106: Dreaming of Spain? Your step-by-step guide on moving to Spain from the U.S.

Have you been dreaming of tapas, sunshine, and afternoon siestas? You're not alone. Spain has become one of the most popular destinations for Americans moving abroad — and for good reason. 

In today's episode we're walking through your complete, step-by-step guide to moving to Spain — from choosing the right visa and finding the best city for you, to building community and settling into your new Spanish life. 

So if you've been thinking about moving to Spain for a while and want all the juicy details of how to make this a reality, then give the episode a listen! 

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Website: jordangiberson.com
Instagram: @jordan.giberson

Transcript

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It's not just a place to live, but it's a place you're going to call home in a completely different way of living that you might. Find that you love so much more than what you're currently doing, or something that's just a breath of fresh air for a year or two before you move back home to the US or whatever country you're from. Hey, my name is Jordan Giberson. I'm a Texas girl living and thriving in London. The best thing I've ever done? Moving abroad, hands down. And I'm passionate about helping others do the same. Are you curious about finding a job abroad? You're in the right place, friend. I'll teach you the tried and true secrets of how to make moving abroad a reality for you and how to live a fulfilling life once you get there. We'll cover topics like choosing the best visa for you, how to get a job offer in another country, how to get over your fear of moving abroad, and how to live a life you love once you get there, this is The Move Abroad Podcast. Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Move Abroad podcast. Have you been dreaming of tapas and sunshine and afternoon siestas? You're not alone. Spain has become one of the most popular destinations for Americans who are looking to move abroad and for a really good reason. So today, if you've been dreaming about moving to. Spain, we're talking about the step-by-step guide to moving to Spain from choosing the right visa for you, finding your perfect city in Spain, to building community and settling into your new Spanish life. So with that, we'll go ahead and get started with today's episode. So why are so many Americans moving to Spain? Well, I'm glad you asked. So the lifestyle is slower paced. There's great work-life balance, there's a great Mediterranean diet, so healthier food, and there's a very. Social culture in Spain, the people are very warm in Spain. It's also quite affordable. There's a lower cost of living compared to the US and a lot of Western European countries. So you can live comfortably in Madrid or Barcelona for 1500 to 2,500 a month, or Valencia and Malaga for 1200 to 2000 a month. So even lower and smaller cities for even less. So 900 to 1500 a month. That's including everything from rent, food, utilities, transportation. But of course, this is the minimum. So if you are looking to spend a bit more, you want more bedrooms in your apartment, you typically go out multiple times a week, then maybe you want to bump up your monthly budget. But just know that you can live a lot more, more comfortably in Spain for a lot less than you would in the US. For the climate, there are over 300 days of sunshine in southern Spain and Spain in general. It's just typically sunnier and warmer than a lot of other European countries that you might choose and maybe compared to where you're living in the US or elsewhere, abroad as well. It has excellent healthcare too, so if you want some affordable healthcare, but you know that you can trust it, but you also don't wanna break your bank or be worrying about healthcare costs, then. Spain has you covered. It's good for that too. And travel is great, so especially if you're in more Northern Spain, that you could travel easily across Europe by hopping on a train. Even from Southern Spain, you can travel quite easily. Really, like any flight that you hop on is like a two hour flight away or less everywhere across Europe, but trains are quite easy too, and that is my personal favorite are the trains. And then one really quick fun fact is that Spain is consistently ranked among the top 10 countries for expats in terms of happiness and quality of life. So if you're looking to have a happier life in Europe and a quality of life in Europe, then Spain might be a good pick for you. And that's why so many Americans are looking to live there on top of all the other things that we discussed. So that's just a quick overview of why Spain is so popular with Americans. But you might be thinking, Jordan, I already know that I want to move to Spain. Why are you telling me why it's so great? Because I already know I wanna be here then. Great. Let's talk about these step by steps of how to actually move there. First things first, you need to decide when you're looking to move abroad to Spain. So if you know the date that you're looking or the month, then you'll want to make sure you kind of backtrack to make sure that you can get everything done in time to be able to move in that time. So from the moment you decide to move to Spain to being fully settled, you're gonna look at about six to nine months minimum. So just make sure that you're giving yourself some breathing room to make sure that you can move whenever you want to. So, for example, you might want to consider. 