I need help-I want to move to Spain from the US?

Question

I live in Boston, MA and when me and my fiance get married we are planning to move to Madrid or Barcelona, what are some things that you suggest. We both speak spanish already and I have been to Spain for vacation and loved it. He has a brother in Barcelona. What are some differences in Spain that might be alarming to someone from the US and what steps should we take to make this as easy as possible.

Answer 1

Well I lived in Barcelona for some time....If you speak castellano pretty well than you will be fine in Madrid but in Barcelona it is necessary you speak Catalan...The Catalan people are very proud of their culture/language so it's ideal you become familiar with these things. There are many things that differ between American/Spanish culture...so many in fact it might be difficult to answer this question in a single post but I think the most obvious would have to be the Spanish sense of life in general..things are taken much lighter in Spain than they are here, depending on the region but for the most part life in Spain is taken at ease, a big example of this is the "siesta" from about the hours of 2-5 depending on the city etc. everything shuts down and people go home for lunch with their families..they take naps etc. I could go on forever but in reality although there are so many differences between both countries , Spain's differences are positive above negative and I'm sure you wont regret taking that step if you ever decide to go for it. I hope this helps!

Answer 2

As Sue said, there is unemployment here and being a foreigner would be difficult for you. However, I doubt you'd get the necessary papers to even consider the venture. The cost of living in Spain is cheap but the wages reflect that. You would need a tidy sum to even get started. If I wanted to move from Spain to the USA to work I would be turned down. You will get the same response here.

As an American citizen you are required to pay your taxes in the USA. If you move to Spain to work you will be required to pay taxes in Spain, but the USA revenue will also expect you to pay in the USA unless they have dual taxation, which I'm not sure about.

Furthermore, the dollar is falling against the euro. You will need money to get started over here and we are talking probably over $100,000. With the weakness of the dollar you could lose 10% of that initial revenue over the next year.

I'm only scratching the surface with problems. I´m sure your husband´s brother can help you get through the minefield, but my best advice is to come over here for a holiday and find out what life is like. Many Brits come to Spain to work and to live. Many don´t like it after a couple of years. If you sell up and move out here and don´t like it, then it may be difficult to go back.

All I would say is to do as much research as possible. Contact the Spanish embassy and ask them for advice. That is the first place to go. If there is a chance to come here then that is your starting point.

Best wishes.

Answer 3

First thing that might alarm you is that jobs will be hard to find.  There is fairly high unemployment these days in Spain, and work visas are almost impossible to come by.

If you are independently wealthy (or have some source of income that will continue even though you're in another country, not dependent on them for work) that won't be a problem.

On the up side, I understand there has been a housing bubble burst recently, meaning that housing prices are coming crashing down, which might actually kick off a period of DEflation, which just means, darn!  I should have waited a year or two before taking my trip....oh, well, you gotta go when you can, right?

I'm sure nothing will really alarm you.  You will need to slide into their schedule, which is something like this:  Nothing seems to open, not even breakfast places, until after 8:00AM, shops and public places often close up at about 1 or 2 for siesta, and those that reopen, do so for something like 5 - 9:00.  Dinner is later, like 10 - 12:00, and people stay up partying until all hours of the night.

Other than that, the way your expenses spread out may be a bit different, but you should be able to ease right in to their culture.