Relocation to Spain Experience

[Martynt74]

Slowly adjusting to the frustrating nature of the process, but it's not fun!

I needed to apply for my Digital Certificate, kind of the equivalent of the Government Gateway in the UK. I started it online as per a guide i found, only to then find that i need to prove my identity in person at an office 40 minutes away. Spoke to someone who mentioned the local town hall can do it for me. Went down there and walked out 5 minutes later with my certificate code to install on my laptop at home and all sorted. No idea why the website made it so difficult to just do myself. Seems that the Town Hall person uses a different agency to create the certificate.

Currently getting conflicting info around registering my residency as a family member of an EU citizen. One person said it's just done online, everything else conflicts this and says i need to fill in a form, pay the fee and then go to the same place my wife did (foreigners office). The latter is what i'd have expected so have filled in the forms. Then went to make the appointment. It takes you through about 5 pages of fields to update name/address etc and then when you get to the bit that says "Book an Appointment" it pops up with "Sorry none are available. Try another time" but then you have to re-fill the whole 5 pages of fields to find out whether an appointment is available at that point!

It's the booking of the appointment where i paid someone to sort for me as i think these companies just have someone constantly checking (they're released at random times). However the one i used for my NIE and wifes residency don't have a service for family re-unification and won't help
There are other companies who try and charge €500 for this service but screw them!

 

[Martynt74]

Hmm i *think* i've submitted my application online. However when it gave me a link to download my application as proof it gave me an error and bombed out. I've got a screenshot so hoping that's sufficient. However i have no confirmation email/text, and can't see any record of the application on the online portal so have no idea how to check when/if it's approved!

 

[Hodders]

Big few days. Friday my wife got her residency.

Are you happy to share the name of the firm you used?

The reason I ask is that apparently Spain passed a law in 2022 "The Democratic Memory Law" that, amongst other things, allows direct descendents of people that fought with the International Brigade to gain Spanish Citizenship without renouncing their current citizenship. Both my grandparents were medics during the Spanish civil war so I should qualify.

I'd love to talk to a specialist that could confirm if this is possible or if anyone has already succeeded - I imagine being the first would be expensive!

 

[Martynt74]

Are you happy to share the name of the firm you used?

The reason I ask is that apparently Spain passed a law in 2022 "The Democratic Memory Law" that, amongst other things, allows direct descendents of people that fought with the International Brigade to gain Spanish Citizenship without renouncing their current citizenship. Both my grandparents were medics during the Spanish civil war so I should qualify.

I'd love to talk to a specialist that could confirm if this is possible or if anyone has already succeeded - I imagine being the first would be expensive!

I've done most myself, although used a company called MyNIE.com for the appointment, not sure they're full residency experts though.

There's quite a few Facebook groups with experts giving advice though if you look for Spanish Residency.

Could also try these

Home | Moving to Spain | GoSpain

GoSpain - information and advice for people moving to or living in Spain, NLV, TIE, translations, apostille, including guidance on residency, healthcare, insurance, visas, and buying property in Spain.

www.gospain.co.uk

 

[Martynt74]

Whoop, and now have my social security number. Have to say the digital certificate is actually a brilliant system for logging in!

In other news, i got my dads old car (Citroen C3) at the weekend. It's a weird one, he bought it 10 years ago. Then in 2018 he bought his Jaguar F Pace, but never liked it much as it's too big. Then around June time they bought a newer Citroen C3, so i said i'd buy the old one. It's diesel and so more economical than the Jeep. However when we arrived we discovered he still seemed to be using this more than any other car. In his words "It's better to drive and because it's old it doesn't need looking after so can be used for tip runs/beach trips"

As such i'm now on the hunt for an old estate. I ummed and ahed about it last month, but think it's the right thing to do. I've done a few trips picking up bits of wood and stuff and the Jeep isn't ideal for that. Something like an old 2.0 diesel barge will be a handy second car. Especially as we start buying furniture/plants etc for the new house.

 

[Lopéz]

Are you happy to share the name of the firm you used?

The reason I ask is that apparently Spain passed a law in 2022 "The Democratic Memory Law" that, amongst other things, allows direct descendents of people that fought with the International Brigade to gain Spanish Citizenship without renouncing their current citizenship. Both my grandparents were medics during the Spanish civil war so I should qualify.

I'd love to talk to a specialist that could confirm if this is possible or if anyone has already succeeded - I imagine being the first would be expensive!

Remember Residency and Citizenship are fairly different things. I don't think Martynt74 is looking at Citizenship, that's a whole other ball game and comes with many more conditions.

I don't know what Spain is like but for Austria I needed : Registration of address, proof of medical insurance (private or public) and confirmation of a job and/or access to funds. Nothing you'd need a firm for, it was just a case of fill in the forms and go the immigration office.

