7 Mistakes to AVOID when MOVING to SPAIN

hey guys so what I'm about to share with you is going to save you time money and stress if you're thinking of moving to Spain so grab a pen and get ready to take some notes I'm James Blick and over the last couple of years I've helped over 400 people set up a really clear plan so they can successfully move to Spain and set up their ideal life here and a whole number of them have already moved and are living here now but the thing is in helping these people I've also learned the most common mistakes that you're likely to make when you move to Spain if you're not prepared anything from not understanding the tax not understanding the Health Care System hiring the wrong experts to help you and also really expensive currency exchange mistakes so today in this video I want to give you the seven most common mistakes that I see people making when they move to Spain so that you can avoid these mistakes plus there's one that you can start taking action on now in order to set up a really successful move all right let's get into it oh and if you're staring at these two red dots on my forehead I had a couple of uh things burned off my sensitive kiwi skin by my dermatologist the other day so nothing to worry about at all all right so I get emails all the time from people who's saying they're moving here and ask for my help to connect them with an expert who can help them with a certain part of their move but here's what I see so often the professional they think they need to connect with to help them for a certain area of their move is not actually the professional they need and I get it it can be so confusing moving to a new country and there's all these names being banded about you know relocation agents immigration Consultants tax attorneys how do they all fit together well the first thing to know is there's no one person who can help you with your entire move it is really a jigsaw a puzzle of different people who can help you and here are two of the most common confusions I see when it comes to getting experts to help you in your move first relocation agents I think people think that if they're moving to Spain or somewhere they can contact a Relocation Agent who will help them with the entire move well that that doesn't really happen a Relocation Agent agent is someone who helps you sort out your paperwork once you're in country they'll help you importantly find an apartment you can rent really helpful for that they'll help you open a bank account finalize any immigration paperwork get you set up and also maybe help with finding schools for the kids uh but really the first person you should talk to if you're looking to move to Spain is an immigration expert an immigration consultant or lawyer because those are the people will tell you what your legal route is to actually move to this country another really common email I get is people who are looking to buy a property in Spain and ask me to connect them with a property lawyer now if you're looking to buy a property and you haven't found the property yet the first person you need to talk to is a buyer's agent a buyer's agent is a sort of real estate agent but they represent the buyer they advocate for your rights unlike the sellers agent which are the most common ones in Spain which are actually working on behalf of the seller and are not representing your rights yeah you're going to need a lawyer in the process but that's only once you've found the property and often the buyer agent who's representing you can actually recommend someone because they have no skin in the game and just to be clear traditional real estate agents in Spain are actually of pretty limited value if you're looking to buy or rent in the country because they will only show you the properties whether to buy or rent that are on their books which means you're only seeing 1% potentially of the market that's why if you're looking to rent you want a Relocation Agent they'll represent you and if you're looking to buy you want a buyer agent because they'll represent you so once you've figured out the professionals that you need how do you get in touch with the good ones look there are a lot of people who want to move to Spain which means that there's a lot of people providing services for people who want to move to Spain and some are fantastic but the reality is some just aren't very good or aren't very good at the specific situation that you need help with so for example if I'm moving to Spain on a non-lucrative visa from the United States I'm going to want to get an immigration consultant or lawyer who has experience working with the US consulates which is where you get the non-lucrative visa I don't want to work with someone who is experienced with helping Brits move to Spain and is only experienced with the British consulates so that begs the question of how you find these really good experts well in real life how do you find anyone who's good to help you the first Port of Call often the first place you go is Word of Mouth you talk to people and how do you do that when you're moving to a new country how do you talk to people to get recommendations well it might sound a little bit odd but Facebook groups are so powerful for recommendation so in Spain there's Facebook groups for everything there's pet lovers in Spain there's people moving as digital Nomads in Spain there really is there's people in alikante people in Madrid these are the places where people gather to swap information and and share tips and share recommendations for professionals so you go in there and you ask for recommendations now I would only work with a professional who is recommended by at least two different people right then you want to go and do some more