We would like to emigrate to Spain

[tranced]

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice on emigrating to Spain.

We are planning to move at the end of 2009, me, my wife, 2 year old daughter and baby daughter. We have been in talks with the emigration for a year now doing lots of research and plenty of reading! Including learning the language! I am starting a home study GCSE course next week so we are being very patient and careful with our planning.

We plan to sell our house and rent somewhere. We will have enough money to see us right for a year if the worst case scenario happens, that I can't find work. We currently have our own ironing business here in Bridlington UK. We hope to set up with an ironing service in Spain or find a suitable job.

My questions would be to you are firstly do you think this would work?

Am I likely to find work? I am 35 and male. Also are we likely to find long term rental accommodation? And where would you recommend to fulfill our plan?

And what about schools for when my daughters start? Is it easy to get into a Spanish and English teaching school? Where do the English expats take their children to school?

I am most grateful for your advice as I realise you can never get enough advice!! Also I know that you can't always believe what you read in books. I always take the reading seriously but I think it's obviously best to ask those, yourselves, that have actually done the move!

We are happy to take the risk of things not working out as we will get a good year in Spain whatever happens at least.

We love Spain and would love to make it our home.

I will have a good daily look on this excellent website and trail through the Forums to see what everybody is up to in Spain!

Many thanks

Carl

[chris(madrid)]

Right now - I'd be CAREFUL. Unemployment has risen by 250,000 the first 3 months this year - 60% being related to construction. I'd keep an eye on that bit if I were you. The General feeling from folk I know in many different sectors is there are still a few LEAN YEARS to come.

There are alot of drycleaning/ironing franchises out there. Most are cheapish so I doubt teh income is HUGE. But ALOT of Spaniards (expats I dont know) would rather hire (for a pittance) a bit of help to clean/iron etc. If you're prepared to do cleaning etc - you can actually make a fair amount of cash at a guess.

But the folk now unemployed due to the building crisis are likely to soak up a fair bit of that!

[Stravinsky]

Originally Posted by tranced

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice on emigrating to Spain.

We are planning to move at the end of 2009, me, my wife, 2 year old daughter and baby daughter. We have been in talks with the emigration for a year now doing lots of research and plenty of reading! Including learning the language! I am starting a home study GCSE course next week so we are being very patient and careful with our planning.

We plan to sell our house and rent somewhere. We will have enough money to see us right for a year if the worst case scenario happens, that I can't find work. We currently have our own ironing business here in Bridlington UK. We hope to set up with an ironing service in Spain or find a suitable job.

My questions would be to you are firstly do you think this would work?

Am I likely to find work? I am 35 and male. Also are we likely to find long term rental accommodation? And where would you recommend to fulfill our plan?

And what about schools for when my daughters start? Is it easy to get into a Spanish and English teaching school? Where do the English expats take their children to school?

I am most grateful for your advice as I realise you can never get enough advice!! Also I know that you can't always believe what you read in books. I always take the reading seriously but I think it's obviously best to ask those, yourselves, that have actually done the move!

We are happy to take the risk of things not working out as we will get a good year in Spain whatever happens at least.

We love Spain and would love to make it our home.

I will have a good daily look on this excellent website and trail through the Forums to see what everybody is up to in Spain!

Many thanks

Carl

So many questions in one go

I have seen ironing businesses in Spain, but frankly think it would take a long time to get going, and you would need a significant ex pat population area
Bear in mind as self employed you would have a €235 a month "NI" payment to make whether you earn anything or not.

British ex pats send their kids to state or provate. Private is going to cost you €2 - 3k a term. At a state school, if your kids are of the right age they will become bi lingual quickly ... about 5-6 yrs old

Long term rentl property is easily available. The rate depends on where you choose and what you want

Its certainly a good idea to have money behond you. When working here the hours can be long, and the average wage is around €13k. Its not always particularly wasy to get full time work I'm afraid.

[CostaBlanca]

Hi Carl

Being able to survive a year without work sounds great - and very sensible - most people have very limited reserves and soon find they have to go back.

I think you must go to an area where there are lots of expats - then if you survive you can consider more Spanish areas in the future.

Expats = jobs i.e. gardening, villa cleaning - remmeber it's about surviving in Spain firstly - and that is NOT easy believe me!

Best of luck.