2-3 months to make sure you're preparing your documents and getting the things that you need for your visa. You want to expect the Visa application process to take two to four months, just to make sure you have some buffer time to make sure it can get done whenever you're really looking for it to be finished. And then some set up as well for once you arrive, like setting up a bank account if you can do that, to setting up your healthcare registration. You'll want to set up some of those things just to make sure you're setting yourself up for success. So maybe you wanna find your apartment before you move there and make sure you know which, phone providers you're looking for. So just all those small details to make sure that you're finishing everything before you move abroad in, and so that it's not a stressful move. You'll also want to keep in mind that the bureaucracy moves really slowly in Spain, which you could say is part of its charm, but just make sure that you're planning ahead and being patient. Know that you'll get there. But just know that the visa process and the bureaucracy around that might take a little bit longer, so make sure that you're calculating that into your, timeline. And just as a reminder, you have to do all this whenever you're still in the United States, which I think is kind of a blessing because then you know everything's covered before you actually move and you're not moving and then being really stressed about your visa whenever you're there. So you'll want to apply in the United States whenever you're here, and then once you have all the Visa stuff covered, then you'll move abroad to Spain. So now that we have that in our calendar, we've worked out how many months we need for what. So remember, 6-9 months, before you plan on moving, then we are going to make sure that we have the right visa for us. So, which visa is going to be best for you? One option might be the non-lucrative visa. This is best for Americans that can support themselves without working in Spain. So if you're retired or if you have passive income from rental properties or from other investments, then this might be the good visa for you. So it's called the non lucrative visa. The requirements for this one is that you have to have proof of sufficient income. And this is based on the I-P-R-E-M, which is a Spanish public income indicator, basically. So it's currently requiring 400% of the annual I-P-R-E-M. I don't know if they call it I prem or just I-P-R-E-M. But for the main applicant, this is about 28,800 annually as of this recording right now. So this is for the main person that's applying plus an additional a hundred percent of this cost for each dependent. You'll also need to make sure that you're paying for private health insurance for the time that you're there for this visa. So make sure that you're buying your own private health insurance. It's really not that expensive in Europe. It's so much less than the US and what you would expect, it's gonna be like not insignificant, but it won't be like more than 200 euros probably per month per person. But that of course depends on your provider, so just do a little bit of research on which health insurance provider you'll want for the amount of time that you're going to be there. And you'll also just have to make sure you have a clean criminal background check, which feels like, you know, hopefully you're fine on that one. So as long as you have the sufficient income and you're not going to be working so you're tired or have passive income, then you're probably gonna be good on this visa. And this visa does not allow you to work, so make sure to keep that in mind, not even remotely. So if you're planning on working remotely in Spain, then you'll want to make sure to get the Digital Nomad visa to make sure that you're working Legally. This piece is popular because it's really simple, it's very straightforward, and it's perfect for people that are retired, have investment income, or have. Savings who just want to live a lifestyle of freedom and just enjoy Spain. Like I said, if you do plan to work, then the second visa, which is the digital nomad visa, might be the best option for you. This is a fairly new visa option for remote workers in Spain. So if you plan to work remotely, or be a freelancer working primarily for non-Spanish clients than the digital Nomad Visa. Will be perfect for you. And that's typically the distinction between a digital nomad visa and like more of a freelancer visa is that digital nomad visas are typically whenever you have clients outside of Spain or outside of the country that you're working in. So if that's you, then that's perfect. And the digital Nomad Visa is probably a great fit for you. This Visa requires you to have proof of remote work income for at least 3 months, so you just have to prove that you've been making income, which is a minimum income of 200% of Spain's monthly minimum interprofessional salary. The SMI plus an additional percentage for Dependents as well. So you'll just wanna make sure that you have the correct amount because the SMI changes yearly. So just check the most current requirements from the consulate. Just check online. It'll tell you pretty easily, but right now it's set at 200% of Spain's monthly minimum interprofessional salary. That's again, the SMI. So 200% of the SMI. You also wanna make sure you have a clean and criminal record, which is hopefully, again, you don't have to worry about that too much, but that's gonna be for many visas. Obviously, countries don't wanna let you in if they're, if you're a criminal, right? They don't wanna let in criminals. And then you also just have to make sure that most of your work, so 80% of your work is for clients outside of Spain. But freelancers you can earn up to 20% from Spanish clients. So if you do have an opportunity to work for some Spanish clients, then you can say yes, but you just have to make sure that it's under, 20%. So 80% has to be from clients outside of Spain. You can work legally while living in Spain as well, which is a great perk. Plus you can qualify for special tax treatment under the Beckham Law, which can. Create for some great savings. So that might be a couple things to look into if you're considering this visa as well. Our next Visa option, which is one of my favorites, and I think the easiest visa if you want to move abroad to Europe, is a student visa. So if you're looking to study in Spain or you want to take a long-term Spanish language course, then you might qualify for these student visa. Some perks of this is that it's a really easy path to be able to work abroad in Spain and really all across Europe, and you have the ability to have a part-time job up to 30 hours a week. While on a student visa, so maybe you really wanna learn Spanish and you can get the student visa by doing a long-term Spanish language course. And then you can work part-time on the side as well. So I think this is, again, a really great foot in the door, especially if you don't have very much