investigation you want to check their Google reviews you want to check their Facebook reviews trust pilot reviews start to build a picture of them and then you want to set up with your short list some initial consultations you want to meet them and see if you trust them do you understand them do you understand when they speak to you in English uh do you understand the terminology they use or are they making it all sound really complicated because how you feel in that first initial consultation is how you're going to feel the entire time you're working with them so you really have to feel comfortable and then after all that process you decide on somebody who has been well recommended who has good reviews and who you feel comfortable with and you're good to go okay now let's talk immigration so if you or your spouse are not from the EU or don't have an EU passport then you need to get a visa to move to Spain for more than 90 days and these days there are actually quite a few Visa options and I see a lot of people understandably confused about them and not having clarity about their immigration path and each of these visas has pros and cons so it might be that actually a couple of different options apply to you and you have to pick the best one to set up your life in Spain or the life in Spain that you want to live so here are the three most common visas that I see people using so the first is the non-lucrative Visa so this is sometimes called the retirement Visa but it's not just for retired people so this is a Visa that you can move to Spain you need to show passive income or savings you can't legally work when you're here although some people do and seem to get away with it and to apply for it you have to apply via your consulate back home you can't apply in Spain and to remain here after a year and to keep renewing you have to become a tax resident now the second most common one is the digital Nomad Visa the new one so this one allows you to actually come and work in Spain remotely for a company or for clients who are outside Spain and this one's really popular now because finally people can actually come here and work relatively easily and if you bring your family they can work as well they get work permits as well now with this one the beauty of it is you can actually apply from within Spain and that can give you three years residency you do need to become a tax resident though if you do want to stay here although there is a way depending on the kind of employment that you have that you might be able to live in Spain without actually becoming a tax resident of sorts that's called the Beckham law and now the third one which is a little less common is the golden Visa so this is the one where if you purchase a property or properties uh valuing €500,000 or more you can get residency here in Spain it's really the Visa that gives you the most kind of control and power in a way your family can come as well you can all work and here's the thing that attracts a lot of people to the golden Visa is that you don't have to live here for any period of time to be able to keep renewing that residency uh which means that you can own a property in Spain it means you can have the right to come and go without becoming a tax resident so as you can see all these different visas have pros and cons they almost all have different features and your first step is often to speak with an immigration consultant who can help you understand which is the right visa for you and your family and then everything in your plan can kind of fall into place behind that an immigration consultant I really recommend is Marina inosa and her team over at bureaucracy. they have excellent reviews and you can set up a free 20-minute consult with her to see if it's the right fit for you plus if you're a Spain revealed audience member which you are you get a 10% discount so there's a link down below to set up that free consult with Marina and figure out your Visa room uh for moving to Spain okay let's talk moving money and currency exchange so when you move from one country to another obviously you have to move some of your money from your home country to your new country so you can spend it now that might be a bulk movement of money so you can buy a home in the new country or it might be you know dribs and drabs it might be you're moving money on a monthly or six-monthly basis because you're getting paid a pension or Social Security in your home country now there are three ways to move money from your home country to Spain one is terrible and two are good but depend on the circumstances so the first one and the one I do not recommend is moving your money using your home Traditional Bank so that is almost always a terrible idea because traditional Banks do not give good exchange rate there's hidden fees there can be bureaucratic issues it can just be a nightmare I've heard so many problems with that way so the next one is using wise so wise is a sort of online bank of of sorts where you can hold money in different currencies and different wallets within your wise account plus you can get really good rates on currency exchange so the way that might work is if I'm moving from New Zealand to Spain I can use wise to get my money into Euros at a great rate then transfer it into my Spanish bank account or I can just use wides they give you a debit card as well while I'm in Spain for a period of time anyway until I really get set up now that can be great for smaller amounts it's really easy to use got a great app but the minute you go over €10,000 you start to hit EU moneya laundering laws and the problem with wises when that happens they can be a little less helpful so I've heard numerous stories and you see reviews online of people