Hi,

Me and my girlfriend are thinking of moving to spain. We are planning on living there but will give ourselves 6 months to try and settle in, find jobs, and start to lean the language. If no jobs, too difficult etc… then back to London.

Do you think 6 months is long enough? We plan to budget around ?10,000 for 6 months? (sharing an appartment)

We are thinking either Madrid or Valencia, I assume job wise Madrid would be the better option especially for English speaking companies?

Any advice would be great

I’d say the reality kicks in after 6 months and in the current crisis finding employment within 6 months could be difficult, although impossible to know until you try.

You should have some idea though within 6 months, if your funds are getting low, only a few interviews and no job offers it may well be time to cut off and leave for another stage in your life.

It can be difficult, leaving my employer in Spain was very easy, leaving the country was a harder choice, the area we lived I’d never live again, but another location in Spain sure if I could afford not to work in Spain I’d be there tomorrow.

Try not to get to attached to Spain, some Expats leave when there financially ruined, try to keep the S in Spain, pain sometimes never goes away and can be easily ignored until its too late.

Good luck.

Are you applying for jobs now ?  What kind of job do you want ?  Teaching English is good but you will need CELTA or TEFL .  It would be possible to find a little apartment with 10000 euros in your pocket.  Prepare a budget and stick to it. 

Jobs are really scare at the moment..there are millions unemployed and it’s getting worse.  The economy is really unstable - far worse than the UK.

I would suggest that you leave it a while longer and at least go on a CELTA course..you can even do them in Spain and hopefully a job will come from it.  And you must learn Spanish.

If you have the langugage and some skills you can make a better go of it. 

Are you professionals - IT or similar.  There are recruitment agencies who have jobs for english speakers.  Try info.job.net and put in ingles/english in the search and see what comes up.  There is also Gibraltar but it’s not really Spain, although you could live in Spain and commute. 

Decide what would be your best scenerio.

thanks for the replies.

i am learning spanish but i find theres only so much you can learn while living in england and having a full time job.

i work in IT as a data analyst (not a very common overseas position) and have thought about doing a tefl course, i just need to find the 4 weeks to do it.

i haven’t stared applying for jobs yet but im starting to look for english speaking companies in spain. there seem to be a few so i guess it’s just a matter of luck to find a job

both citys are good for english ... would be in both , fine ok ,
you need to start watching few spanish tv canals , my start pick up spanish faster or hit BBC - Languages . good aswell
sharing an appartment would cost 500 -800 eurs but up two you what looking for ....
settle in he is easy as ABC only tink is paper work , NIE and so take time 2- 3 weeks to rent you need NIE bank accounts telphone net and so on

jurdy

A couple of points to think about,

1. could your kind of work be done remotely, maybe for existing clients/employers?  Which would give you tremendous freedom re where to live and work

2. 6 months won’t take you through a full cycle of the seasons.  I know that I have been far more affected by the weather and climate in Spain than I ever was in the UK, the summers are much hotter - yes, that I did expect - but the winters felt colder than I had ever known before, as the lifestyle (and building quality!!) is more ‘outdoor living oriented’ in much of Spain.

Good luck with everything!

Read this http://www.spainexpat.com/spain/forum/viewthread/7436/