP and was barely playing there (mostly CC games and a few other
freerolls) so I just decided jumping through more hoops wasn't worth the effort and uninstalled PP and walked away.