Ahhh the Daily Mirror, the font of truth and justice LOL If they put a picture of me and my name on the front page I'd go check my passport to make sure they were right

Is there any credible data on how many legal brits have left and how it compares to pre brexit, given extended care of the elderly is not great in Spain I'd presume a good few return each year anyway in the hope of getting free care in the UK?

My wife retired after 40 years working in mental health and got the phone call when covid arrived and she went back to run a crisis assessment team and liaise with the general medical units in two local hospitals, things are getting much better here in the UK, last week there were empty beds in ICU and on some wards; people are still being admitted but are not dying, they are going home and I'm not exaggerating when I say that pretty much all our friends have had a bad 'cold' these last few weeks with many testing positive but recovering after four or five days; fingers crossed covid is running out of steam now we're approaching a good level of herd immunity and triple vaccination.

I want her to finish now, she's done her bit and more so leave it to the youngsters now and we can go back to our regular trips abroad and the comfortable retirement we worked hard to achieve.

Keep safe folks.

Same here. We received SMS inviting us tour our first jabs (J&J) then just turned up at IKEA for our boosters. I don't know of anyone who had a problem getting theirs.

DWP do require an address in Spain to send an S1 to but it can be anyone's so it would be perfectly possible to have it sent to a friend or relative only to have them them post it straight back to you in UK but it wouldn't do you any good because wherever you read that an S1 was now acceptable for a visa application they were wrong.

The problem is the S1 only enables you apply for health care once you are actually resident so it's putting the cart before both the visa and TIE horses.

Once you have your TIE you can submit your S1 and secure reciprocal health care but you can't get your money back on the 12 months private health insurance you had to pay for for your visa.

I absolutely dispute that properly registered Brits were in any way disadvantaged or discriminated against either in the vaccination or booster programmes!

And, as the article says, they didn't have a health card. What's the moral of the story here, do you think?

I got my text message when it was announced as available for my age range, logged in, booked a jab, and job done, like anyone Spanish.

As for why Brits are going home, it's pretty easy - they were always going home, but now there are far fewer coming to Spain to live thanks to Brexit, so the numbers aren't being kept up.

Brits will never leave Spain. Wait until tourism kicks fully in again and covid restrictions lift

Tourism will return no doubt but brit immigrants can never go back to pre brexit levels, many who would have gone just don't have the money and or the skills they need to allow them; the lure of Spain is still there but the ability to just move is not.

I'll try to keep it simple. For EU purposes (includes all current member states).

Tourism - less than 90 days.
Migration (EU nationals and their family members) - requirement to register as resident after 90 days, and must meet certain criteria.
Migration (third-country nationals, aka non-EU) - requirement to apply before entering the country one intends to settle in, and must meet more restrictive criteria set by that country..

Sure, tourism will come back, but migration from the UK to most EU countries won't ever be at the same volume as when we were in the EU. There will be exceptions in countries like Bulgaria, which wasn't exactly a popular destination previously, but might attract Brits on a budget looking to migrate.

Does that help?

Should start to find out this summer. I think a lot of younger Brits will still move out. Ones that can work from home. Maybe they will have to move about every 3 months to stay within the 90 days. Still probably would work out cheaper than the UK with its eye watering house prices,

I think Brits are starting to take on board that rules do apply to them too. Hiding behind the old "working from home" chestnut does not magically make a person immune to immigration rules, tax treaties and other national legislation / international agreements.

When you say "they will have to move about", you do realise don't you that what they will actually have to do is exit Schengen and spend at least 3 months in non Schengen country/countries before they can attempt to re-enter Schengen.

Would maintaining 2 residences, one inside Schengen and one outside Schengen, still work out cheaper for these young people than living in one place in the UK? Or will it be cheaper to spend six months of the year travelling around non-Schengen countries staying in tourist accommodation? Maybe so but what will they do for healthcare? How will they ever build up any pension entitlement?

You can use your S1 and letter to show your right to health care in order to obtain your TIE? Once you have your TIE you register your S1 and get your health card. If you need health care while TIE is being processed you use GHIC/EHIC, no requirement in such circumstances to have or pay for private healthcare. What I have outlined is exactly what we did when my wife got her TIE and Healthcard it was not an issue.

I thought we were talking about resident Britons or Britons who think they're resident but didn't do the paperwork. Tourists get max 90 days in the Shengen area, they don't count as residents in the figures. Or did you expect tourists to be able to rock up and get vaccinated?

Yes, but that was before the end of the implementation period which ended on 31st December 2020. Nowadays, even for the retired going for non-lucrative visa route, holding or eligible to get S1 doesn't exempt you from having a private health insurance in place, prepaid for a year. Once you get your visa and TIE, you can register your S1 with Spanish social security and get state healthcare, but your private insurance premium is non-refundable. You are ok from Year 2 onwards.

I'm somewhat baffled as to what point you are trying to make.

You clearly have some kind of interest in Spain but so far you have told us you were applying for an Irish passport (presumably because you now finally realise that the 90/180 rule will be strictly enforced for UK nationals) then you had second thoughts about said Irish passport, went off the idea of moving to Spain and decided to become a lorry driver in the UK. Wow.

I wonder if Brexit supporters are finally waking up to the ugly reality of being third country nationals and realising it's cold out there.

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Thanks I wasn't aware of non lucrative visa conditions not something I needed. Does seem an odd requirement if someone has an S1 but one has to follow rules in place.

Yes, seems that way but I suppose most pre-Brexit NLV applicants have had no access to S1 or equivalent so had no choice but to get private insurance. Spain can change the visa conditions to exempt S1 holders from private medical insurance but they haven't done it yet.