# Move to Spain



## claire001 (Mar 2, 2011)

Hi everyone, 
I have been reading your forum for quite a while now with great interest, and have never been brave enough to post. Please be gentle
I am after some advice really, I will give an overview of my situation. Sorry if I witter on!!
I am 35, married with two kids age 8 and 5.
My husband works as a senior professional within a global telecommunications company, I am a stay at home mum.
My husband and I have always dreamed of a life in Spain, we have always talked about it but have never had the nerve to do anything about it! 
My husband is now being offered voluntary redundancy of £23,000 to be taken in April, which is sounding very tempting!
We are now very seriously considering a move to Spain in the very near future. We have done our homework, and we do understand that it is not the best time to move to Spain. Although we do feel that if we wait any longer it will be even harder on our kids especially our daughter who is 8, and the redundancy may not be offered at a later stage. 
What we would love to do in an ideal world, is my husband takes the redundancy, using the next few months to job hunt. Is it possible though to find a job in Spain whilst in the UK?? Again we know jobs are hard to come by, but we are hoping with his experience in his line of work hopefully he will be lucky.He also speaks conversational Spanish, I am not so good but learning.
We would rent out our house in the UK, as to safe guard us in case it didn't work out, and we would look for a long term let in Spain.
I understand we would have to move where the jobs are, but we would love to move to somewhere close to the coast, and within commuting distance for my husband to get to work.
We would plan to move May/June time, which I feel would hopefully give the kids time to settle in a bit before starting school in September.
There is just so much to think about, as I say we are not doing this on a whim, and really want to make it work.
Any advice is gratefully appreciated
Claire x


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Hi Claire and well done for taking the plunge (I didn't realise we were that scary!)

You are obviously aware of the dire economic situation, and £23k won't go far especially with removal expenses etc. I would definitely recommend that your husband starts looking for a job straight away - don't wait till you get here. You may also lose other sources of income like family tax credits. If you move without having a job to come to you may end up having an expensive long holiday.

Does your husband speak Spanish fluently enough to be able to do his job in it? If not, he will need to look at multinational companies that have branches in Spain. Even then, he will need a fairly good command of the language so I suggest you both make this a top priority during the waiting period - it will give you a definite advantage.

Good luck!


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## claire001 (Mar 2, 2011)

Hi Alcalaina,
Thanks for your reply.
Yeah, I understand £23,000 wont last long. My husband is getting stuck into the job hunting and hopefully should get something within a few months. We are hoping the redundancy period gets extended by a few months to give him more time to find something in Spain before he actually takes the redundancy package, as we would not move over without an offer of a permanent job.
We don't plan on taking too much stuff over with us, as we were thinking of looking for somewhere either fully or ideally partly furnished. Good excuse for a clear out,eh! 
Yeah, my husband is not at the fluent stage yet, although he does feel that within a few months of being there he would be of a high standard, again me unfortunately I don't have a flair for languages so I will work hard at it for the next few months.
Claire x


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

claire001 said:


> Hi Alcalaina,
> Thanks for your reply.
> Yeah, I understand £23,000 wont last long. My husband is getting stuck into the job hunting and hopefully should get something within a few months. We are hoping the redundancy period gets extended by a few months to give him more time to find something in Spain before he actually takes the redundancy package, as we would not move over without an offer of a permanent job.
> We don't plan on taking too much stuff over with us, as we were thinking of looking for somewhere either fully or ideally partly furnished. Good excuse for a clear out,eh!
> ...


Spain's record unemployment level has risen yet again....nearly four and a half million Spaniards are looking for work. To be brutally honest, your chances of finding secure employment are slim, especially if you speak no Spanish..
Then there are various practicalities to consider such as health care....you will not qualify for free health care until you have accumulated sufficient contributions. 
Why not consider other EU countries? Germany is actively seeking immigrants from Spain. The German economy is doing well, best growth rate since reunification, most people speak English.
Surely worth a try?


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

mrypg9 said:


> Spain's record unemployment level has risen yet again....nearly four and a half million Spaniards are looking for work. To be brutally honest, your chances of finding secure employment are slim, especially if you speak no Spanish..
> Then there are various practicalities to consider such as health care....you will not qualify for free health care until you have accumulated sufficient contributions.
> Why not consider other EU countries? Germany is actively seeking immigrants from Spain. The German economy is doing well, best growth rate since reunification, most people speak English.
> Surely worth a try?


To be fair, most of the unemployed are unskilled or semi-skilled and someone with experience in telecomms might stand a much better chance of finding work. It is one of the few growth industries in the country, after all. Telefonica might even do something useful with the €10 billion profit it made last year!:flypig:


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## gus-lopez (Jan 4, 2010)

He would probably need to look in Gibraltar with a view to living in spain & crossing over to work daily. Other than that it's probably Barcelona if you want to be on the coast.


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

Alcalaina said:


> To be fair, most of the unemployed are unskilled or semi-skilled and someone with experience in telecomms might stand a much better chance of finding work. It is one of the few growth industries in the country, after all. Telefonica might even do something useful with the €10 billion profit it made last year!:flypig:



As long as he's fluent enough to get thru the interviews and tests. Altho I think they have a different standard and network procedures in Spain. Something for the OPs husband to look into carefully - which obviously he will do!! 

