r/GoingToSpain

I’m thinking of moving back to Spain but feeling really conflicted after hearing so much about the problems of guiris moving in and affecting the locals.

For context, I’m American and lived in Spain for two years as an auxiliar de conversación at a public school in Madrid. I left to come back to the US to go to grad school to become a full-time teacher and have been working here for going on three years now. I studied and work in both science and English as a Second Language (ESL) and I’m working on my bilingual education license, trying to set myself up to get a job at an international school.

I miss Madrid and my Spanish friends so much. I really tried to integrate and not just live in the guiri bubble. I passed the B2 DELE while there and am working toward C1 but being back in the US has slowed that. If I go back, I’d like to stay much more long-term or permanently, not just a couple years like before.

I obviously have heard a lot of the debate around “expats” and housing and taxes and everything, but I feel like maybe it’s different if I’d be working full time, paying taxes, and trying to fully integrate. I would also be going back to Madrid not like Barcelona where I think it is even more of an issue.

My Spanish friends tell me that my situation isn’t part of the problem. I think I agree, but I still kinda feel weird about it and not wanting to be part of the problem. I have other factors like family back home and stuff, but I’m really looking for input of what others, especially Spaniards, think about this topic. Also would be interested in hearing about others who have had similar experiences like getting jobs at international schools there.

Looking for a friendly conversation about this :)

Hi,

I’m looking for real traveller experiences with Spain border control.

My family and I (2 adults and 3 yo) are Canadian citizens planning a short tourist/family visit to Spain, under 90 days. We will have:

• valid Canadian passports
• return tickets
• travel insurance
• bank statement
• credit card statement showing available credit

The concern is accommodation proof. We are planning to stay with relatives/friends, but we dont have an official Spanish carta de invitación. We would only have their address and a phone number. Also they are not Spanish citizens, they are French but they own a property in Spain.

I understand the official guidance says travellers may be asked for proof of accommodation or an invitation letter. What I’m trying to learn is what happens in practice.

Has anyone here entered Spain in a similar situation?

Questions:

1. Were you asked for proof of accommodation?
2. If yes, did you have a hotel booking, official carta de invitación, informal letter, WhatsApp/email, or only address/phone number?
3. Did the officer accept it?
4. Did they ask follow-up questions?
5. Did anyone get sent to secondary inspection because of this?
6. Has anyone actually been refused entry for not having formal accommodation proof?

I’d especially appreciate recent experiences from Barcelona, Madrid, Málaga, or Girona airports, but any Spain entry experience would help.

Thanks in advance.

Hi!

I am an American student who will be studying abroad in Madrid for one semester. I do not have a drivers license, so I was wondering if I should bring a copy of my passport to the club? I don't want to bring my actual passport incase it gets stolen. Additionally, I have my old high school id and my online college id, but neither say my date of birth. Is there any other forms of id I could take that they would accept?

Thank you!

So I'm going in a vacation split between Benidorm/Valencia. Currently got accommodation in the Old Town/El Castell area. I know Benidorm was basically built for tourism, but I am wondering if I can find some good local cuisine around? Not that touristy crap food for Germans or Brits. I've been in Zaragoza and Barcelona and I did manage to find some gorgeous local restaurant, and I'm curious if I can find some in Benidorm as well.

Or am I doomed to take the tram to Alicante every evening? I imagine Alicante should have a lot richer local cuisine, but surprisingly accommodation was more expensive than Benidorm and the units I found has much worse position/looks.

Thanks!

Hi!

My cousin and I are planning a road trip in Spain from 19 to 26 September 2026.
I’m coming from London and she’s coming from Lyon, France. We’re thinking of meeting somewhere in Spain, renting a normal car, and returning it in a different city. My cousin will be the only driver, so we’re trying to avoid making this an exhausting driving holiday.

We’re interested in nature, unusual landscapes, photography, beautiful small towns, swimming/natural pools, good local food and some relatively easy hiking.

Our current idea came from a road-trip itinerary we saw:
Bilbao → Yesa Reservoir → Bardenas Reales → Alquézar → Monegros Desert → Montanejos / Fuente de los Baños → Albarracín → Madrid

We have 7 nights, so we obviously can’t spend a huge amount of time everywhere.

