Hi to all who are thinking of doing the move.
We had decided 18 months ago to move to Spain but I was concerned about the kids (ages 13 & 11) and how they would settle etc.
I had read nightmare stories about applying for NIE numbers etc and it almost put us off.
We eventually sold all our belongings but not a house as we rented in the UK.
We moved in Jan 08 to Nerja at first staying in a holiday rental for 4 weeks whilst we looked for long term rental.
We found a lovely house 5 mins from the beach took it on for the 11 month contract which was very easy to do through an agency.
We the got application forms for the NIE numbers for all 4 of us and went to Torre del Mar police station with passports, photocopies of rental contract an passport sized photos, we waited about half an hour and everything was checked through, we were then told to go back four weeks later to collect the numbers which we did. We had to pay nine euros each for them at the bank accross the road and then back to the police station to get stamped (all of which took about another half an hour).
I put my 11 year old straight into one of the best primary schools in Nerja without an NIE number as we didn’t have them at the time and 2 weeks later got my teenager into one of the High Schools again without the NIE’s. I had no problem at all with this and the schools even scouted for one of their English pupils who could speak Spanish to translate for me.
Both the kids had not learnt Spanish at all but are now having 5 or 6 lessons at school a week.
All their lessons apart from English are in Spanish but they have help from other pupils and teachers.
They have both made friends of English and Spanish kids and have both been to town with their new found friends.
All in all I think this is probably the best thing we have ever done, but it is hard for some kids especially if they don’t mix well, I am proud of what they have achieved so far and believe they will enjoy the life here.
If anyone wants any advice I will be happy to try and help.
Luego