work experience and you're a bit younger and wanting to move abroad. And then the fourth really great visa option is the golden visa. People have probably heard of the golden visa and the incredible opportunity that it is, but the golden visas are becoming a bit harder to get. So this is if you have quite a bit of cash to be spending. So the golden visa for real estate investment really ended in 2025. So Spain eliminated the 500,000 Euro property investment route, but you can still obtain your residency through business investments of one to 2 million or high impact business ventures that create jobs or drive really great innovation in Spain. So if you are testing out the waters, start with a 90 day. Shengcen tourist visa, that's any America. You can just come into Spain and then you can decide which visa fits the lifestyle that you're looking for, but maybe you already know which visa you want, and that's. Also great as well. So some of the best visas that we covered are the non lucrative visa. This is really if you have passive income, digital nomad visa. If you are a remote worker or freelancer, I think this one is chefs kiss. There's also the student visa if you are looking to study and maybe have a little bit of work on the site as well. And gold visa if you have a lot of cash to spend. So those are the best visa options and there are other Visa options, but those are the main ones that you might want to consider. There are other visas that you might want to consider. I mean there's an entrepreneur visa, there's also a working visa if you plan to work in Spain as well. So there are other visa options, but those are the easiest to get the ones that we talked about just now. The next step you'll want to do is to prepare your documents so this step happens before your visa application and might be overlooked. So you will need to gather into Apostle several documents, and Apostle is an official certification that makes your US documents valid in Spain, so you'll want to make sure that you do go through this process ahead of time. Some key documents that you will need is an FBI background checks, you'll have to get this apostle by a US Department of state, a birth certificate apostle by your state marriage certificate if you're married, which is also apostles. And you'll need bank statements and proof of income and then your health insurance policy to prove that you have this. So you apostles must come from the US Secretary of State, or your state's Secretary of State office. And then once you are in Spain, you'll need to get these documents translated by a sworn translator. So you'll wanna make sure that you start this whole process two to three months before your Visa application because it does take time. I almost didn't want to go over this step because I, I don't wanna scare people away or. Whenever you talk about traveling somewhere, you don't talk about like, okay, and then you have to get a taxi to the airport and then you have to go through security, and then you have to get on the plane and like this, and that's gonna happen. And then you, like, you just wanna talk about the vacation and you just wanna talk about like the thing at the end and not talk about all of the difficult details that come before that and the stressful part. But it's just something that you do have to get done whenever you are moving to Spain. So just remember that it will take a few months to get it done, but that way you're not stressing because. You're a person that's gonna plan ahead and you're gonna get these things done ahead of time so that it's not stressful and frustrating, but just make sure that you do have copies of everything. Make sure that you are just reminding yourself to stay patient. I think maybe it's helpful that you know this ahead of time so that whenever the Spanish bureaucracy, you figure out that they love paperwork. It takes a little bit of time and it's kind of back and forth and you're not as stressed or not as frustrated because you're kind of going into it, expecting it. But just know, Spanish bureaucracy, they do love paperwork and make sure that you have copies for your Visa and just copies of everything of your NIE, which will go over in a second. Your bank account, your rental contract, I mean, you kind of get the idea, but you'll just wanna make sure that you have copies of everything so that if you ever need them, it's easy to find. And if. Stressful. So what we're trying to do is just plan heads that we're not stressy. Okay? The next step is to apply for your NIE early. So your NIE is your, okay. I'm gonna try my best Número de Identidad de Extranjero. This is very bad. I know. It was so bad. It's so embarrassing. But you need your NIE. This is your foreign identification number, so you'll need this for absolutely everything in Spain. I think that it would be helpful if you can get it early. This is your unique foreign ID number that's yours for life. It is your, your, your number. So your NIE is your number. The TIE is the physical ID card that proves your legal residency status. So you'll ma want to. So you'll wanna make sure you get your NIE, your unique Foreign ID number and your TIE, the physical ID card that proves your legal residency status. You wanna make sure that you can get these as well. So you'll receive your NIE number during the Visa application process at the Spanish consulate in the US but you apply for and collect the physical card, the TIE card only once you are in Spain. So you'll collect this four to six weeks after your arrival. You do need this because you can't open a bank account without it. You can't sign a rental contract without it. You can't set up your utilities or get a phone plan or register in the town hall without your NIE number. So this is your golden ticket. You'll wanna make sure you get this once you arrive. So now let's talk about some of the fun stuff. We're not talking about visas anymore, which you do need. It's your golden ticket to be able to move abroad. And I do think that it's important to know the process so that you can be a little bit more prepared and make sure that you do qualify for the right visa. But the next step is making sure that you're choosing the right city or region for you. And maybe you already know exactly where you want to