Living in Spain…5 years on
Last month marked 5 years since we moved to Spain, or our 5th ‘Spainiversary!
When we decided to move to Spain we always intended to stay permanently, but many people thought we’d be back within 6 months which makes this milestone event better.
We’re now able to apply for permanent residency, which can be done after 5 years and lasts for another 5 years.
Our highlights over the past 5 years include:
- Visiting some amazing places including Valencia and Granada (including the snowy Sierra Nevada)
- Buying our first house in Spain
- Our daughter becoming fluent in Spanish
- Creating a better work-life balance
There have been lots more along the way but these are the top things that stand out since we arrived in May 2019.
It hasn’t all been plain sailing, there have of course been some struggles along the way with the language, school, work, and all the usual problems that come with being far away from family, but we don’t regret moving and have no plans to return to the UK.
The top benefits of living in Spain include:
- The amazing weather
- An outdoors lifestyle
- Cheaper cost of living
- Better work-life balance
- Safer environment for kids
The Spanish life is much more focused on family, having fun, and enjoying being outside compared to the UK where the focus is more on work and possessions.
Learning about a new country and culture has been an eye opener and very interesting, and we feel that we’ve adopted some of the best parts of Spanish life along with some from our upbringing in the UK.
Things we’ve got used to after 5 years in Spain:
- Slower pace of life
- Eating much later
- Everything happening much later
- The language
- Spanish customs and holidays
Spanish life involves children much more than the UK. Kids can, and do, go anywhere with their parents, at any time of day or night. The Spanish are very friendly and welcoming, especially to children, and there are lots of family focused activities.
School was unsurprisingly our biggest concern when we were talking about moving to Spain, and we worried if putting our then 8 year old into a Spanish school was the right move. Someone I used to work with even told me it was ‘cruel’, but we trusted our gut and threw her in at the deep end.
The gamble paid off and 5 years on she has just finished her first year of high school with fantastic grades. Some of the benefits of school in Spain compared to the UK are:
- Speaking fluent Spanish
- More relaxed environment
- Friends of lots of different nationalities
- Shorter school day
- Longer summer holidays
Once she finishes high school in 3 years she will even be able to apply for Spanish Citizenship which brings so many benefits including an EU passport.
If you’re worried about putting your kids into Spanish school, we can assure you that it will all work out ok!
Some things to consider when moving to Spain with kids are:
- Their ages – if they are high school age then a Private international school would probably be better, whereas younger children have time to learn the language.
- Their abilities – if they’re struggling at school in your home country then they will struggle even more in a Spanish speaking school. Spanish schools seem to be a bit behind the UK when it comes to SEN so you may need to do some extra research on this.
- Helping with the language – you will also need to learn Spanish to help your children with homework and we’d recommend getting a regular Spanish tutor to help them with the things you can’t.
You can find out more about school in Spain here.
We’ve been very lucky 1) that we moved to Spain before Brexit and 2) could set up as freelancers without any visa issues. If you’re considering a move to Spain now, you need to think about:
- Visas – do you have enough savings not to work (Non-lucrative visa) or can you work remotely (Digital Nomad Visa)?
- Getting help with visas – like everything official in Spain, applying for a visa involves a lot of paperwork and red tape so it can be a good idea to get help from an expert.
- Jobs – you can’t just come over and get a job now (if you have a British passport) and whether you can work or not will depend on your visa. It’s important to understand what you’re allowed to do for work and what opportunities are available.
The main benefits we’ve found with working remotely are:
- Setting your own working hours
- Working for UK companies means better salary
- No need have a business level of Spanish
As we said at the start of this blog post, we don’t regret moving from the UK to Spain. 5 years on we can see so many benefits in the lifestyle, schooling, work-life balance, and so much more.
If you’re considering a move to Spain we’d highly recommend it!
For anyone who is considering moving and would like to pick our brains, you can book a call with us to get answers to any questions on visas, school, jobs and Spanish life in general.
