Living in Spain for 9 months

NeonCookies

Hi!

So, just found out that I'll most likely be moving to Spain, namely the Costa del Sol, in September for 9 months. I'll be moving for an unpaid internship, with the possibility of some private paid work arising from networking during the internship. I have a few questions and I'd appreciate any info you could give me!

1. Generally, what's the cost of living like in this area of Spain, compared to Ireland. I'll only have me to worry about, and I have no problem living cheaply e.g. cooking at home, walking places. I'm moving there for the great experience of the internship, not a holiday. I'll likely be fully living off savings, at least for a few months.

2. I'm an Irish citizen so shouldn't need a visa. I read about getting a NIE number for tax purposes. Do I still need this even though my internship is unpaid? [I know I'll need to if I start private work] Do I need to register as living in Spain too?

3. What sort of prices should I be looking at for accommodation and what sites should I use? - most searches are throwing up holiday apartments for weekly rental. Are house shares common?

4. For flights home - what's the best time to book tickets. My boyfriend's staying in Ireland, so it'd be back and forth pretty regularly for us.

5. Any other info from your personal experiences would be greatly appreciated! I've been to Spain twice on two week holidays, but that's the only experience I have with the country. I only found out about it this afternoon, so I'm excited and nervous altogether!

Thank you

Jim2007

I've no experience of living in Spain, but this EUsite should cover most things.

TO_ARTHUR!

NeonCookies wrote: »

1. Generally, what's the cost of living like in this area of Spain, compared to Ireland. I'll only have me to worry about, and I have no problem living cheaply e.g. cooking at home, walking places. I'm moving there for the great experience of the internship, not a holiday. I'll likely be fully living off savings, at least for a few months.

Firstly, Congratulations on being able to move to Spain, regardless of what you hear on the news, it's a great country:D

The cost of living is pretty cheap, compared to Ireland. I've been living in andalusia since August and found I've made great savings on food and other things since I moved here. Alcohol is supercheap here too. You can also get good tapas at a low price as well.

NeonCookies wrote: »

2. I'm an Irish citizen so shouldn't need a visa. I read about getting a NIE number for tax purposes. Do I still need this even though my internship is unpaid? [I know I'll need to if I start private work] Do I need to register as living in Spain too?

Correct, an EU citizen shouldn't need a visa to reside in another EU country but if you want to move to Spain for longer than 4 or 5 weeks (I'm not sure), then you need to get yourself an NIE (All it is, is a number for foreign people, living in Spain, so that they can open a bank account, use a hospital, or buy a mobile phone). I highly recommend getting this number and it can be obtained before you go to Spain by visiting the Spanish embassy. When you're there, you should apply too for a certificate of non-residency, it's also a good thing to have while living in Spain. Both documents should cost under 25 euro.

Another good thing to get, is the European Health Insurance Card, as this ensures that should you have to use a hospital or other health facility in Spain, then you wont have to pay for it. You can get the application form at your local clinic, in Ireland.

NeonCookies wrote: »

3. What sort of prices should I be looking at for accommodation and what sites should I use? - most searches are throwing up holiday apartments for weekly rental. Are house shares common?

Like Ireland, prices for accommodation in Spain vary, depending on what type of dwelling you wish to live in. Regular houses are rare and expensive in towns and cities and most of what you'll find will be flats/apartment type places. Where I live, you can get a good apartment for about 350 euro month before bills, which when added bring costs per month to about 500 euro. Some people do share houses to make the living and rent costs cheaper. There are plenty of sites for property but unfortunately, I can't recommend any of them because I met my landlord in a bar:pac:

NeonCookies wrote: »

4. For flights home - what's the best time to book tickets. My boyfriend's staying in Ireland, so it'd be back and forth pretty regularly for us.

My advice on booking flights is to buy them as early as possible, as the closer you get to the date that you wish to travel on, the more expensive they will be.

NeonCookies wrote: »

5. Any other info from your personal experiences would be greatly appreciated! I've been to Spain twice on two week holidays, but that's the only experience I have with the country. I only found out about it this afternoon, so I'm excited and nervous altogether!

Thank you

As I said at the start, Spain is a great country, in which to live. I've only been studying here for the past few months but I have found it be a fantastic place to live, especially near Costa del Sol. Aside from the months of January and February, the weather here in the south, is glorious. Sure, you get cloudy days, even rainy days here but they're far outnumbered by the sunny days of minimum 20 degrees.