What would you keep/cut?
The places we’re most excited about are:
- Bardenas Reales
- Alquézar / Pasarelas del Vero
- Montanejos / Fuente de los Baños
- Albarracín
We’re less attached to Bilbao, Yesa and Monegros.
We’re also considering meeting in Zaragoza or Madrid instead of Bilbao, depending on what makes the route most sensible.

What would you personally do?
If you had 19–26 September, two people, one driver, how would you structure this?
Ideally:
- most driving days ≤4 hours
- one longer driving day is okay
- no ridiculous backtracking
- enough time to actually enjoy the places rather than just tick them off
- we’d rather cut a destination than rush through everything
- no serious hiking

I’d especially love advice from people who have actually driven around Bardenas / Monegros / Aragón / Teruel / Montanejos.

Thank you very much in advance and any tips at all is more than welcome!!!

Hello, I am going to UPC Spain for Phd and i will be self funding my phd . So, reagarding funds i am worried about. I have 14000 euros equivalent to 2 years IPREM in my bank account with pay slips and work certificate.

But the rule regarding financials is not clear to me, will they ask me for the funds of the conplete phd 4 years or will they be asking for 1 year funds. What do you guys think about this case.

If they check me for 1 year then i have 14000 euros equivalent to 2 years IPREM but if they check for whole phd then i am in trouble.

Can you guys please guide me regarding this?

Thanks for help.

Hola buenas tardes, soy un chico de 23 años de Venezuela pero que obtuvo la nacionalidad española luego de residir 4 años aquí en España. Me gustaría saber cuáles opciones tengo para poder traer a mi pareja de Bolivia a España, ya cuenta con el pasaporte pero nos falta lo que es la visa Schengen me parece, quiero que se quede aquí en España conmigo. ¿Algún consejo o ayuda que me puedan dar? Muchas gracias.

Would IRA and 401K distributions be taxed under Beckham? I'm planning to semi retire early in Spain in a few years, and was planning to do conversions before SS kicks in. My rationale is to lower the future tax burden of the Spanish progressive taxes, and to eliminate required minimum distributions.

Arrived early - took 15 minutes to get the jet bridge connected. We’ve been waiting for our bags for 1.5 hours. Long line at lost and found. It’s bad and this is middle of the week at noon

My wife and I are moving from Brazil to Spain at the end of August, and my main concern right now is whether our profile would qualify for seguro de impago when applying for a rental.

I already have an indefinite employment contract signed with a Spanish company, starting in early September, with a gross salary of €83,000/year. However, when we start looking for apartments I will have just started the job, so:

• I won’t have Spanish payslips yet
• I won’t have passed the probation period yet
• I can provide my signed Spanish employment contract
• I can provide my latest Brazilian payslips
• My wife will initially be unemployed in Spain and will look for work after we move
• We have more than BRL 650,000 in combined investments/savings (roughly €108,000), which we can document

My salary will therefore be our main source of income initially.

What I’m trying to understand is how rent default insurers actually assess a profile like this. Is a newly signed Spanish employment contract, together with foreign payslips and substantial savings, usually enough for the application to at least be considered?

Or do insurers generally require things such as 3 Spanish payslips and having already passed the probation period?

I’ve seen agencies asking specifically for 3 payslips, while others seem to carry out a broader solvency assessment, so I’m not sure whether this is an insurance requirement or simply the policy of each agency/insurer.

And if the insurance company rejects our profile, what alternatives are normally accepted in practice? For example, would offering several months of rent upfront (say, 6 months) help, or would landlords usually prefer something like an additional guarantee, bank guarantee or guarantor?

As for the rental itself, we’ll initially stay in temporary accommodation in Madrid and are looking to move into a long-term rental around mid/late September.

