Moving to Murcia - Spain

Hello paulhowarth24,

Welcome to Expat.com

I hope the community members will be able to share their insights and experiences with you.

Good luck with your move to Murcia!

Cheers,

Cheryl

Expat.com team

Thanks Cheryl,

Hopefully someone will be able to give ne some feedback on the details 

thanks

@paulhowarth24

You can use your visa-free allowance (90 in180) to go stay in Spain to explore the area, search for a property, and attend job interviews. But to stay longer you need to consider your options for residence visas. As a remote worker, your wife could apply for a Digital Nomad Visa, or, if you have savings, she might be able to get the No Lucrativa Visa and sneakily (as it's a non-working visa) do remote work. As her spouse, you'd also be able to legally live with her in Spain... but I'm not sure you'd be able to work. You'd probably need a work/employee visa or a self-employed (autonomo) visa, both of which are a lot trickier.

The DNV and NLV are fairly straightforward options, so this would be the quickest way for you both to relocate to Spain. You'd only have one income (your wife's remote earnings), but it would be a lot easier for you to do your job search and attend local interviews, and then you could apply for a change in visa/residence status.

If your salary is the main income, it might be sensible to do the job search for you first, from the UK, and then only move if/when you get a suitable job offer from an employer willing to do the immigration formalities. Remote job searches are tricky, and finding employers to sponsor you further limits the options. Lack of good Spanish further reduces the options. My guess is that a lot depends on how highly skilled/educated you are, and how much your particular function/skills are in demand. Even if you spoke fluent Spanish, I doubt this would be easy.

Being fixated on a particular city (Murcia) also reduces your potential options substantially. If you love Spain, you might have more luck if you do a nationwide search and then go to the place that has a decent job for you. Most of Spain is nice, and your wife can work anywhere, so I doubt there's much downside to this approach. If the nationwide search leaves you flooded with offers, then you can be more picky about the salary/location.

Alternatively, perhaps you have enough transferable skills that there is some kind of remote work that you can do too.