 

[Lopéz]

Slowly adjusting to the frustrating nature of the process, but it's not fun!

I needed to apply for my Digital Certificate, kind of the equivalent of the Government Gateway in the UK. I started it online as per a guide i found, only to then find that i need to prove my identity in person at an office 40 minutes away. Spoke to someone who mentioned the local town hall can do it for me. Went down there and walked out 5 minutes later with my certificate code to install on my laptop at home and all sorted. No idea why the website made it so difficult to just do myself. Seems that the Town Hall person uses a different agency to create the certificate.

Currently getting conflicting info around registering my residency as a family member of an EU citizen. One person said it's just done online, everything else conflicts this and says i need to fill in a form, pay the fee and then go to the same place my wife did (foreigners office). The latter is what i'd have expected so have filled in the forms. Then went to make the appointment. It takes you through about 5 pages of fields to update name/address etc and then when you get to the bit that says "Book an Appointment" it pops up with "Sorry none are available. Try another time" but then you have to re-fill the whole 5 pages of fields to find out whether an appointment is available at that point!

It's the booking of the appointment where i paid someone to sort for me as i think these companies just have someone constantly checking (they're released at random times). However the one i used for my NIE and wifes residency don't have a service for family re-unification and won't help
There are other companies who try and charge €500 for this service but screw them!

This sounds familiar! I filled in a similar online form only for it to then tell you at the end that there are no appointments - awful UX.

In the end I just turned up at the immigration office and hoped for the best. It turned out I ended up in the same queue with all the people who had managed to get appointments so tbh getting a slot was a waste of time as they just dealt with everybody who turned up one at a time anyway!

The police are the same here, to exchange your licence (don't forget to do this if you haven't already!) you need to book an appointment but they never answer the phone and rarely reply to emails (I got a reply 2 months after emailing for a slot) so I just turned up with about 100 other randoms and queued and was seen within half an hour .

 

[Martynt74]

The police are the same here, to exchange your licence (don't forget to do this if you haven't already!) you need to book an appointment but they never answer the phone and rarely reply to emails (I got a reply 2 months after emailing for a slot) so I just turned up with about 100 other randoms and queued and was seen within half an hour .

Currently a sore subject as i seem to have lost my wifes driving licence

 

[Martynt74]

Just because i've not posted for a little while. There's a thread in Home & Garden where i've been debating floor plans and adjustments to the above.

We've narrowed plots down massively. I initially had around 30 i was interested in, but having driven out to some, and ruled out others due to price we're down to about 5 possibilities now. It helped that i really like the 40,000m2 plot in La Romana, so had a real contender to compare others against rather than having a lot on the "yeah that's ok" pile.

The main factor now is whether we can get contact from the sellers of 2 other options in a place called Barbarroja. We found one of them at random on Sunday and i liked it, it sits in a great part of the valley and so likely gets the evening sun better than the La Romana one. However how important that is when you're living here and not craving sun as much i don't know. There are 2 options in Barbarroja

1 - Plot of 12,000m2 for sale for €36k that we found on Sunday. This is a cheaper overall price vs the La Romana one, but higher cost/m2. I do love the idea of a huge plot, but then this one also has proper plumbed in drinking water which is fairly rare. Downside was we were there last night and could hear some road noise. Not a busy road, but the wind seemed to carry what few cars went past.
2 - A second plot i found online. This is 17,000m2 for €25k, with the option to buy a second adjacent plot of another 10,000m2 for €19k. This would be awesome. Big plot, really cheap price and "maybe" drinking water. The downside is that even the selling agent doesn't have any information on it and things move slow here and we're keen to try and get something resolved before Christmas so we can them get planning permission in.

I think our thought process is.

1 - Find out more info on the 12,000m2 plot. Make sure it's available, find out what other plots are around and could be developed
2 - Give it 2 weeks for the bigger/cheaper plot to get back to us
3 - Make a decision and start negotiations


In typical Spanish style. I dropped the Jeep off at the garage last Tuesday. It's now Thursday and i've heard nothing. They weren't even meant to be doing any work, just checking over a few things and getting back to me with a price!

 

[Martynt74]

So, a few updates. I got to speak to the person with the 2 plots for sale. It's actually a little bigger than advertised and comes to 31,000m2. She also has around 90,000 in total available although my wife might have something to say about that It also has a cave house in a derelict state on one plot which is very cool.

It's firmly in the lead for me, however a recent discussion with someone suggested that the local council have delays of up to 2 years for planning permission to be granted. That's not something i'm willing to put up with, regardless of how much i like the plot sadly. Have asked if the builder can make some enquiries directly with the planning office.