move to, but I do think that it's kind of helpful if you want a little bit of reassurance just to kind of go through the different cities, like the main ones that people move to, to get a better idea of where you should move abroad to where is a good fit for you. And what I would recommend is if you're still trying to decide on the right. City for you, or even if you feel like you know the right city, but it's been a long time since you've been there. Like if it's been several years, I would actually really recommend listening to one of my previous episodes. It's episode 104. Before you move abroad, take this one trip first. I do think that even if you went to Madrid five years ago, you fall in love with it. You think it's a good fit, like before you go through the whole process and start. You know, deciding to move abroad and you go there. I do think that it's helpful to do a trip to decide the neighborhood, just to double check that it is what you remember it being, to make sure that it's the best fit for you. Because you might go to Madrid again and you know, you went. Five years ago and you come back and you're like, this is not how I remember it, it's actually changed a little bit. Or maybe you've changed a little bit and your priorities have shifted a bit. So instead of Madrid being the best fit, maybe Seville is the best fit for you now. And you don't realize that until you do a trip there. So I think that before you move abroad, I think that it is really great. It's just gives you the confidence boost that you need to make sure that you're choosing the right city. And I think sometimes it kind of re-inspire us to really push for moving abroad and actually doing it. So. I would recommend going back and listening to episode 104 before you move abroad. Take this one trip first. That's the name of it., But maybe you already know exactly where, where you wanna go, and you're like, no, I already know. Or maybe you're really just trying to narrow it down still. You know it's Spain for you, but you're trying to decide which city or region is right for you. Then we're just gonna break down some of the main places and help you hopefully figure out which one might be the best fit for you. So one of the first ones and my. Personal favorite is Madrid. So Madrid is more cosmopolitan. It's gonna be a bit more diverse. Great for professionals in digital nomads. It has great transportation. It has a large international community. C check to Czech. The cost is gonna be like a moderate to high for Spain, especially in more of the central neighborhoods. So I do think that Madrid is. A great city. I remember visiting Madrid and I had low expectations going into it, but I visited and I was like, actually, I could see myself living here. I think that it's really cool here. So, some neighborhoods that might be good for you that you might want to consider are Chamberí so I'm gonna try my best. So the Chamberi, the Malasana, which is trendy and more like younger. And then the Salamanca area as well, which might be a little bit more upscale. So those might be some good neighborhoods to consider in Madrid. But I remember visiting Madrid and thinking, this is the bomb. I remember their. There were so many expats that were there, and it just had a really good feel to it. So I really enjoyed Madrid, but there are so many other great cities that might be a better fit for you. So another good choice might be Barcelona. I feel like Barcelona is such a popular city. So many people visit it and fall in love with it for its coastal location. It's very creative, very vibrant. It's perfect for those that want to be. Near a beach and also have the big city life and big city kind of in quotations. It's not like a huge, huge city, city, but it has a really good feel where it's not too small. There's also a large expat in English speaking community there, so I think that's always helpful, even if you're really wanting to learn Spanish. I think it's always great to have a strong expat community and a strong English speaking community. It's also a bilingual region, so there is Spanish and Kalon that's spoken in there. And some great neighborhoods that you might want to consider are Gracia Poblenou. I'm just gonna spell that out. P-O-B-L-E-N-O-U. And the last one is almost looks like example, but it's with an ei, so E-I-X-A-M-P-L-E. So those are some neighborhoods you might want to consider in Barcelona. Valencia is another really good fit and one that many people love. It's a lot more relaxed and affordable than Barcelona or Spain. It has amazing beaches and a growing expat community. Some great neighborhoods to consider would be Ruzafa, El Carmen, and Benimaclet. That's B-E-N-I-M-A-C-L-E-T, y'all. My Spanish is terrible and one of my goals this year is to learn Spanish or at least get a baseline understanding of Spanish. So as you can see, I need a lot of improvement. But anyways, those are some neighborhoods in Valencia that might be a good fit. And then some. Smaller towns as well, that are in the and DeLucia region are Seville, Malaga, and Granada. These are great for warm weather levers and slower living, so if you want really slow living, then this might be a good fit for you. It is a rich in culture and architecture. Malaga has a great thriving digital nomad scene, so if you're looking at that digital nomad visa, this might be a good fit for you. But there's also some other great cities that have, strong expat community. And like we said earlier, Spain has a lot of Americans, a lot of people have moved to Spain, and a lot of expats in general. So if you are looking for a place that's. Where you can experience the culture but still feel accepted, then Spain might be a really good fit for you. And I would strongly recommend, visiting 2-3 cities before choosing. Each one has a really unique feel and rhythm. And just remember, Spain is diverse and every city's gonna feel a little bit different. So consider doing a bit of a nomad month if you. Can do that in your life. It depends on your responsibilities and what you're able to do, but even if it was just a week or 10 days or two weeks to really dive into each city before committing to a long term decision, I think that that would be really helpful. So I do think going back and listening to that