trying to move money from their home country to to another country with wise and when things get a little bit hard maybe uh the the authorities ask for extra paperwork to prove the source of funds whatever it may be wiser customer support can kind of fall apart a little bit because in the end wise is an online service it's an app and so really you're just going to be dealing with the customer service agent who you get on the app and they might not really understand the issue so I've heard of people having funds blocked up for a long period of time sometimes when that money really had to arrive into Spain because they were about to settle on a house and the third option and one that a lot of people actually don't know about is working with a currency exchange expert or a currency broker it depends they called you know different names but but effectively what they are they're likewise they give you a great exchange rate but you actually have a relationship with a person with an advisor with a currency exchange advisor and so they're going to give you the great rate but you're going to get the better customer service that you don't really get with wise and this is fantastic because it means when you're doing regular transfers over a period of time they can advise you on when might be the right moment to make a transfer and when it comes to a big movement of money from the home country to Spain they can make sure that all the paperwork has been done and so that you don't run into bureaucratic issues and EU money laundering laws and things like that or if you run into them they can solve them and it also means that when you have questions that come up you have effectively like a case manager you can call on Zoom or whatever it might be and ask questions and you're not kind of lost talking to some customer service agent on an app who doesn't really understand your problem so if you want to learn a little bit more down below you can click a link to get a free guide it will help you learn a little bit about moving your money to Spain all right let's keep going so at the beginning I mentioned that I've helped over 400 people create a clear plan so that they can move to Spain and set up their ideal life here and I do that through my move to Spain master class which is an 8-week program that I offer a couple of times a year to a limited number of people and this is a program where I give you the tools the knowledge and support that you need to to move to Spain and set up that ideal life that you want to live in this wonderful country so if you're curious and want to learn a little a little bit more about it then go to mov Spain masterclass.com over there you can read about it read about the program you can also get on the weight list so next time I offer it for enrollment next time I open it up uh I'll send you an email to let you know and you can decide if it's right for you and decide if you want to join okay now a big one tax and so this is especially important for people moving from the United States to Spain why because as you know you remain a tax resident of the United States as long as you remain a citizen of the United States it's just you guys and the eritreans who have that privilege the mistake is to move here blindly without doing what is best termed a tax simulation before you come that's where you contact a tax attorney in Spain who works uh specifically with people who are moving from overseas and finds out where you're going to move to because there's different taxes uh and different tax rates in different regions of Spain and gives you an understanding of what your tax burden is likely to be on an annual basis once you're living here and so once you have that you can actually budget for what will possibly be a higher tax rate now there's two more things I want to point out here for people moving specifically from the US one is there is a lot of confusion a lot of opinion online about Roth IRA traditional IRAs 401ks and how those are treated by the tax authorities in Spain and I'm going to be honest with you not all Spanish tax attorneys are in agreement about how the Spanish tax department department will treat these different Financial products don't look on Facebook don't get advice on Facebook you need to speak to an experienced professional tax attorney that you trust that can give you a robust opinion about your situation particularly about those financial products and about your tax burden in general when you're in Spain the other thing I wanted to mention is if you have Investments back home and again specifically those people moving from the US and you're moving to Spain you need to talk to a financial planner who has experience in crossb movement before you move potentially way before you move because it might be that the investment firm that you're currently working with back in the US will not allow you to hold those Investments the ones you currently hold once you've moved to Spain because they will only work with people who are resident and living in the US so you know people have found that once they're in Spain they've got notices from the investment firms they've been working with for a long time saying you have 30 days to close your account so you need to do some crossb financial planning before you make the move so you don't put in Jeopardy and you can secure what is your nest egg right that you've been saving for and putting away for your entire life okay next up another big one Health Care so healthc care is important for two reasons when you're moving to Spain one obviously you want to have health care when you get here you want to be looked after and two you possibly need Private health care in order to get the visa that you want to get to move to Spain