Our target is:

• Furnished apartment
• At least 2 bedrooms
• Long-term rental / main residence, not seasonal
• Empadronamiento must be possible
• Ideally up to €1,400/month around Madrid
• If the total commute to Madrid is closer to 1h–1h20, I’d only consider places below €1,000/month
• We’re also seriously considering Toledo because rents are considerably cheaper

My current strategy is to prioritize established agencies such as Redpiso, Alquiler Seguro, Tecnocasa and reputable local agencies in Toledo. I’m contacting them through their official websites/email, explaining our financial situation before sending documents and asking whether our profile can pass their solvency check.

I also plan to only send watermarked copies of passports, NIE, employment contract, payslips and financial documents, and whenever possible visit the apartment in person after we arrive before paying or signing anything.

For people familiar with the Spanish rental market: does our financial profile seem viable for seguro de impago? If not, what would be the most realistic alternative? And does this overall approach to finding a rental make sense?

Como extranjero, me pregunto por curiosidad si Benidorm es un buen lugar para mudarse permanente. ¿Qué dicen chicos?

- ¿Cómo son los sueldos en el trabajo?

- ¿Qué tipo de gente hay allá?

- ¿La vida cotidiana es cara o barata?

- ¿Qué tipos de trabajos puedo buscar?

- ¿Qué tipos de liceos hay?

- etc.

Basically what the title says. I'm currently in Spain and have been here for about 2 weeks at this point (currently in Barcelona, yeah I know as a tourist it's a dicey subject) and also have been self-learning Spanish for about 2 years or so. I'm at the point where I can understand pretty much any written text I encounter in public or what. It's my speaking though that is still very rusty, so I've been using this as an opportunity to practice a bit

So at restaurants/cafés etc. I try to do the order in Spanish (well, Castilian) but pretty often have to resort to English because I don't fully understand the person's accent or they automatically just talk to me in English from the beginning, because it must be obvious I'm a foreigner.

So yeah, do you appreciate the effort or is it more of a bother to you for making the interaction more frustrating and/or take longer? Or would just coming in and approaching you in English be more inconsiderate, to assume everyone speaks my preferred language?

Posting with mod approval. And to be clear up front: this is my own project, it's free with no ads, and I'm not looking for customers, just sharing what we built.

My partner is German and wanted to learn Catalan. We opened Duolingo and it turns out their Catalan course only exists from Spanish. Nothing from English, nothing from German. The other big apps are the same. So if you're moving to Catalonia, Valencia or the Balearics and you don't speak Spanish yet, there is almost nothing that will teach you Catalan directly. We got tired of that and built it ourselves.

It's called Learn Catalan and it's at learncatalan.eu. You don't need an account.

It goes from A1 to C2: 72 units, around 500 lessons and about 4,350 exercises of eight kinds (multiple choice, building sentences, fill in the gap, listening, matching, spelling words out letter by letter for conjugations, dictation and pronunciation).

The syllabus isn't made up. We took the official Catalan course programme of the Generalitat and the CPNL, and the thematic areas, communicative functions and grammar index of each level come from there. So it lines up with what the official certificates test, which matters if you ever need one for a job.

There's also a vault of 2,517 words with proper spaced repetition, a placement test at the start if you already know some, and an exam at the end of each level. The audio is pre-generated with a Catalan voice, not a Spanish one reading Catalan, and there's a library of 112 real Catalan podcasts through the embedded Spotify player. The interface exists in English, German and Japanese.

It still doesn't score your pronunciation through the microphone, the podcasts have no transcripts, and there is no App Store app; it's a web app you install to your home screen.

If you're heading somewhere Catalan is spoken and Spanish isn't your thing yet, this is who we built it for. Feedback is very welcome.

20 days are about to pass. If on day 21st I have no response I will need to request positive silence resolution, right?

In the meantime, can I book a huellas appointment or it is not possible because I don’t have my NIE. Can my lawyers help?

Ps. I know I will need the resolution when I actually attend the appointment, but I’d like to start trying my luck in my appointment hunt to speed things up.