episode 104 would be good to see like what that might look like and like. In a practical sense of, how you could do that trip and make sure that it's really intentional. But those are some popular cities in Spain that you might want to choose. So that is really our next step and a super fun decision to make. And then once you know which city you're moving to, you need to decide on the actual place that you're looking to move to. So kind of choosing your neighborhood and what makes sense for you in terms of living. We did talk about each city and some neighborhoods that might be a good fit. But again, I think that's why it's so important to do a quick trip abroad to those places to make sure you're choosing the best city for you and making sure that you're choosing the best neighborhood because your neighborhood does greatly affect your experience living there. There's sometimes a different feel, a different vibe. You wanna make sure that that vibe fits you. You wanna make sure that you feel safe there. You wanna make sure that you can find housing that feels like home and that. A place that you feel safe in. This is your safe place whenever you move abroad. So you wanna make sure that you're choosing somewhere that you will be comfortable in. Some places that you can look for rentals would be Facebook expat groups for short term sublets, or if you're looking for a roommate setup, those would be a good option. There's so many Facebook groups, you can look up like. Moms in Spain or Spain, expats Americans in Spain, like there's gonna be so many different ones that you can join. So I would just do a quick post on there or just see what people have posted recently. You can also look on websites like Idealista that’ s I-D-E-A-L-I-S-T-A, Fotocasa, F-O-T-O-C-A-S-A, and Spotahome, which is S-P-O-T-A-H-O-M-E for rentals. So those are a few options, but honestly, if you do a quick Google just looking like apartments in Barcelona or things like that, there will be just Google searches that come up and you can kind of go down website by website to find different websites in find what might be the best fit for you. Some renting tips is that you'll need a Spanish bank account and an NIE, which is your foreign ID that we talked about before, For renting, you will want to expect one to two months rent as a deposit, which I feel like is pretty standard. You'll also expect for a rental contract that will be one year and can be renewable afterwards, which is also pretty standard for pet owners, you'll want to make sure you find pet friendly housing. It might be harder to find in Spain, but I'd just say to start your search early and be upfront about your pets with the potential landlords. As a pro tip, you might want to start with a short term Airbnb or furnished apartment for the first one to two months, and then find longer term rentals once you're on the ground. There. This gives you time to get your NIE number, open a bank account and explore neighborhoods in person because you have a bit of a catch 22 because you need a Spanish bank account and NIE, which is difficult because you need an address to get these. Things. So it might be best just to get an Airbnb first or furnish apartment for the first one to two months, and then make sure that you're setting up everything else that you need from there, like getting your bank account and your NIE number. So I think that it might be helpful to get a short-term Airbnb just to avoid some of the headaches around housing. And then once you have your rental contract, you'll use it for your local registration, which is the, I'm gonna, this is, so all these Spanish words, I'm like, oh, so bad. The empadronamiento Which is your local registration, which we're gonna cover next. So the next step that you'll need to do once you find a place to live is registering locally, which is again, the Empadronamiento. So once you'll find housing, you'll need to register with your local town hall and it's legally required within 30 days of arriving. So would be helpful if you put these things in your calendar and make sure that you do each thing whenever you need to. So, your NIE number and your card, like, remember that was in the first few weeks. You'll also, in your first few weeks, wanna make sure that you get your local registration done. So this matters because. You basically get this certificate to access your public healthcare, to be able to renew your residency card, to enroll your kids in school to open certain bank accounts you might need this for. So it just is helpful to have a checklist whenever you move there and make sure that you're getting all this. Done. But for this process, you'll just need to bring your rental contract, bring your passport, bring your NIE to your local padron office, which is usually the town hall. And this certificate is usually issued the same day, so it should be pretty quick. The next step after that is opening a Spanish bank account. So this is one of the trickiest parts about moving to Spain because it's a bit of a bureaucratic circle. So the catch 22 is that you need a bank account for rent, but banks require your NIE and proof of address. So how to navigate this little catch 22 situation. Some banks will open accounts with only your passport and Visa approval, so a couple options are BBVA and Santander. You might also consider N 26 or WISE as a temporary solution. These digital banks let you get. A European IBN number quickly. So for this, you might want to bring extra documents, your Visa approval, proof of income, a letter from your US Bank, et cetera. So the more you have, the better. But honestly, I would just try to set up the bank and then see if you run into any problems I would recommend Wise or Revolut. I think that digital banks have less red tape in order for you to get the bank account, so I think those might be a good tip. And I'd also recommend keeping your US Bank account open during the transition, and I would just keep it open to always, I think it's always great to have a little bit of cash in the us. And in your new country and just to keep the bank accounts open so that you just have options for, for different things. Like for example, I still use Venmo a lot whenever I'm in the US and I have to have a US Bank account in order to do