Moving to spain

[virgo22]

does anyone else just think there must be more to life than what we have in the UK? We have a mortgage and love our home, but constantly sick of chasing our tails, hardly spending much time together as a family due to always working and needing to pay the bills probably be unhappy anyway.
my children are aged 3 and 7 months and I think I would love to create a better life for them by having a better lifestyle. Me and my partner would love to sell the house, move and start a fresh and start living our life. Life is so short and I feel like why not, when life is for living.

has anyone done this? I hate this rat race that we find ourselves in here.

What would you do for work in Spain? Are you EU citizens? Do you speak the language?

People in Spain have the same issues.

@MrsSkylerWhite oh no I don’t doubt that! But I just mean there would be other perks that we don’t have in the UK. Do you live in Spain? Could you where your experience?

@Ace56 this is a very loose idea so would need to think about this of course. Would of course have the equity of our house to keep us going for some time, but then would need something longer term for financial stability.

virgo22 · Today 12:37

oh no I don’t doubt that! But I just mean there would be other perks that we don’t have in the UK. Do you live in Spain? Could you where your experience?

No we don’t live in Spain, older relatives did.

Yeah….Australia. Same shit, warmer bucket. Cost of living was crazy (and this was pre covid), very racist/misogynistic culture, too hot to be outdoors much of the time, poor state schooling - back to UK after about 4 years and don’t regret it. That said, if I was a multimillionaire and could afford a mansion with a boat and moorings on the Swan River and frequent first class flights, I probably would go back lol

Thanks for Brexit it's extremely difficult now to move to an EU country unless you have a lot of money. That is my experience anyway in trying to help a dc move to an EU country.

It's not impossible and depends on the country but it's certainly not like it used to be.

And yes I would love to move to Spain or Italy.

I am half Spanish with family living in Spain. I could never live there. England is so much more diverse and tolerant. Day to day they have exactly the same problems as us.

Has anyone moved to Spain? Yes, me! We bought a home here and therefore have residency. Everything is cheaper, housing, food, healthcare. The kids now know Spanish to varying degrees (they were mid teens when we arrived). We are happy here, though it won’t be forever. We both work remotely.

One thing to be very mindful of is university fees in the UK. Your kids will have to pay international fees if they want to Study there.

I am spanish. The quality of life is good if you don't have to work or work for the public sector (where your job is pretty much guaranteed for life). Working for a private company is normally not that good and don't expect to have the same rights as in the UK. Think about it, in a country with a much higher percentage of unemployment, the working conditions are normally worse, as prople don't want to lose their jobs so they have to endure abusive managers (as an example) and bad conditions.

I am not saying all companies are the same, but consider that working conditions in countries with unemployment are worse for that reason, they can get rid of you and they'll have hundreds of candidates to start the day after.

I've got spanish friends in the UK who had this platonic idea about the quality of life there and went back, only to realise they couldn't go back to work there and returned to the UK. Things were much better in the UK in the end. Maybe not the weather, but workimg conditions defunitely.

If you can get a well paying job in the public sector, then ho for it!

Yeah I get you..we lived in Italy for 5 years. Same daily shit and endless bureaucracy but at least it was sunny and we enjoyed a different culture and learning a language.
Currently looking at Portugal BUT we are mindful it's not a holiday and life is harder with little kids. Wages are lower.

Yes, all the time, I love Spain. I think many of these experiences are global though. We have a global inequality and billionaires problem.

One of my friends works for a well know international spanish company and the behaviour she describes of her manager and people at the top is unbelievable for UK standards, you would be shocked.

I've got spanish friends in the UK who had this platonic idea about the quality of life there and went back, only to realise they couldn't go back to work there and returned to the UK

So they realised it wasn't platonic, and thought 'fuck this'?? 😁

I've lived in Portugal for almost 18 years. The bureaucracy can drive you mad at times, the minimum wage is €840 a month (€11,480 a year based on 14 months with holidays) and the service in shops and offices is thorough but very, very slow.

I have no plans to move anywhere else 😎

@Pippa246 haha! At least you can say you have experienced it though, Australia does sound amazing but I don’t think I’d be brave enough to move that far 😂

@W0tnow thank you it’s so good to hear from somebody who has upped and done it. I think the career/job side of things would be our biggest factor, but it’s more the lifestyle I’m wanting to change for my family. Do you feel like Spain offers that better than here in the UK?

@Eyesopenwideawake that’s such a long time, that’s really great to hear! I think there will always be pros and cons but happiness is the biggest thing and if it offers that then it’s worth it

We're planning to go - but it sounds like you've got a lot of research to do before you can really consider it. There's limited visa options - you can be employed by a Spanish company, but that's challenging and rare, or get a DNV/NLV, but they have strict income and other requirements.

We're planning to go around Feb next year, on a DNV.

There’s way too many mosquitoes in Spain. 🦟

It's all absolutely irrelevant though OP unless you have EU citizenship or can fit the criteria for remote work off your own back ata certain level of earnings and a nomad visa ( and they are a year at a time- so not ideal if you have kids) - even then you have to qualify to get private health care for your family. You might get in via normal visa also if you are in certain shortage occupations too - have significant funds and would need Spanish in those.

If you do fit all those points then please say so and we can advise accordingly - and yes I do have knowledge of this.

Why would you have more time together in Spain? Would you be able to earn more by working fewer hours, or maybe buy a mortgage-free property that you couldn't buy here?

They're often not a year at a time - they're typically three years at at time, so you need one renewal and then can apply for residency in year 5.

It obviously depends how you apply, but it's foolhardy to apply here, really. The criteria aren't the easiest to reach, but it's easy to know if you do, so there's no risk in applying there and getting three years instead of one. It also costs a decent amount less to apply there, and the Consulates can add their own demands if you use them.

It's also quite easy to qualify for public healthcare if you're earning enough and therefore will be contributing enough there. It's a myth that most people applying need private healthcare, especially if they're coming from the UK. It's more common if you're American or Canadian, although I believe it's changing for Canada.

And it's getting worse!

The last time I was in Spain, to a place we had been five years before at the same time of year (out of season), we came across tiger mosquitoes, that apparently were relatively new to that area. We had to be really conscientious about mosquito repellent as they were out all times of day.

Five years earlier, same time of year - didn't come across any mozzies at all.

@YouveGotAFastCar is that so? Even on nomad visas? We 100% fit criteria on that and may look again in a couple of years-we did 20 months in Copenhagen and came back to UK for elderly relative reasons mixed in with work ( as covid played havoc with flights back to uk and availability) - Spain high on list ( which does nomad) as is Sweden which doesn't - more hoops to jump through for Sweden as we are 62 - and have to prove certain business things