Hi everyone! I’m moving to Madrid for my studies and I’m a bit confused about the TIE application deadline.
My Spanish student visa starts on 25 August, but I’m planning to travel to Madrid on 20 August. I’ll be travelling from the Netherlands, where I currently live, and I have a valid Dutch residence permit until November, so I’m legally allowed to enter Spain before my Spanish student visa starts.
My understanding is that students have to apply for their TIE within one month of entering Spain.
My question is: how does the Spanish authorities determine the date I entered Spain if I’m travelling from another Schengen country? There won’t be a passport stamp or border control showing that I entered on 20 August.
Should I consider my entry date to be 20 August, or does the one-month TIE period effectively start from 25 August when my Spanish student visa becomes valid? I am also worried that there will be an issue when applying for TIE because there’s no passport stamp.
Has anyone been in a similar situation, entering Spain from another Schengen country before their Spanish student visa started? How did it work when you applied for your TIE?

Hola!

We are doing a trip soon and the route is all set but one decision, I can’t really find much on other than googles answer.

Could I have some opinions please. We plan to travel from Seville to Madrid, via either Cáceres or Córdoba. Which way is better for what, etc, please

We are not looking for which is the nicer drive, more so where is pleasant to stop for nights on the way.

Thank you

Hey everyone,

My partner and I are a young EU couple (from Slovakia) looking into a long-term move to Andalusia, specifically looking at smaller inland towns along the C2 Cercanías line around Málaga, like Pizarra or Álora. We want to avoid the busy coastal and tourist hubs entirely, live a quiet and simple life, and focus on learning the language and settling in.

Our income setup is a bit unconventional, we study university online, work seasonal jobs in Iceland over the summer to fund ourselves, and live quite frugally off our savings during the rest of the year. Another major reason for wanting to move to Spain is medical,I need to start hormone replacement therapy (HRT), which is completely blocked and inaccessible back home.

Since we don't have local Spanish employment contracts , we'd really appreciate a reality check on whether landlords in smaller inland towns are generally open to tenants paying several months of rent upfront, or if that’s an automatic rejection with most agencies.

We’d also love to hear from anyone who has registered as a self-sufficient EU citizen in the Málaga province using foreign savings, or anyone with experience using private insurance without copays to see a private endocrinologist for HRT in Andalusia.

Thanks so much to anyone who can share some guidance or experience!

I just received my Spanish student visa from the Spanish Consulate in Amsterdam, and when I collected my passport with the visa, none of the original documents I submitted with my application were returned to me.
I went back and specifically asked the consulate about it, and they told me that they would not be returning them.
This includes important originals such as my apostilled criminal record certificate and my notarised/apostilled financial support documents.
Is this normal for the Spanish Consulate in Amsterdam? Did anyone else who applied for a Spanish student/national visa there have their original documents kept?
I understand that consulates may keep copies for the application file, but I'm surprised that they would keep the original apostilled documents. I'd really appreciate hearing from anyone who has recently gone through the Amsterdam process and can tell me what happened to their originals.

Hey everyone,
I’m a trans guy who will be moving from Turkey to Spain soon, and I have some practical questions about how to continue my HRT there.

A quick background on my situation:
*I’ve been on Testosterone for 6+ years.
*I have completely finalized my legal transition in Turkey (all my official IDs, passport, etc., are already updated to male).
*I’ve had my surgeries and completed the medical transition process—so I am purely looking to maintain my regular T prescription/monitoring.

Since I’ve been on T for so long, I really want to avoid any gaps in my treatment or having to go through a whole "diagnosis/gatekeeping" process from scratch.

For those living in Spain or who moved there from abroad:

1. Public vs. Private System: What is the fastest and smoothest way to get my T prescription renewed? Should I go through a private endocrinologist first while sorting out public healthcare (Sanidad Pública)?

2. Paperwork: What medical documents should I bring from Turkey? (I plan to get an English summary/letter from my current endocrinologist, my latest blood work results, and surgical reports—is that enough?)

3. **Availability:**Are forms like Testoviron / Sustanon / Nebido / Gel easily accessible in local pharmacies once you have a Spanish prescription?

4. Autonomous Communities: I know healthcare can vary by region. Are there any specific regional differences I should keep in mind?
   Any tips, recommendations for trans-friendly clinics/endos, or personal experiences would be super helpful.

Thanks a lot in advance!