that. So I end up sending my money between my UK bank account and my US Bank account through wise. So I use the app wise all the time, like literally every week actually I use wise. So, I highly recommend that one. The next step is setting up healthcare. So depending on your visa, you might need to pay for healthcare. But rest assured that Spain's healthcare system is great. So both public and private options are very affordable and very high quality as well. And then once you're a legal resident, you can access Spain's public health care system. So you'll want to make sure you get your empadronamiento, which we've talked about earlier in the episode, and then Apply for your healthcare card at your local health center with your residency card and your empadronamiento. So the timeline is that it could take 2-3 months to set up your card to like receive that. So you might consider getting travel insurance for your first few months while your public healthcare is being set up. So it just covers you during this waiting period to give you a bit of peace of mind. And then you might also consider doing an additional private insurance. A lot of expats. Choose private insurance, especially during the transition because it just allows you to have faster appointments. You might be able to access English speaking doctors. It is required for non lucrative visa holders. And then the cost is like 50 to 150 euros a month depending on how old you are and the coverage that you're looking for. So, like I said in the beginning of the episode, it's not that much, but expect 50 euros a month to 150 a month if you decide to do that. The next step is understanding your taxes. Super exciting, but this is not super exciting, but it is crucial and sometimes overlooked. So the 180 day rule is that if you spend more than 183 days in a year in Spain, then you became a. Spanish tax resident. So that means that Spain will tax your worldwide income. But the US and Spain Tax Treaty helps prevent double taxation. So don't worry too much about being double taxed because most of the time you're covered. So for Americans, you still need to file US taxes every year, which is very annoying, but not that big of a deal. So you can file your F bar, which is reporting for foreign bank and financial accounts. If you ever have more than 10,000 year foreign bank account, you'll also be reporting your foreign accounts under facta. So the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. And you might also want to look into filing the Modelo 720 So if you are a Spanish tax resident, so maybe in your first year you won't be considered a tax resident in Spain, but your second year you would. So if you are a Spanish tax resident and you hold different assets like bank accounts or real estate or investments outside of Spain worth more than 50,000, you have to file that declaration. So penalties for not being compliant. Would be bad, obviously. So we wanna make sure that we take care of those things. There are special tax benefits like the digital nomad visa. Those holders of that visa might qualify for the Beckham law. So we talked about that earlier in the episode. That's spelled B-E-C-K-H-A-M, which only taxes Spanish sourced income for the first few years. So that might be something that you look into. It might be worth either hiring a cross-border tax advisor who understands both US and Spanish tax law. So you might try to DIY, your own taxes. IDIY, my own taxes. There's a lot of online resources, like if you just. Try filing your taxes on a normal tax system. A lot of times they'll kind of help you along and help you along the different steps you need to take. But you might also want to hire a professional, especially if you have a more complicated tax situation. My situation's pretty straightforward, but if you have more of a complex situation, that might be helpful. There was also an episode that we did with, with somebody to learn about taxes specifically. I would highly recommend listening to episode 91, which is called US Expat Taxes, what Every American Moving Abroad should know. So that's episode 91. If you want to learn more about taxes in Europe and like different ways you can avoid paying the most taxes legally, like different like foreign tax credits and all these things that you can do to not pay double taxes in the us. Because you still have to file taxes as an American living abroad, I would highly recommend listening to that episode. So it's episode 91. Okay, enough about taxes. The next step, which is more exciting than taxes, is building community. So you will want to make sure you build community. I would recommend doing it sooner rather than later whenever you move abroad, because it will help you feel a lot more settled and a lot more a apart of the community. And just honestly feel happier once you're there. So some recommendations that I have for you would be meetup.com. I went on meetup.com. All the time last year I was looking to meet new friends. I was looking to meet people who had their own business. So I would go to networking events at least once a month. So I'd go to like female only events. There's like expat, you know, events that are happening. There's so many meetup events that are happening. So if you just go to meetup.com, you can see all the events that are happening near you. Another great place is Facebook expat groups. So there will be like Americans in Spain or expats in Madrid, et cetera. There are so many. If you just start kind of like typing in like Spain or Americans in Spain or things like that, other Facebook groups will pop up and you can kind of join those and see, you know, who's around Spain and be able to meet up with people that way. I've known a lot of people that have met people from that actually. You might also consider doing language classes, so I think this is great for learning the local language and meeting other people that are also learning the language, because they probably also just moved abroad as well, and are in a similar boat to you. There might be other options like coworking spaces, especially if you're being a digital nomad in Spain, joining a gym and going to the same gym class every week and meeting people through your local church. Or through volunteer groups or through like any