Considering a move to Spain, what to consider?

[Pixiedust138]

Just looking for some advice really from anyone that has done it or has any experience in this area please!

I have an EU passport so hopefully it would be an easier process for us to move than it would have been (thanks brexit).

We have a toddler, will be having another baby in the summer and we are considering a move to Spain in the future. We have family there already, and I grew up there as child but this was before I had children so while I have experience of living there, not as an adult/parent.

What are the main things we should consider in making this decision?

What is the best age for children to move?

If you’ve done it, what were the pros and cons?

are you fluent or near enough in spanish?

I’d be thinking seriously about climate change and how children would cope with increasingly extreme temperatures.

I am and we’d be ensuring that my husband was up to a good standard before moving

The same as any Spanish children would cope I would imagine?

main thing to consider presumably is work?

do you intend to over in direction of family out there?

what is your motivation for wanting to leave the uk?

and how strong your relationship is

I would look at what you would do if airfares treble or more in a few years because of overdue climate change legislation!
hopefully the train from paris to Barcelona will come back but … this is a real factor

Work I’m unsure of at the moment as we don’t know if this would be something we’d be doing in 3/5/10 years, if at all. I have a management job now, in a niche that doesn’t exist in Spain so I’d have to have a career change, which I’d be fine with. My husband is an electrical engineer, so he does have a trade and ideally would get employment with local business or could setup his own.

As we have family over there, we would have somewhere to stay for as long as we needed while we got settled, found jobs, somewhere to live etc so our start out costs would be minimal.

There are a few reasons we would want to do this, firstly a better quality of life, less stressful, more relaxed, safer for the children, more sun and less depressing weather! We both have good jobs in the U.K. and barely get by, due to costs of everything (including childcare) being so astronomical. For comparison we pay over £1400 a month for our toddlers nursery, our nephew in Spain’s nursery costs are less than €200 per month. Of course salaries in Spain aren’t as high as in the U.K. but I think overall we would have less expenses.

Family is a big pull too. My whole family are there. I left 10 years ago, I’ve brought up my child without having any family around, I miss them terribly and due to it getting more and more expensive to go over and visit since having children we can afford to go and see them less and less.

I also have to consider my parents who live there becoming more elderly, I do feel a bit like if we don’t do this in the next 10 years then we will have to stay in the U.K. as the children will be too settled at school, with friends etc but is so hard to know if this is the right decision or not as it’s very difficult to move back.

I’m not quite sure what you mean? If we moved we wouldn’t really be coming back to the U.K. for any reason.

Are you absolutely sure your parents intend to live out their lives there? Spain is great for active retirees but not so good for the very elderly. Many people return “home” in their final years.

Most definitely! My whole family is there, they wouldn’t be moving back, they wouldn’t have anything to move back to. My grandparents also live there and will not be returning to the U.K.

If it were me, the main priority would be employment plans.

I wouldn't move without a firm job offer for at least one of us.

Because that affects everything else like where you live.

Maybe I am just overcautious but there's no way I would just move my family in with my parents in another country with no firm plans for work and accommodation

Does your DH not have family in the UK? I think that's what people are assuming

We moved to France rather than Spain but the principal is the same.

Moving DC before they are 5 makes for the easiest transition.

Having your family already there will make a huge difference, but do not underestimate how this may affect your DH as the person who has the lowest language skills so has to rely on others even for things like Doctors appointments. Do not assume he can find work unless there is a large ex-pat community that he can tap into.

For more advice from people who have done it try posting on living overseas.

We are thinking the same. Should have done it 10 years ago when the kids were still little...
The main things we are considering at the moment are:

• work situation: I have an EU passport but DH doesn't. There is something called a Digital Nomad visa, so you can work remotely for a UK company and pay local taxes. This might not apply to your DH as he might not be able to work remotely. I'm considering keeping my job in the UK, but become a consultant and just billing my current employer.
• schools: if your DH is from UK, you have to consider whether you want your kids to go to a British school there, following the UK curriculum. This leaves a door open to go back if things don't pan out, but British schools are mega expensive in Spain.
• Housing: we are considering renting our house in the UK and rent in Spain, so again we have a plan to come back if things don't work out.
• make sure your DH is 100% on board with this, otherwise it might cause issues and resentment in the future.

I would go back tomorrow for similar reasons as you, but once children are a bit older you need to plan a bit more and be sensible (boring!)

Not anyone close enough that we’d come back to visit.

This is one of my main worries, that we will leave it too late and it’ll be so much harder! We couldn’t do the move now anyway for a few reasons, the earliest would be maybe 2/3 years, although I think 5 years would be more reasonable but I know realistically the younger the children are, the easier it would be for them to adjust

Thank you, I hadn’t considered that as much as I probably should be! We are in the very early stages of talking this through. It would be an easier adjustment for me because I grew up there, but for him it’s a totally different world and if he did get homesick we’d be pretty stuck. Luckily we’d be moving to somewhere with a huge expat community so that’s not too much of a worry.

On the EU passport note, I read that if you have one, your spouse, children and parents can come over with you, unless I read it wrong?

OP, you say "My husband is an electrical engineer, so he does have a trade and ideally would get employment with local business or could setup his own."

I'm pretty sure his qualifications would have to be ratified in Spain, and he'd have to get to grips with different standards, norms and way of working

He would also have to have good enough Spanish to discuss the work with customers and colleagues, and to deal with the admin if working as an autonomo, unless someone in your family could do it for him, or he employed someone to do it.

your relationship needs to be rock solid OP

Pixiedust138 · Yesterday 11:12
MrsSkylerWhite · Yesterday 11:05

I’d be thinking seriously about climate change and how children would cope with increasingly extreme temperatures.
**
The same as any Spanish children would cope I would imagine?”

Well yes but point was many won’t have a choice. You do. Have friends in Portugal and Australia who are considering returning to the UK because of how extreme it’s been the past few years. Just something to bear in mind.