Moving advice - Page 3

Hi Kathy

The best advice I can provide is

1. Rent first

2. Visit at different times of the year: to experience an Andalucían winter/summer and what places are like in high/medium/low season 

3. Learn Spanish to as high a level as you can and use it every day.  Start now.  Find some Spanish born/speaking people where you already are and practise conversation with them. 

4. Socialise with people of all nationalities but ESPECIALLY the Spanish.  

5. Remember that living here is very different from an extended holiday visit.

6. Make friendships slowly and with due consideration - observe people's actions more than what they tell you. 

7.8.9.10. Speak Spanish.  

Good luck! 

Kathy, I think you are answering your own questions which suggests you have the intelligence to know the answers before you even ask. This is not a criticism, it is good. Devo, Susi and Tony Whitey and others make sense and are excellent with proven sound advice. 

I suggest you scour this forum for more advice from posters who experienced exactly what you have and headed for Spain. The name of one such poster eludes me (senior moment). She appeared on Holiday Homes in the Sun TV series, didn’t buy any property, lived for a year or two in Garrucha before returning to the UK and invested by buying two mobile homes which she rents to holidaymakers in the UK. 

If you do nothing else apply for an Irish passport immediately. Your sons and daughters might want to do the same, but let them paddle their own canoes. Don’t even think of selling your UK home for a few years, if ever. You can spend 3 months in Spain continuously with your British passport, but your Irish one will allow you 6 months continuous stay legally without problems.

The tougher questions regarding residencia,taxes, healthcare, etc can be ignored until whatever time you wish. You may find July and August to be too hot in Spain and humid and living in the UK more comfortable during the summer. 

You have to work at being happy. Take all the advice you can get here. Hone it to suit you. Spending a few months in sunnier climes is a good adventure. Do it right and you’ll regret nothing.

Forgot to say, Disastrous day at Kempton and Leopardstown yesterday. And At Downroyal and Limerick too. Still licking my wounds.

Just one correction - the maximum legal stay on an EU passport is three months.  The difference is that if you intend staying longer than three months you are obliged to seek residencia, but if you don’t it’s an administrative offence only that is rarely pursued.

There is a very very widespread misconception that people believe with an EU passport you can stay as long as you want. You can’t. It’s simply with an EU passport if you stay without taking residencia, the authorities USUALLY don’t make a fuss.  This should not be mistaken for meaning “it’s allowed” - if a zealous official takes it in to his/her head to apply the rules strictly, you can still be fined (bet you didn’t know that Matthew 😁)

To sum up briefly the differences:

UK passport. Can stay only 90 days as a tourist only, no right to reside, work or study.  If a UK passport holder wishes to stay longer, then must apply for a visa to migrate from within country of issue of passport.  A visa holder residing in Spain may then spend up to 10 months aggregate in a 5 year period outside Spain, no more than 6 months in any one year.  Once permanent residence is achieved, a UK passport holder may spend up to 5 years continuous outside Spain (special dispensation for UK passport holders gained by Cameron - for everyone else it’s two years).  Overstaying the 90 day limit without resident visa will garner the unlucky soul at least a fine and an “overstay” stamp in the passport and possible ban from returning to any Schengen country for up to 5 years.

EU (Irish) passport holder can reside, work and study immediately on arrival.  If an EU passport holder intends to stay longer than 90 days, then that person is by law obliged to seek residencia - this means simply applying to place yourself on the register of foreigners resident in Spain.  Once a resident you can spend up to 6 months each year outside of Spain without losing your residencia; after 5 years you automatically become a permanent resident and can spend up to two years continuous outside Spain without losing residence.  Failure to seek residencia is an administrative offence only, rarely pursued, but you can be fined up to 600€ if you are found to be residing here and have not sought residencia.

Snap , me too Mathew . Going to my little local track Monday at plumpton ( lovely name ) for the highlight of the season the SUSSEX NATIONAL . Kathy people say on here and any tv program you should speak Spanish . All the folk on these programs say I want to integrate into the Spanish lifestyle but I wonder how many really do. If you want the full Spanish experience don’t move to a tourist area move into the Real Spain . Most retirees just want  to enjoy a relaxed time in sunny climes and stroll along a beach and cafe / coffee on a sunny terrace . I must be a lazy sod because in the 40 plus years I’ve been visiting Spain I’ve only managed a spattering of the lingo and most of my friends and acquaintances are similar . I think it leads to a fuller experience if you can speak Spanish but it’s not essential to be word perfect . I’m fully expecting backlash for this post but really the bulk of coastal living expats don’t need or rather bother to speak Spanish apart from th odd attempt at ordering off the menu or shopping . I can’t comment on living in more rural areas so I can’t comment on how the need to speak Spanish is essential as opposed to enriching one’s life . 

Once again Dario with the facts , good man . So my 6 month stay oct2021 to March 2022 was illegal then . I did pop back couple of times for hospital appointments and birthdays . Perhaps you can explain this for me . My neighbour at home has bought a property in France ( Bergerac region ) just as covid started . His wife is German so no problem for her travelling but he is restricted to his 90 in 180 . Twice now he has gone to French embassy in London and paid £130 for a visa which allows him to spend more time at his property or so he says . Is there anything similar in Spain . And even tho she is German is it similar to my Irish passport then that she can only spend 90 days . Saying that I suppose with owning a property she has some form of residency?.

Thank you for all the information. I’m so happy I found this forum. 😊. It feels like my dream is becoming a reality; I am taking steps forward now, with all the help and advice I’m getting on here (not the racing tips thou 😂).  

Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge, saves me learning the hard way 😳. 

Happy New Year lucky peeps! 

Well Kathy . Paddy’s Motorbike didn’t fair well either . Read between the lines as with most posts they are only peoples opinions and we all have and are entitled to them . For straight facts Dario is the most reliable . Unfortunately you will ,as with all life have to find some things out the hard way but forewarned is forearmed so pick the bits and pieces out of these posts. I wish you luck and all the best with your adventure , Dev

Not really “illegal” - you say you went backwards and forwards a couple of times - so it wasn’t a six month unbroken stay; that’s the biggest difference - when a UK passport holder leaves, he/she has to do the count back 180 days rigmarole - you as an Irish passport holder don’t.  Come here, spend two and a half months, nip back to UK for a day, return the next day - all perfectly legal and lawful - you haven’t spent “more than three months” … at least that’s the way I believe it’ll be interpreted by authorities who by and large really have zero interest in pursuing that particular rule with an EU passport holder … you’ll always find that one exception somewhere though who just wants to be officious.

With regards your friend, no Spain has no such similar pay-for-extension option.  Not sure how he does that because the 90/180 is a Schengen ruling, not French but hey-ho!  Spains minister of tourism seemed to think there was no way Spain could unilaterally extend a tourist visa past the 90 day point without agreement from all Schengen members …. It MAY have something to do with having a German wife - he is then “family member or dependent of an EU citizen” and France May have some bureaucracy that allows that.

I don’t know what residence requirements are in France but if your friends wife came to Spain, yes, theoretically her German passport would have the same effect as an Irish passport in that she could reside, work and study immediately on arrival and if intending to stay longer than 90 days would be obliged to seek residencia 

Thank you Dario , I struggle getting to sleep at night worrying that I may have broken the law , being a good boy all my life , pheeewwww . Cheers 🥂