New to Forum

Hi all

I've been reading threads on this forum now for quite a while and finally decided to join in.

My family, husband and 2 boys (12 and 14) and myself are planning to move to Torrevieja this year (all going well).  Hubbie works for the oil industry and is planning to commute from Alicante, 3 weeks home, 3 weeks away.  I myself am a student (mature!) at present, learning accounting as well as Spanish, and want to settle down my boys before thinking of looking for work in Spain.  We have been to the area a couple of times and know where we would like to move to, there is a school nearby and a bus route.  Hopefully if we sell our house here we will move in the summer but with the market as it is who can tell, although I don't think we have been hit as hard up here in the North of Scotland.  If anyone can give us any tips on moving out, especially for a rather disgruntled 12 year old who doesn't think he'll ever play football again if we move!!   We plan to rent somewhere initially to make sure where we rent is definitely where we want to be, we don't want too quiet a neighbourhood as the boys would need other children around for company and not just for the summer.

If anyone can give us any hints, tips or help in planning we would be most grateful, especially when it comes to NIE, residencia and Spanish tax system.  We have been kind of trying to plan this since last May so we have an idea of some things but we're always checking the forum for any new stuff or changes.

Thanks.

Hi Jewel - welcome to the forum.  I think you are right to rent first and probably your hardest task will be finding a place where your kids can settle into the local community.  I think most of the new urbanisations have very few teenagers living there all year round but if you went to Los Montesinos or San Miguel de Salinas, for example, you would be in a predominantly Spanish community and the kids would have a better chance of making friends.  You can reassure them that the Spanish are football crazy!

You will have seen lots of advice about NIEs and the Padron etc but you will find that Torrevieja does it one way and Orihuela Costa does it completely differently!  If you know where you will be renting initially then you can research the local practices.

It is very difficult to find work and if you have decent Spanish it will help, but this is a really difficult area for us newbies.  As your husband is working you will probably be in a better position than many - but be prepared for a long search.

Having said all that, I hope that your move goes well and that you grow to love this place as much as I do.  Once you accept that everything takes time and manana is being hopelessly optimistic, the lifestyle, food, people and of course weather are just great.  It was sunny enough this morning to go about in shirt sleeves in Torrevieja - I bet Scotland was just a wee bit colder than that!!

All the best.

Hi Jewel,

Im not in your area but I do know the spanish take their footy very seriously, its probably the no1 sport! There will be a local training pitch near to your sons school (as there was mine) and they train a couple of times a week with games to follow.

Good luck with the move

Welcome. Search the forum and you will find lots of very useful info from a  wonderful bunch of great, fun, positive people.

Maria

 Hi Jewel of Moray (what a great name)

You are probably in the best position available ie your husband working offshore,i have several friends here that due this and also one in Aberdeen at the moment doing his survival traing,he was upside down in a helicopter simulator today!!! hecalled me to say it was a wee bit cold!!!!

The point i am making is that you are paid by one economy and spend in another with a cheaper cost of living.

If you look around the vega baja area tere are plenty of family orientated urbs with free buses to the local schools,there are plenty of children around the same age as your sons and most of them play for one of the local teams in one sport or the other.

Rixxy is dead right,if it's possibl, the Spanish are moree fanatical about the beautiful game than the Brits,there are so many local kids teams he could have a choice,there is also the Charlton Athletic soccer acadamy and several others.

I know the children can be a little aprehensive of moving and leaving their friends,i find that a summer in the pool and plenty of new friends soon cures that.

Regarding NIE and residencia,this is so easy and takes about 2 hours of your time to do both,your sons will require NIE numbers for school.

If your husband is paid by a British company he will declare his tax in the UK,if you do start work here you will be have to appply for a social security number and go from there.

Good luck with everything,you will find plenty of help on here.

Thanks for the replies so far, they are very reassuring.

  I was wondering if anyone knew if myself and the children will be entitled to any kind of health cover with the way my husband will be working.  He does have private medical insurance through his company for both of us, would we have to take out some for the boys too?   

Also we are hoping to bring our extremely adorable, but daft as a brush, puppy who is 1 year old but is white, is it true she can get sunburn? or is that a wind up?  She doesn't travel well at all but we hope that we can cope when the time comes.

Hi Jewel,

I'm in a similar situation to you, hubbie works offshore on a four week rotation, we have a four year old son and we are moving to Javea in mid March. Hubbie will commute from either Alicante or Valencia. We live in Inverness at the moment, so not too far from you! We also started looking last year and worked our way along the coast, eventully deciding on Javea. We were over in November sorting out bank accounts, NIE etc and had no problems. We do have a really good solicitor, who we found through word of mouth, and he helped us a lot, some of it free of charge!  The paperwork I have completed here with regards to leaving the UK has been much more problematic than anything in Spain!

We are also renting for 11 months as its hard to know where to buy when you are only there for a couple of weeks on "holiday mode".  We are renting in an area which is close to the International School our son will go to, and he starts there in April doing a term in Foundation (Pre-school) before the summer. He's very excited, but at four they are happy to live anywhere! We're keeping our house in Inverness, and I think you are right that we haven't been as badly affected up here as the rest of the UK. Certainly houses in Inverness are still selling, just not for the thousands over the asking price they were not so long ago.

Let me know if I can help you with anything and I will private messge you, our tax situation is a little different as hubbie works for a Norwgian company in Indonesia and is already a UK non resident. I'll not be working in Spain as I will still be doing some accounting for the company I work for in Inverness. My only advise would be to do as much research as you can, speak to as many people,  but then make your own decisions on what feels right for you. We chose Javea because it felt right for us but i know it wouldn't suit everyone. There can be a lot of negativity at the moment about both Spain and the UK, but keep positive and I am sure it will all work out for you.  With only 7 weeks to go I do get the odd moment of panic, but more to do with deciding what stuff to take!  We are hiring a van and driving ourselves over as we are not taking any large furniture, but I have a good contact for a removal company in Aberdeen if you need.

Let us know how you get on

Wendy

Thanks BBBunny its nice to hear from people who are in a similar situation.

Its very true that you can hear so much good but also bad about moving to Spain and we have tried not to get disheartened some times but also keeping an open mind about the 'real life in Spain'.

We are also planning to drive with our belongings when we move and the removal firm you mentioned would be very handy indeed!!  We are hoping to go out in Easter with the boys to have a look at the school we have found and to have a better look around, this is when we hope to get our bank account and NIE's sorted out.

7 weeks to go for you, how exciting, wish it was us.  Please keep in touch as I would love to hear how you get on.

Lorraine

Hi guys,

NYK

Hello everybody

Thanks for the site

I like it.

Happy new Year 2009

Myself NYK from Canada

wonderful forum

Nice site, thanks

Welcome to this forum

Hello to all of you

Hi guys,

As a newly registered user I like to say hi to everyone who uses this forum. I am a newbie to this forum. Myself NYK from Canada,a newbie to this forum and wishing all of you a great new year.May the new year bring you joy happiness and health! and many discoveries both in and out of the lab!! Thanks

NYK

Used Cars

Wecome in!

Hope you can enjoy it !

Maria