sports activity that you do, or maybe you do a six week course to learn about rowing. That's what I did, and I met people from rowing. So there's so many different ways that you can meet people, and I think that you just have to remind yourself to say yes to invitations, even if you're nervous, even if you know you'll be tired. You just have to say yes because you want to create a consistency in meeting up with people and seeing people regularly. So if there's something that you can schedule, like an intramural group for a sport or something like that, or anything that's regular where you're going to be saying the same people every week, I think that's a great way to build friendships. And you do have to just say yes. And sometimes people won't extend the invite to you because you're new and they kind of have their friends and what they're used to. I make plans. Find a few people and invite them over to dinner or, make plans of some sort. Like maybe you've been wanting to go to a museum exhibition for a long time and you decide that you're gonna go anyways, whether someone comes or not, but invite a few friends and see if you can invite people along and see if anybody joins. It's just like finding ways to put yourself out there. The first few months are just about planting seeds and over time, as long as you're pursuing friendships, it will happen over time. But I would recommend building community. It's one of the most important things that you can, it's one of the most important things that you can do early on to really feel settled and like this place is a new home for you. I'd also note that even basic Spanish will massively improve your experience and help you connect with locals. So I think it's important to have expat friends, so. People that are from other countries where they're living in the country that's not their own. So you would be an American expat living in Spain. So you'll want to meet other expats because they kind of understand what you're going through. And they'll also, they also might speak English or English would be the common language. And I think it's also important to have local friends. So for that, I think that it would be helpful just to know a little bit of Spanish, but depending on where you're going, a lot of people in Spain do speak English too, so. You'll probably be able to get by at least for a little bit, but definitely you wanna work on learning the local language to feel like you're fully assimilating into daily life. Which brings us to our next section, which is navigating daily life. So here we're talking about things like transportation, your phone plan, utilities, schools, if you have kids.. for transportation, Spain has fantastic public transportation. They have high speed trains and reliable metro and buses. So a lot of city centers are very walkable, which is great. But you do have public transportation to get around. I am a. Big fan of public transportation. I think it's so great. I think it's so efficient. I love that it makes cities very walkable. Like I walk to the station or to the bus stop and then I get on the bus and then I can just relax. Like I don't have to be focused. I can read my book or honestly, I take a nap. I love taking a nap on trains. And then you can walk on the other side as well, like once you get off, you have like a little bit of a stroll through the city center. So I think it's just a really nice experience where it feels like. Like you're kind of in the city and it's just like, I like that cities are walkable in Europe. You'll also need to look into getting a phone plan. So you might come into Spain and use your US phone number and just pay, like if you were traveling there for a little bit, you might pay like$10 a day if you're with atnt or whatever. But eventually you're going to want to find a Spanish phone number for everything like banks and appointments and, being able to pay a lot less. It'll be a lot less. To use a local, carrier. So some examples would be Vodafone Orange or Mova Star, but there are so many different options. It's just they're all gonna be kind of samey, just like they're in the us. Utilities. So you wanna budget like a hundred to hundred 50 euros a month for electricity, water, gas, and internet. It might be a little bit more if you have a bigger house for electricity and water and more people living there. But just kind of to give you an idea of how much the utilities cost. And then schools. If you do have kids or if you plan to have kids, there are public schools that are free. They're of high quality, and there are so many different options for schools. I did an episode recently about just different schooling systems as well. So if you wanna deeper dive into European schools, you can go back and listen to episode 102, which is why European schools might be better than American ones. So if you wanna deep dive into schools and the different options, like public schools or private schools, or international schools and the pros and cons of each, then that would be a good episode for you to listen to. And then the next step is just getting used to your new life. So integrating into Spanish life, you'll want to learn the local language, start early. You'll want to learn the language, as I said before, because it helps you just feel like you're more a part of the community. So I would highly recommend taking a language course, and I honestly think it'd be great to do it in person because then you can meet other people who have probably just moved there. But there are probably online options as well. And you might start adopting the local habits, like eating later lunches around two to three. Dinner might be from like nine to 10:00 PM you might want to embrace this siesta lifestyle. So a lot of shops close mid-afternoon for a while while they're taking a siesta. So they might be close from like one to 5:00 PM You might also. Adopt the social culture. So a lot of Spaniards prioritize time with family and friends, which I think is a beautiful part of their culture. Also, just in terms of some cultural integration tips, you might want to shop at local markets. You might wanna say Bueno Diaz when entering shops and join Neighborhood Fiesta, or different things that are happening in the community, which I think would be