What you need to do is to become at least fluent in Spanish, 20 years ago there were a lot more British people over there, wanting work doen by an English speaking tradesman, but those days are gone now and you will need Spanish, not leat for the mountains of paper work you will need to do, the Spanish love their paperwork

Hi All,
Although sad, the negative posts are accurate. There is a positive angle, over the years I have seen soooo many people think exactly like the OP, sell up in “safe” U.K. move to Spain. They quite often ended up either living in paradise with little money (Spain is not a nice place if you have no money) or worse ended up losing everything and returning to the Uk bereft of their built up U.K. equity and savings and having to start again in the U.K.

Although I love Spain I think the visa issue has saved a lot of Brits a lot of pain! And the U.K. for its faults is a wonderful safe place with little corruption. The weather, particularly this year is our biggest negative.

so chin up OP

regards
Al

Talking of corruption....this might surprise a few!

https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2023/index/esp

Top of the league is the least BTW!

I think it's sad that British people have been denied the opportunity to find out for themselves and I certainly don't buy into the idea that people need to be protected from themselves and prevented from experiencing things first hand. Before EU freedom of movement was taken away from British people, they had options and could, for example, rent out their UK house and either travel around the EU or move to Spain (perhaps for a limited period) and/or even try somewhere else for a few years. My partner and I were very young in 1998 when we started the ball rolling and bought our first plot of land in Spain and we have made a success of it with further projects and also a property in Portugal.

I think the OP and anyone else in a similar situation should consider Portugal. It's far easier than Spain with a much lower minimum income requirement.

I can understand why the OP would want to leave the UK. I visited the UK for a few days recently (the South East) and it depressed the hell out of me and I couldn't get away soon enough.

Excellent!
Having said that, I worked for some time in Madrid with Iberia, the national airline in their aero-engine overhaul facility. I found all of the Spanish there, good, hard workers - both in their offices and on the shop floor where my principle activity was overseeing engine rebuild, especially regarding quality control. At that time we worked a 6 day week, 7:30 to 3pm.
What surprised me, were the many workers there who, after an afternoon siesta went on to do a 2nd job for several hours from early evening. I have no idea what the Iberia salaries were, but most close to me were all skilled workers, so I'm quite sure that a 2nd job late into the evenings was not for the love of it, but to provide a reasonable standard of living.
I'd be surprised if many workers in Spain were not doing the same today. It may make similar activities in the UK seem easy by comparison. As others have pointed out, Spain should not be solely considered for the weather or an easier pace of life.

What about the new digital nomad visa? My understanding is that if you can work remotely for a UK company, then you can live in Spain.

- Eric S.

Not an easy visa to get.
You have to demonstrate that you are in and have been in this type of role for a set minimum period of time, its only renewable for three years and none of the years count towards permanent residency.
You must also have full private health insurance as you cannot use the local services nor even pay into the Convenio.
I have an ex work colleague who is on this and he is actually moving to Portugal as the requirements are so much simpler than here and he will have full residency at the end of it.

DNV info here. More info here.

One thing is once you start residency, you may apply for an optional residency card or show your visa in your passport. I'd apply for the residency card, it's expected for many things in daily life.

This visa route does lead to permanent residency after five years, e.g. here (Spanish - "Beneficios del permiso" heading).

As usual lot’s of helpful ( administrative) answers but I am surprised why no one has questioned why the poster would want to live Spain or come to that anywhere else. Weather? Perceived lifestyle? Cost of living? Health reasons? Whilst the answers to these may also be negative they would probably be more useful than how to get a visa,

. Starter is inherently stupid but even he is not that stupid.

Why not offer your own opinion on: Weather? Perceived lifestyle? Cost of living? Health reasons?