Mark

[lizzyjones]

Hi, I have lived in spain for many years both islands and mainland and my advice would be to learn some Spanish, enough to make conversation that will suffice in banks, post offices, etc. If you can conquer the verbs, the rest is easy. Don't be afraid to try and speak spanish even if you get it wrong, they do appreciate the effort made. I was a teacher in spain in an International School although it was fee paying and quite honestly I would suggest your children attend a Spanish school. Spanish schools are very good and you will find other british children there and they will pick up the language in three months. Not sure where you intend living in Spain but you could offer an ironing business I'm sure, especially if you are in an area where there are other expats living and in business. I have a friend who does this and he calls himself the Iron Robot - he does pretty well I think. He picks up the ironing, does it and delivers it back, residential and commercial, viz., restaurants, etc. Good luck, Libby

[mcginlay]

Just to echo the above posts. Having the money behind you for the first year is essential. I would also not be too focused on just one business. The emphasis is going to be on you providing a good income to support your family. You may find that something comes along that fits the bill much better. I presume you are moving to the south of spain as it is probably the only part of Spain with the expat numbers you would need for your ironing business to work. The only other option would be one of the large cities such as Madrid although the language here will prove to be a barrier and I would think that you would settle much quicker in the south.

A spanish state school is probably your best bet as the private British schools will cost a fair penny during your first year. Planning is essential and the fact that you have begun the planning process so early is great.

I am guessing that the funds for the first year are going to come from the sale of your home. Has this sold? What happens if it hasn't sold by the end of the year? This is one of the most important factors in any move. Not just so that you have the cash to go to Spain but also if things don't work out you are coming back to the UK with no business and no house.

Having said all that, we are in the same position and move to Spain next month and although it has had its problems I am still convinced it is the best decision we have made. We are renting our house out here and I have a contracted job in Spain so I suppose I feel a little more secure. I admire anyone making the move, especially with children, and wish you all the very best for your new life.

One final point - when you get there it is very easy to treat the first few months like a holiday especially if you have some money behind you. If you are looking to make this a permanent move, make sure that you begin the process of finding work/setting up business straight away and don't let time pass by otherwise you will 6 months down the road, the money will start to go and you will still have lots of work to get to the point where you feel secure enough to stay.

Good luck!!

[SteveHall]

All very good points, mcginlay. Thanks for sharing and, most importantly, good luck with your move.

[big bill]

Originally Posted by tranced

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice on emigrating to Spain.

We are planning to move at the end of 2009, me, my wife, 2 year old daughter and baby daughter. We have been in talks with the emigration for a year now doing lots of research and plenty of reading! Including learning the language! I am starting a home study GCSE course next week so we are being very patient and careful with our planning.

We plan to sell our house and rent somewhere. We will have enough money to see us right for a year if the worst case scenario happens, that I can't find work. We currently have our own ironing business here in Bridlington UK. We hope to set up with an ironing service in Spain or find a suitable job.

My questions would be to you are firstly do you think this would work?

Am I likely to find work? I am 35 and male. Also are we likely to find long term rental accommodation? And where would you recommend to fulfill our plan?

And what about schools for when my daughters start? Is it easy to get into a Spanish and English teaching school? Where do the English expats take their children to school?

I am most grateful for your advice as I realise you can never get enough advice!! Also I know that you can't always believe what you read in books. I always take the reading seriously but I think it's obviously best to ask those, yourselves, that have actually done the move!

We are happy to take the risk of things not working out as we will get a good year in Spain whatever happens at least.

We love Spain and would love to make it our home.

I will have a good daily look on this excellent website and trail through the Forums to see what everybody is up to in Spain!

Many thanks

Carl

HI Carl
me and my family are moving to costa del sol in two weeks to start a new life we have already found a long term rental just what we were looking for 4 bed town house and we are paying 800 euro per month exc elec and water so finding somewere to live is not a problem but do look around for the best price it is still a renters market
as for your buisness idea i dont know if you work hard at it maybe if it works in the uk then it might work in spain lets hope so
all you can do is give it ago come over and try it out if it all goes t.ts up then you come home dont burn all your bridges in the uk you never know when you will need to cross them again

best of luck carl

big bill

[Suenneil]

Hiya....you have already had quite a lot of comment and "advice" so I dont want to overload you with more!!

BUT - with the current unemployment stats, and in my own experience a lot of expats needing to work have also lost their jobs recently - with little prospects of finding alternatives anytime soon .... one of the first "cut backs" people make is usually what they consider to be luxuries ..and a lot of our friends have done away with the cleaner / ironing service / gardener etc (only employment wise obviously not as in "done away" with the actual gardener!!!) for the time being .....

Unfortunately when times are tough its the non essentials that we tend to get rid of first ...... I think it was already a tough market to crack anyway as the Spanish / Fillipinos / Romanians etc etc seemed to be offering a lower hourly rate for these services than the English ex pats were - I remember noting the differences when we were looking to employ someone ourselves.

Sorry to sound so negative - its not intentional, just my own experience.