a great thing to do to just see what the culture looks like and to. Dive into it really and learn more about it. And then a pro tip is that if you're used to American efficiency, Spain will teach you patience. The bureaucracy is a little bit slow at times, but the people are so warm and the quality of life is exceptional. Like we said, a lot of Americans move to Spain because of the quality of life. So just embrace the adjustment and think of it as an adventure. And let's say that you're living in Spain and you're like, this is my best life. I love it so much. I've had the best time. A lot of residency permits might be valid for just one year and then renewable for two year periods after that. So if you do love your life there and you're like, I wanna stay here longer, then you can apply for renewal, 60 to 90 days before your expiration. So you'll just need to prove that you still. Meet the financial requirements and that you maintain your health insurance if you need it, and just show continued ties to Spain. And then if you decide that you really, really love it and you end up living there for several years, then after five years you might want to apply for permanent residency. And then after 10 years you might want to apply for Spanish citizenship. So there are some exceptions to that. One, it's a little bit more difficult to get, and I think that's a long-term thing. I mean, that's. Many years down the road, I would say just get there, see if you really enjoy it, and then you could see what that really looks like to get your citizenship if you are interested in doing that. Now we are wrapping up this episode. This has been a little bit of a long episode, Before we do that, I think that it would be common to quickly go over some common pitfalls to make sure that you avoid whenever you're moving to Spain. So one of the common pitfalls is to not get your NIE early enough. So try to get that as soon as possible to avoid headaches. Also, a lot of people might underestimate the bureau. Also a lot of people might underestimate how bureaucratic that it might be and how it might extend your timeline to your visa, so start early. Some people might also not realize that they need to apostle the documents in advance, so you have to do this in the us. Just make sure that you get it done earlier rather than later so that you're not stressed. Whenever you're filling out your Visa application and feeling frustrated. You might also assume that English will work everywhere and while a lot of people do speak English. Spanish is their local language, so try to learn the Spanish language earlier rather than later. You might also want to make sure that you do open a bank account early on, because that might be a bit of a headache as well. So as soon as you get your NIE and you can apply for the bank account, then try to do that. And I would recommend doing a digital bank account like wise, for example, because you can get it a lot faster probably than a traditional bank account. But if you really want a traditional bank account, you could always get a temporary digital bank account and then get more of a traditional one later on. Some people might also not budget for the setup costs, so just plan on saving up three to 5,000 euros or maybe more if you want to, just to make sure you're setting up your expenses, like your deposits for your rent and insurance, and anything that you really need to in the Visa process. Just make sure that you have a bit set aside for your moving abroad expenses so that you're not feeling really stressed about money. Another thing is just forgetting about pets. So if you have pets that you do want to move abroad, they will need an EU PET passport. They might need to get microchipped and get rabies vaccination, and they might also need to get a rabies vaccination well in advance. So make sure to look at the steps that you need to take in order to make sure you can move abroad with your pet. And one pro tip is to join expat Facebook groups before you move people, share advice all the time and warnings about what's currently working or not working in the visa process and just about different things about Spanish life and, and what's happening. So I would be helpful to join and if you do have any questions, there's so many people that want to be helpful on Facebook groups, so you can always type in a message and then someone will probably get back to you quickly, or they might even message you directly to help you out, which is great. So Spain is not perfect, just like any other place is not perfect, but it offers something that a lot of us crave, which is balance. It will teach you to slow down to savor meals and to prioritize relationships over productivity, which is I think a sickness in the us. It's not just a place to live, but it's a place you're going to call home in a completely different way of living that you might. Find that you love so much more than what you're currently doing, or something that's just a breath of fresh air for a year or two before you move back home to the US or whatever country you're from. So if you have wanted to move to Spain, I hope that this episode was helpful for you and gave you some encouragement and a lot of practical steps to be able to make that happen. So I hope that you found this episode helpful. Thank you so much for listening to another episode of the Move Abroad podcast. And if you've been listening to this podcast, and you know of a friend that has been talking about moving to Spain before, why don't you just send'em a link to this episode? Because I would love it if more Americans and more people in general moved abroad to Europe. I think it's an incredible place and it's been an amazing fit for me and something I've been so glad that I took the leap and did it. It's been so much better than I than I ever imagined it to be. And I hope that you have the same experience. I hope that this episode was helpful in kind of figuring out the step by step. And if you know of a friend that you want to send it to, then that would be awesome as well. But other than that, that is it for me for today's episode. Thank you so much for listening to another episode of the Move Abroad podcast. I will catch you here again next week, same time, same place. I'll catch you then.