Dear Expat Experts 😊
I?m awaiting, with fingers crossed, a non-lucrative residence visa now. I hope to make this move to Spain permanent, and I thought I?d laid out a good plan. My good plan is turning out to be not so well laid: I?d thought that I could work remotely as a freelancer, maintaining my tax home in the USA, without violating the no-work-in-Spain terms of the non-lucrative visa. Now I?m understanding that by sitting at my computer on Spanish soil, I?m working ?in? Spain, regardless of where my clients and my primary bank account is. (Yes, that was a big oversight: I?m learning as I go along, and I guess it?s obvious.)
So my ?plan? looks like it?s going to fall apart. But! I want to make this move to Spain for the long haul. I bought a home in Spain last year, I feel good here, etc., etc., and I want to ?make it happen.? Can you help me figure out the ?how?? I think I have two main options now:
1. Live very frugally, keep enough money in savings, somehow or other, to keep meeting the financial means minimum of the non-lucrative visa/residence, and keep renewing that way until I get to the five-year mark. (Yes, I think this would mean continuing freelancing but being very ?quiet? about it. That?s not the way I want to do things, if I can avoid it. But I won?t close the door on it, I guess.)
2. (This seems like the better option.) See if I can convert my non-lucrative residence status to another residence status in the renewal process. I understand that I?ll have to renew my residency permit (TIE) according to this schedule:
Year 0 ? enter with the non-lucrative visa
After Year 1 ? renew TIE for 2 years more
After Year 3 ? renew TIE for 2 years more
After Year 5 (now this renewal would be for permanent residency) ? renew TIE for 5 years
After Year 10 ? eligible for citizenship
3. These are all the visa / residency modification possibilities I find authorized by Extranjer?a: [Link eliminated becauses it wouldn’t let me post.] I see three possibilities that look like they could be promising:
? Modificaci?n de la situaci?n de residencia a la situaci?n de residencia y trabajo por cuenta ajena inicial
? Modificaci?n de la situaci?n de residencia a la situaci?n de residencia y trabajo por cuenta propia inicial.
? Modificaci?n de la situaci?n de residencia a la situaci?n de residencia y trabajo de profesionales altamente cualificados;
Have any of you tried (and succeeded or failed) to change residency status from non-lucrative to another status? What was your experience? What would you recommend, what would you caution, ?? And! Please ? I?m sure I?ve not nearly thought of all the possibilities ? any other good ideas I could think about!? The bottom line is that I want to make this work. Can you help me figure out how? Thank you!!
(In case it?s relevant, a few things about me: I?m a USA citizen. I *have* lived before in other countries of the EU, legally (Italy for 3 years and UK for 3 years). I have enough money saved to pull off the non-lucrative requirement for a couple of years but not any longer (i.e., I?m not a retiree with a pension). Let?s say, I don?t know if it?s really true or not, that I have some ?skills? that could maybe be employable or ?in demand?, if I were in the situation to be able to avail of that demand. (I do have a Ph.D., I?m pretty good at ?learning new stuff,? and I?m a real hard worker.) I don?t have a Spanish partner or Spanish ancestors.