Our estate agent then gave me a call and asked if i was free at 12pm to see a few plots. I met up with him in the local town, only to find he was with the local mayor. This guy knows about everyone interested in selling and so knows of plots not advertised for sale. We jumped in his car and drove around with him pointing out certain plots and explaining the background. I was sat in the back happy with myself for understanding some of the conversation going on in the front.

A few were possible contenders, but the best for me was very close to town, and i fear will be priced accordingly. Since proximity to town isn't something we value, it might be too expensive for what we value it at. The plus side is that with a few handshakes, this guy could probably push planning permission through very quickly and save us multiple months in waiting


We've given ourselves this weekend to make a decision. We have seen multiple plots which we would be perfectly happy with, and i think are now being hyper critical of them to pick flaws that aren't really flaws.

 

[potatolord]

Hyper critical is the way to be, when you're buying a house!

 

[Martynt74]

Hyper critical is the way to be, when you're buying a house!

Yeah true.

This is on the 40,000 plot in La Romana, we can't really fault it. The only little niggle is that it sits behind a hill, and so you don't get the sun in the morning until around 30 minutes later than where we currently are. At the moment that feels like a big deal because we're still in the "crave the sun" phase, but in reality it probably isn't a bad thing.

We went to the plot Saturday morning around 7:30 to check the sunrise and took some photos.

View from the road of the "middle" of the plot

Plot on the right of the road looking towards the town

Pretty much goes towards the white building in the distance

Sunrise shot

 

[potatolord]

Yeah true.

This is on the 40,000 plot in La Romana, we can't really fault it. The only little niggle is that it sits behind a hill, and so you don't get the sun in the morning until around 30 minutes later than where we currently are. At the moment that feels like a big deal because we're still in the "crave the sun" phase, but in reality it probably isn't a bad thing.

We went to the plot Saturday morning around 7:30 to check the sunrise and took some photos.

Heh, I was talking to.my wife about your sunshine dilemma. I am not sure I would like Spanish sunshine and heat in the house all day, from sunrise to sunset.

To be fair, I moan like hell when it gets above about 28c...

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

Heh, I was talking to.my wife about your sunshine dilemma. I am not sure I would like Spanish sunshine and heat in the house all day, from sunrise to sunset.

To be fair, I moan like hell when it gets above about 28c...

It becomes relative.
You adjust.

I remember years ago visiting Spain for halfterm February. We were in shorts and tshirts, the Spanish in fur coats etc...

 

[Martynt74]

It becomes relative.
You adjust.

I remember years ago visiting Spain for halfterm February. We were in shorts and tshirts, the Spanish in fur coats etc...

Yeah, i'll now quite happily wander around in a hoodie and feel cold when it's 18C outside. I will however religiously be in shorts because "i'm one of those"

 

[jpaul]

Thought you were orienting mainly towards West - which is which view -

heat never gets old, and having a balmy bedroom - which is brief/non-existant in the UK, and usual problem, being cooling it without mosquitos visiting.

 

[Martynt74]

Thought you were orienting mainly towards West - which is which view -

heat never gets old, and having a balmy bedroom - which is brief/non-existant in the UK, and usual problem, being cooling it without mosquitos visiting.

The first picture from the road to the dip in the mountains is west which i think is where we'd orient towards.

 

[jpaul]

so .... since you are an accountant

post brexit what is the level of cross recognition of government saving plans like ISA's - does Spain respect any tax free returns on them ?
or, if you withdraw money, are they going to analyse&tax capital gains.

I'm currently in opposite situation where gains in French saving schemes are often taxed at source/17% ... and I'd like to see HMRC happy that dues were payed
(if I provide evidence of monies source.)

 

[Martynt74]

so .... since you are an accountant

post brexit what is the level of cross recognition of government saving plans like ISA's - does Spain respect any tax free returns on them ?
or, if you withdraw money, are they going to analyse&tax capital gains.

I'm currently in opposite situation where gains in French saving schemes are often taxed at source/17% ... and I'd like to see HMRC happy that dues were payed
(if I provide evidence of monies source.)

Similar to you. Everything is taxed here, so you have to declare everything (Pensions, UK benefits, Interest) etc and then are taxed on worldwide earnings.

As far as i'm aware, there is very little in the way of tax efficient saving schemes here, but it's not something i've explored much as of yet. My main concern is to try and bring private pensions into Spain without being taxed on it!

 

[jpaul]

My main concern is to try and bring private pensions into Spain without being taxed on it!

yes - (maybe misremembering)
I'd seen the comments you made in investment thread on having monies for house improvements under ISA's I thought,
and - you wouldn't want those gains to attract additional taxes in Spain under their basic/higher level tax bands.