Most towns and cities in the south are well kept and a lot of effort goes into them looking nice. There is plenty to see also, Granada has the Alhambra, which I recommend seeing, as well as it's old city. Cadiz, Huelva, Cordoba, Sevilla and Malaga are all worth seeing. If you're not into urban scenery, then there is the magnificent Sierra Nevada mountain range which can be skied on at times as well as providing several hiking/walking routes. In addition there are a lot of great beaches around here so whether you want to be active or just sip a drink by the beach, there's a lot in Andalusia for you.

As well as all this, the people are lovely and IMO so much more positive and upbeat than the Irish are, so before you get here, learn some Spanish, as it will really help you along in day to day life. Another reason to speak it, is that compared to other European countries, very few Spaniards speak English plus they appreciate it when you make the effort to speak their language.

You're going to love living in Spain when you get settled in. Come the end of your stay you wont want to leave. I hope this has been a help to you:)

mlumley

For rentals, try this site. http://www.kyero.com/

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you may well have issues registering as a resident and obtaining your NIE number (which BTW isn't just for tax purposes, it's required for residents and needed for almost everything). Spain recently changed their rules (about year ago) so that you if you want to live here for more than 90 days and you're not an Erasmus/exchange student, you need to obtain 'residencia' and to obtain residencia, you need to prove that you can support yourself. For this, you either need a paying job in Spain or elsewhere or enough money in your bank account to cover your entire stay. I hear the amount they're looking for is around 450 EUR/month but that's hearsay. When I first got here, I had a Spanish job paying 650/month and the residencia people were happy with that.

I have no idea what this 'certificate of non-residency' mentioned by TO_ARTHUR! is. I've never heard of any such thing. If you're here more than 90 days, you're a resident, whether you want to be or not! The European Health Insurance Card advice is inaccurate - you are only supposed to use this on holiday. You're not allowed to use it when resident in Spain. After 90 days, you need to become an official resident and use the Spanish healthcare system, for which you need the SIP card. You can't get the SIP card without residencia. You can, unless you're on a registered university exchange programme (as far as I know), either come to Spain as a tourist (less than 90 days) or a resident (more than 90 days) but there's no in-between. You can't just pick and choose what suits you. Not legally, anyway.

If you have a significant amount of money in the bank, you're grand. If not, you might well run into problems when trying to register. And bear in mind that most Spanish employers/people have no idea about the new regulations - they think you can walk into the extranjeria and register easily like you used to be able to do so they most likely will give you inaccurate advice. And obviously any money earned 'in the black' cannot be declared to the authorities as proof of income! So working illegally has become much more difficult than it used to be. Now, don't let all this put you off, but it needs to be taken into consideration! It all just makes your life more difficult than it really needs to be.

Cost of living - depends exactly where you'll be, but generally much lower than Ireland. Rent really depends on the town/city, area and type/size of flat. A room in a shared place shouldn't be more than 200 euro a month. Alcohol is much cheaper than in Ireland in both supermarkets and bars. Bills (electric, internet etc) are very expensive. I'm on the Costa Blanca which I think it cheaper than the Costa del Sol and can live a grand lifestyle on about 750 euro a month. 250 for rent and bills and the rest is more than enough for everything else I want to do. Obviously nothing extravagant, though, just going out to bars, having tapas, buying the odd flight home. I find the overall cost of living to be about half of what it was in Ireland. Because of the weather, you don't need to spend much money to have fun.

This is my 3rd time living in Spain, so as you can imagine, I love it here. If you can get past all the bureaucracy, it's a great place to live.

seachto7

Off topic, but as a native English speaker, is it hard to find professional work in Spain. Say, if you had some Spanish as well? Always fancied a move to the Basque country....

seachto7

seachto7 wrote: »

Off topic, but as a native English speaker, is it hard to find professional work in Spain. Say, if you had some Spanish as well? Always fancied a move to the Basque country....

All but impossible unless you're an English teacher. Loads of teaching work but very little/none of anything else.

NeonCookies

Thanks so much for the replies everyone.

I'm hopefully going to be in contact with someone who is doing the internship at the moment in the next few weeks, so I can ask them what they did about their residential status, any extra income etc. It sounds rather complicated (I thought being an EU citizen was supposed to make it easy!)