most people when they're moving here uh and need to get Private health care what they do is they look up the list of private healthcare companies in Spain who provide policies for people moving here and the Spanish private healthcare companies provide perfect policies for people who moving here that suit the immigration requirements that are fully covering you for anything that might happen but the Trap is in my opinion to go straight to the private healthcare company and get the insurance get the policy through them directly the problem is then that health insurance company is your main contact throughout the life of the policy which is an issue because if you have a problem right and you have to call them up directly call the call center that call center operator may not have a great level of English and okay you're learning Spanish but this is Healthcare you want to make sure that you have clear communication with your healthcare provider and two they just simply might not be that helpful here's the thing you want more personalized service so in order to get your private healthcare set up I always recommend going through an agent or a broker so an agent or broker represent a health care company or multiple uh Healthcare insurers and you can buy your policy through the broker the thing is you pay exactly the same if you go through the broker than if you go directly to the health insurance company but and here's the beauty of it when you go through the broker they will help you set up your policy they will help you get all the right paperwork for the immigration needs that you have including potentially helping you uh communicate any pre-existing conditions that you might might have that void your ability to get a policy they can help you figure out how to best communicate that so you know it may not actually become as a big problem as you think it is and two during the life of the policy they will be your main contact not the health insurance company so when you have a problem you call up your health insurance agent who speaks great English who's used to dealing with people who have come from overseas and you say what your needs are and they are the conduit through to the health insurance company the last one is the number one challenge that I see people in my move to Spain master class and anyone moving to Spain having it's also where I have my biggest regret around my move to Spain and that is learning Spanish or in this case not learning Spanish as I've shared before when I moved to Spain uh I didn't take Spanish classes at the beginning I just figured look my wife is Spanish I'll be living in Spain I'll learn it by osmosis I'll just learn it by living here it does not happen trust me you need to put effort in and you need to put work in to learning Spanish and you need to start doing it it now whether you're moving in 6 months or 6 years please because it will make your transition so much easier to life in Spain and it will make your life and Spain so much more richer when it comes to building community and and everything just understanding day-to-day stuff but here's the rub learning a new language is hard don't let anybody tell you any different if they do they're probably trying to sell you something that probably isn't going to help you learn that language and you know I know that a lot of people in there're trying to learn Spanish do things like you download duo lingo and you do a few minutes of that each day and you watch a few movies but trust me the way to learn a new language is to have a study plan that is built by a tutor you need a Spanish tutor until I got a Spanish tutor I had so many gaps still in my Spanish and since I've been working with a Tudor for the last 18 months or so my Spanish has skyrocketed and a Tudor doesn't have to be oneon-one it can be small group but the key is you have someone who is going to understand one your level even if your level is zero Spanish and two is going to understand what your needs are you are moving to Spain and so you have specific needs that another person who might just want to learn a bit of Spanish for tourism has so with that information the tutor can build you a study plan and you might have one-on-one classes with the tutor it might be small group classes with other people of your level and with your needs whatever it is that shoor is the key they are like the framework they build the framework the study plan for you to to learn the things that you need to learn in the correct order so you can build it's like a ladder once you have that study plan then all these other things can fit within that du lingo watching movies listening to music they all become like pillars and columns that support that broader structure which is the study plan but really guys the key is if you're moving to Spain whether in 6 weeks or in 6 months or in six years start learning Spanish just get on it it's going to make it so much easier trust me learn from my mistake so guys remember to check out the description box below where there's a whole bunch of links that can help you on your move to Spain connections with great professionals as well as other information and if you're moving to this country and you're curious about the cost of living in Spain well check out this video up here that I made with my wife yolly where we reveal our cost of living in Madrid what's an all all right we'll see you over there in a moment and good luck on your move to Spain ciao

Channel: Spain Revealed

Views: 78,679

Keywords: james black spain, james blake spain, yoly james, spain revealed, yoly spain, spain couple, spain guide, yolly james, yoli james

Id: HCYwg6KGRb8

Length: 20min 26sec (1226 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 02 2024