Moving to Spain just before the crisis

¡Hola!

Me, my boyfriend and our 2 dogs moved from the UK to Spain in July last year.

We made the decision to move in September 2019 (after taking our first holiday in 10 years to Barcelona, the passing of my grandma who I'd been caring for, and my boyfriend hurting his back and potentially not being able to do his job anymore) and so, racing against Brexit, we made arrangements to leave for Spain in April 2020.

We got our NIE's from the Consulate in London, and we originally had a 3 week holiday rental booked for when we arrived in Spain, planning to spend this time looking for a more permanent rental. We had a removals company booked for our things, and we were going to travel with them on the ferry with our dogs, but 2 weeks before we were set to leave, the borders between the UK and Spain closed and literally all of our plans crumbled 😩

The removals company cancelled, the ferry cancelled, and as much as I love problem solving it was a huge setback. Luckily we managed to extend our stay in our rental in the UK.

If it hadn't been for the ticking clock of Brexit we would definitely have delayed our move until things settled down, but knowing that we only had a limited time to complete our TIE applications for our residencies, get our driving licenses exchanged (which we've only just managed to get sorted!) and to get in to Spain with our current dog passports, etc., I doubled down and started planning workarounds.

We bought a van so that we didn't need to rely on any of the removal companies, and booked (then rebooked, and rebooked again 😂) the Eurotunnel and some places to stay in France.

In an extremely lucky turn of events (sort of) the property that we were supposed to be renting for 3 weeks when we arrived had had so many cancellations that they were open to waiting for us to get here, and doing a long term rental 💃 and as soon as they opened the borders again we packed the van up and drove for 3 days through France!

It's been an extremely strange time both to leave a country that we've both lived in for our whole lives, as we didn't get to say any proper goodbyes, and also to move to a new country, as we haven't been able to explore, or make friends, or even really try any food or experience any of the culture...

In a lot of really obvious ways Coronavirus has made things much harder, but in some ways it's made things much easier. I don't miss my friends and family quite so much knowing that I wouldn't be able to spend any time with them even if we hadn't moved. Ok that's a lie I miss them just as much, but not in the same way, as some of the guilt of the choice has been removed!

Also there is no chance that we would have found a permanent rental in 3 weeks of being here, so some advice to anyone who is moving country, do your best to find a permanent rental before you leave!

If I've learnt anything from the experience it's that the more flexible you can be in life, and the more open to change, the happier you'll be in the long run... take every opportunity you can to get out of your comfort zone, and experience new places and things... and lastly never pay someone to do a job that you can do yourself! (We ended up selling the van after we got here, and making back almost all the money that we would've spent on a removals company anyway!)

Thanks for sharing

Well done both of you! You show such determination and grit, you truly deserve to win! Best wishes for a really happy and peaceful time in your new lives in Spain. X

Thank you so much! What a lovely message 😊❤