In terms of the 90 days, is it only 90 days straight? As I said my boyfriend will be staying in Ireland so I'll be back and forth a lot, probably every 2 months, so leaving the country and coming back in. I've no problem registering as a resident though if it's needed (don't want to get in trouble with the authorities at all!) The internship isn't paid, but I'll have enough savings to show them if they'll accept 650 per month. There's a possibility of extra paid work related to the internship, but it's not guaranteed at the start so couldn't show them that.

It's great that the cost of living is lower. Although having looked at rentals around the area I'll be in (Marbella) they seem more expensive than Costa Blanca. I'm guessing I'll need a NIE number for a rental contract too actually? What kind of deposits do landlords generally ask for?

Thanks again for the advice

NeonCookies

NeonCookies wrote: »

Thanks so much for the replies everyone.

I'm hopefully going to be in contact with someone who is doing the internship at the moment in the next few weeks, so I can ask them what they did about their residential status, any extra income etc. It sounds rather complicated (I thought being an EU citizen was supposed to make it easy!)

In terms of the 90 days, is it only 90 days straight? As I said my boyfriend will be staying in Ireland so I'll be back and forth a lot, probably every 2 months, so leaving the country and coming back in. I've no problem registering as a resident though if it's needed (don't want to get in trouble with the authorities at all!) The internship isn't paid, but I'll have enough savings to show them if they'll accept 650 per month. There's a possibility of extra paid work related to the internship, but it's not guaranteed at the start so couldn't show them that.

It's great that the cost of living is lower. Although having looked at rentals around the area I'll be in (Marbella) they seem more expensive than Costa Blanca. I'm guessing I'll need a NIE number for a rental contract too actually? What kind of deposits do landlords generally ask for?

Thanks again for the advice

It is supposed to be easy. Spain have overcomplicated things because they don't want people moving here. They really do make it all as difficult as possible, but you can still sort it out if you really want to live here.

Officially, I think it is 90 days straight, but bear in mind that 183 (I think) days spent in Spain in any one tax year (Spanish tax year is a natural year) makes you tax resident and that means that you officially need to declare all your worldwide income to the Spanish tax authorities. If you're arriving in September this year and leaving in June next year, you might avoid this situation, as I have. If you want to work and earn money legally in Spain, then you're obliged to register as a resident and get your NIE, regardless of how often you're in and out of the country or how long you spend here. I haven't spent more than 6 straight weeks here since I arrived, but I still had to register for work reasons.

If you have quite a bit in your savings, that should be OK. The stupid thing is there are no actual figures given, they just tell you that you need 'enough' to support yourself and not ask for government benefits. The word is that here on the Costa Blanca, that means a minimum of about 450 euros a month, but different regional authorities have different requirements and nobody seems to know what they're at. If you have 650 a month, I wouldn't worry about it. You'll probably need statements from your savings account or whatever and that should be fine.

Ahhh....Marbella is one of the more expensive places in Spain to live. It's more expensive there than here or the rest of the Costa del Sol. Just how much more, I wouldn't really be able to say. You can get a nice one-bed/studio here for 350 or a room in a flatshare for 150-200 but I'd imagine it's quite a bit more there. If you could live down the coast a bit, things would be much cheaper, but I have no idea what the transport is like there. I've only spent a week in Marbella itself (more familiar with other towns on the CDS) and it didn't seem extortionate for food/drink (although don't go near Puerto Banus - prices there for a sandwich are eye watering) but it's definitely not as cheap as elsewhere in Spain. Still cheaper than Ireland, though.

I think you officially need a NIE for a rental contract but I got mine with just a passport number. You shouldn't have too much hassle with this. There's generally a surplus of rental accommodation in Spain (again, not sure about Marbella specifically) and landlords are pretty desperate. You might well be able to haggle on the price a bit as well, depending on what supply and demand is like there. I got 100 off my rent and could probably have pushed for more. The deposit is usually a month's rent, perhaps 2 months if it's a fancy place. Try to use your deposit to pay your last month's rent, as Spanish landlords will try every trick in the book not to give your deposit back!

NeonCookies

Thanks again for the detailed info!

Yea, I won't be in the country for more than 90 days straight at any one time, but I think it'll be worth registering in case I do get some paid work out of the internship (would be nice not to drain all my savings while I'm over there!)

Yea, I've had a look at the rental agency site that was given earlier and Marbella and surrounding areas are expensive compared to other places. I'm looking at San Pedro de Alcantara as from looking at my information I'll actually be based nearer to there - any opinions of this town?

It sounds like you're enjoying Spain anyway Do you have any tips in terms of culture / things to try or do? Getting excited now!