Apart from that, things arent good in Spain, but then they're not good in the UK. My advise is to not burn your bridges - the UK maybe a grim place, but there is the comfort of friends, relatives, social security and knowledge of how it all works over there!

Jo xxx


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## claire001 (Mar 2, 2011)

Thanks everyone for all your replies,

Yeah, I fully understand where you are coming from JoJo when you say "not to burn my bridges". 
We are planning to rent out our house here in the UK just in case we do need to return if things don't work out. Also we feel with my husbands job that it is a case of him jumping before he gets pushed! Which is why we are so tempted by the redundancy package.
My husbands level of Spanish is pretty good , he can hold a conversation, he does seem to have a natural talent for languages, lucky him!
Also we do feel its now or never, as we really need to give it a try before the kids get any older. We don't want to look back and have regrets for not giving it a go!!
Claire x


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

claire001 said:


> Thanks everyone for all your replies,
> 
> Yeah, I fully understand where you are coming from JoJo when you say "not to burn my bridges".
> We are planning to rent out our house here in the UK just in case we do need to return if things don't work out. Also we feel with my husbands job that it is a case of him jumping before he gets pushed! Which is why we are so tempted by the redundancy package.
> ...



Then give it a go! He needs to apply for as many jobs as he can find, send his cv to all appropriate employers and you need to visit and have a look around and do some fact finding etc. Planning and preparation is key! Keep us posted!

Jo xxx


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## claire001 (Mar 2, 2011)

Thanks JoJo

Will keep uz posted, im sure we will have more questions along the way.

Claire x


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## Calas felices (Nov 29, 2007)

*Moving to Spain*

You also have to consider your children. You could plunge them into a Spanish school where they will have a serious learning curve (and according to some a very unhappy time until they pick up the language) or an International school which will be costly.


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

We have many queries but rarely hear of anyone who has been successful in finding employment of any kind, whether skilled or unskilled.
I would be interested to learn how many people manage to find secure, well-paid employment here.
Telefonica is mentioned....but are they not also shedding jobs?
And let us not forget the ubiquitous 'temporada'. Would these global companies offer a permanent contract, I wonder? No way would I consider a move with family unless the contract was more secure.
Of course there are vacancies, mainly professional, but there is serious competition for those few opportunities.
Currently Spain is a nightmare, not a 'dream', for far too many, sadly.


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## fourgotospain (May 4, 2009)

Why don't you look at it as a 'gap year'? We did a similar thing when my other half took voluntary redundancy. Our girls were 8 and 5, we rented our house for a year and headed off, keeping at least £10,000 in a high interest account for our return. We went to Asia as we were really looking at a family year away, but you could come to Spain. Find a small 2 bed apartment to rent for 6 months, your husband can hit the job trail, you can enjoy life in Spain, travel around, homeschool the kids (or UNschool them which is what we did!!) and do some spanish classes etc. If you like it and find work then stay, otherwise you've all had such a great adventure together. That break gave us the confidence to move to Spain afterwards and we are SO glad we did it before the kids got too big.


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

fourgotospain said:


> Why don't you look at it as a 'gap year'? We did a similar thing when my other half took voluntary redundancy. Our girls were 8 and 5, we rented our house for a year and headed off, keeping at least £10,000 in a high interest account for our return. We went to Asia as we were really looking at a family year away, but you could come to Spain. Find a small 2 bed apartment to rent for 6 months, your husband can hit the job trail, you can enjoy life in Spain, travel around, homeschool the kids (or UNschool them which is what we did!!) and do some spanish classes etc. If you like it and find work then stay, otherwise you've all had such a great adventure together. That break gave us the confidence to move to Spain afterwards and we are SO glad we did it before the kids got too big.


Now that's an excellent idea!


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## clairem (Mar 3, 2011)

My husband and I moved to Spain when our children were 5 years and 8 years, My 8 year old found it very frustraiting for about 3 months but within 4 months they both were able to speak fluent Spanish!! I said to my husband that if it didnt work out after a year we would go back to the UK and all wouldnt be waisted as the kids speak another language fluently! Here we still are in Spain 8 years later !!! dont get me wrong it has been extremely difficult at times but worth it for the kids ! 
Good luck with what ever you decide to do. x


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

clairem said:


> My husband and I moved to Spain when our children were 5 years and 8 years, My 8 year old found it very frustraiting for about 3 months but within 4 months they both were able to speak fluent Spanish!! I said to my husband that if it didnt work out after a year we would go back to the UK and all wouldnt be waisted as the kids speak another language fluently! Here we still are in Spain 8 years later !!! dont get me wrong it has been extremely difficult at times but worth it for the kids !
> Good luck with what ever you decide to do. x


People I know with children under ten all say the same as you - they adapt very quickly. 

They also say they feel much safer here, as everybody watches out for everyone else's children when they are playing. Not like in the UK now where you daren't interfere in case you are accused of being a paedophile or something.


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## clairem (Mar 3, 2011)

Yes very true, we live in a small village called Bunol ( where the tomato fight takes place) and my children can play outside without any worries as all the locals do look out for them. My children wouldn't have this freedom at all in the UK.
You have to be careful in the tourist areas of Spain as the children don't have the freedom of small villages, but in the small villages you probably wont get the work either.


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