ricflair

Hi, Today ive applied for a few jobs in gibraltar that i am easilly qualified for. Wether i get them is a totally different matter, but having a wife and 2 children i though its best to try and find some more infomation out , as if i dont get this job ill keep looking as i want out of the uk for my famiys sake.

Main questions are what is the taxation situation when working in gibraltar and what sort of money would i expect to pay for a 3 bed house outside of gibraltar both to buy and to rent. The scenario would be rent out our uk home, and either rent or buy in spain, however i have fears that spanish property costs a fortune.

Another worry i have is the childrens schooling and making friends. They are 1 and 4 .

Any advice please?

ricflair

didnt even get a call back so im a bit depressed at the moment

eurotramp

I'm not sure if it is the right move.....if you want to do it for the sake of your family....

It is a hard life in Spain.... unless you have lots of money to bring..

ricflair

Really?

I dont have alot of money to bring atall. Im just getting really depressed in my current job, and sick of the UK

eurotramp

Why are you sick of the UK??
What is so bad about it??
Did you had once a little read about people leaving the UK and then coming back?? Often just a typical "grass is greener on the other side" syndrome..

ricflair

Possibly yes. But if i dont try then ill never know and regret it for th rest of my life. Im in a rut with work, no prospects for progression with my current company and im not being pushed, ive been sleepwalking through my job for the last 4 years and im not virtyually switching off. Im going mad. I need a change before i go insane.

However, i wouldnt be selling my house, just rent it out just incase. And if for any reason it didnt work out, when we come back, Things would be alot better.

What are the problems you would see with spain?

ricflair

Got a call from them today, didnt get the job. Now im totally depressed, been getting worse all the time and i feel sick.

eurotramp

Why don't you try to change you live in the UK? I don't need to move outside the country to make a better live..don't you??

meauxna

It sounds to me like you need a break, not an expatriation. You know, some time to re-sort your priorities and see what you want to be when you grow up (that's just an expression btw, not a comment on your specific maturity).

It might be possible to get a sabbatical from your work. It might be possible to quit your job, but not your country. You might find a work-exchange opportunity. It is possible to save enough money to fund a break from reality without making a commitment to somewhere you've never been. I've done all of these things at various times and enjoyed it immensely! My parents did it when my sister and I were quite young and none of us have suffered for it.

Take a year out, travel, visit places, rent an apartment somewhere you've always wanted to live & try it out. Planning the adventure can be half the fun.
Don't fret about schools, that is a way off for your baby and the 4 year old will adapt faster than you can imagine.

In other words, don't make it an all or nothing venture. This might mean saving up for a year and getting any debt under control, but it is do-able. I'd never recommend that someone move to a new place sight unseen, but I've had some 'short' visits turn into multi-year moves

Rushman

If I were you I would forget the idea of working in Gibraltar and living in Spain.
Some days you'll take maybe 3 to 5 hours to cross the border in your car.
There are numerous reasons for this but I believe that the main one is simply that Spain wants Gibraltar back and wants to make things harder for the Gibraltarians. For example, Gibralter isn't even sign posted anywhere in Spain. To find Gibralter you have to follow signs for "La Linea De La Conception".

British tourists and holiday makers entering Spain from Gibralter are frequently stopped and searched taking at least 45 minutes and may encounter the same scenario returning to Gibraltar.
"Ah..but I'll park my car in La Linea and walk over the border and through the Airport to work" OK...then come back to either no car or a burnt out wreck. La Linea is the barbary coast, a lot of drugs, crime and poverty (bare in mind that the majority of ceased Spanish narcotics come from Morocco and the favoured route is not far from Gibraltar.
If you want to work in Gibraltar, to be perfectly honest, you have to also live there and I think you'll be the luckiest man alive to find a 3 bedroom house in Gib.
I love the place but living there is not going to be easy.
Can't tell you much about the taxes except that the last time I was there (1996ish) a carton of 200 cigarettes was 5GBP in Safeways, Gibraltar and 41.50 GBP in Britain, needless to say I made a bloody fortune!!
I never lived in Gibraltar but travelled there every week for over a year.
You'll love it but forget the live in Spain part and your kids will have to pick up the local language, "Gibberish". I kid you not, a cross between, Spanish (Andalucian dialect I believe), Moroccan Arabic and a pinch of English thrown in for good measure. Quite amusing to listen to.
Good Luck

Mercedes

I can see why you don't like England, but if you are trying to find Little England in the Sun you will find many of the problems and more.

What do you do for a living? I live in Spain,I can work from home in Spain, but I also commute back to UK and other countries from there. At the moment I'm spending at least 2 weeks a month there at the moment. I wouldn't want to be on Spanish wages either, mine comes from Stirling. But I'm lucky because I get the best of both worlds, but I made it happen that way.

Life is what you make it, and if you're not happy change it. There is also a world out there besides Spain, depends what you have to offer. Instead of applying via internet, why not pop down to Spain and go door knocking if you need to. I've got jobs in the past by doing that, if you are applying for a job, you will be competing with others and they may be on the door step and more available for interview.

ricflair

Thanks , im not looking for an engliand in the sun, far from it infact. The only reason i was applying for gibraltar(which i didnt get in the end) was because they where the most suitable jobs i had found. Ive looked everywhere, usa, asia and all over europe but it just seems too far out of reach.

Im officially an IT team leader, and have a very good job over here. However i am bored and frustrated at the lack of opportunities i get to progress or learn new skills. I should be IT manager by now,as thats what i do, however i am still classed as team leader. since joining my current company 5 years ago my progression has stalled due to the way the company is run and latley its been like sleepwalking through my job. Not being challenged atall and i need to be.

Add this to the fact that there are alot of things abotu the uk i do not like. And the fact that i have 2 young daughters and you have the reason for me looking abroad.

Not just gibraltar, but anywhere.

Mercedes

Could you freelance. ie set yourself as a consultant. Some companies can't afford full time people, moreso smaller. A friend of mine did that as a Freelance Professional sales person, she got loads of work working for different companies on commission basis. On some of her contracts she made 3k a day. But she was also very good. Could you offer some sort of service to small companies? As said earlier I can understand your dislike for England, I don't like it either and am glad to get out. Besides IT have you any other skills?

ricflair

Ive thought about that type of thing, as that would suit me down to the ground. I can advise, manage and support IT for alot of small companies. The only problems with that are both having the right contacts or marketing myself properly and the fact that having a family to suport it would be hard to just make a break and go for it without any contracts in place.

Not really sure what you mean by other skills. Ive worked in the IT industry for 8 years now and its all ive ever done. so the answer to that is probably no.

thanks

AshleyJ

Hi there,

Firstly I have no idea where people are getting that La Linea and Gib are not good places to live - their WRONG!

I've lived here now for a month and moved here with my partner without even visiting before hand, in fact we had never been to spain before.

We're loving it, we managed to find a nice two bedroom flat in La Linea right in the centre of this lovely NOT drugged up, NOT rundown town for only 330 euros a month. We cross the boarder quite a bit and you can do it by foot within 15-20 minutes without having to wait!

We've been looking for work and thing you have to know about here is that it takes a lot longer than england, think of england 20 years ago and that's what Gib is like!

I can give you loads more adive and information just email me on <<Admin Edit - Email address removed contact member via PM>>
and we'll talk more!!

AND FINALLY!! I would say DO IT because it's an expereience that you'll never forget even if it doesnt work out!

Look forward to hearing from you!