How do we move to the Canary Islands to live and work. We are British with UK <span title="passports........more.......?">passports........more.......</span>

Question

Gibralter is another consideration. We lived in Jersey for 12 years and my hubby lived in Oz for years and know homesickness would not be an issue, there are no parents, siblings to consider. We run a business which we know is portable and would work from anywhere. We have 3 children 15, 6 & 4 and I home educate them all. What criterion would we have to meet or is it simply a matter of hopping on a plane and running our business from there and establishing a new lifestyle ? We would integrate and embrace our new life and respect the culture? We are so fed up with the apathy in UK now we just want to escape. We know grass is not always greener - we do have comparisons though and it is not great here believe me. You only have one life and don't just want to settle because of fear. We are not blinkered and are willing to work hard (we have done all our lives) Answers on a postcard please ...............

Answer 1

You can basically just hop on a plane and go (as long as you have somewhere to live and a business plan of course).

The Canary Islands, officially called &quot;the Autonomous community of the Canary Islands,&quot; are part of Spain. Don&#039;t be fooled by the official title &quot;autonomous community&quot;. All regions of Spain are referred to as autonomous. The Canaries are as much a part of Spain as anywhere else, and as a result they are part of the EU so you can live and work there freely.

It&#039;s as simple as that. The Canaries are part of the EU so you can come and go, work, buy property and set up businesses at will. You don&#039;t need to apply for visas or inform authorities or anything.

Despite being politically in the EU, the Canary Islands are not included in the EU customs and VAT area though. This is good news because it means that VAT in the Canaries is lower than in the rest of Spain, meaning a lot of things cost less.

Interestingly, the islands are not named after the bird. It&#039;s the other way round.