Hello all,

I?m a UK national living in New Zealand. My girlfriend has a New Zealand passport, and we would like to move to Spain. I have an online business that I can run from anywhere. My girlfriend is a qualified beauty therapist and at some point would like to set up a home based beauty business.

I?ve been in touch with the Spanish embassy here in Wellington and they say we have two options.

The first is for my girlfriend to apply for self-employment visa to work in Spain. Our contact said the application is processed by the department of labout in Spain and he had no idea what the criteria were. He has never processed such a visa application through the embassy, so he has no experience with it. Has anybody here had any experience with this?

The second is that if we were to register as a couple in a de facto relationship in another EU country, we could apply to live together in Spain. He said this is approved at a provincial level. However, I have no idea how to register as a de facto couple. I was wondering if it?s possible to do so in the UK. If anybody has any experience of this I?d be grateful for your feedback.

Of course, there?s a third option ? we get married. But I?d rather we did that in our own time rather than rush into it just to make the move to Spain easier.

Thanks,
Andrew