YorkshireLads

Hello (Hola)! First of all, Thanks for having us!
We are a young couple (19 & 27) who have made our first big move and we may of ended up in Spain ... Okay sunny Blackpool. Yep, you guessed it: Benidorm

We've been here a little over Three months and have seemed to have settled in relatively well, but now we have got our bearing and everything seems to be going good (and keeps going that way ) we are looking to make sure we have and/or doing things by the book.

Currently we both have our;

• NIE Numbers
• Social Security
• Contracted jobs
• Somewhere to live

And a bank account to follow in the next couple of days.

The question we are really getting at, at the moment is: Have we missed anything REALLY important?

As we are both out here and neither of us have lived in Spain before, we aren't really sure what more we need to do?

We know there is something about Residency which you have to get from the town hall, but what are the requirements for that?

Any help/advice would be helpful!

Thank you,
Ben and Jake

Rosemary

Hi and a warm welcome to the Spanish forum on BE. Myself and Fred James are the moderators for the Spanish forums whilst BEVS moderates Europe. Moderators are there to ensure that the site runs smoothly within the rules of BE. This is so that members gain the information that they are looking for and find their experiences on the forums to be friendly and worthwhile.

Problems and complaints should always be addressed to a moderator who will look into the matter and deal with it efficiently and fairly. Our members who post in the Spain Forums are usually friendly and helpful with a wealth of knowledge about the issues of living in Spain. I hope that you enjoy your time participating in the forums.

Please let me know if you need any further help.

Rosemary

snikpoh

Hi,

Firstly, well done on getting contracted jobs - not at all easy!

Regarding 'residency' - what you have to do is to sign on the list of foreigners and get your 'certificate of registration'. You do this, not at the town hall, but at the extranjeria - normally with the national police station. As you have jobs etc., this should be a formality.

You will also have to sign on the padron at your town hall. Again straight forward but should be done.

chrisjolly

Well done so far but you should apply for residency, at a local police station and also go into the Town Hall and apply for a Padron. Have you also registered in your local Medical Centre? If you are driving you should change your UK licence to a Spanish one in your local Trafico. Think about house insurance too.
I would suggest you continue to pay Class 4 contributions in the UK to maintain your pension rights.
If you have any problems you could use a Gestoria who is like an official form filler in and there is bound to be one who speaks English if necessary. Good luck.

snikpoh

Why change driving licence? If it's the plastic version then there's no need.

Your pension rights are maintained anyway so this could be done but it's an extra expense which may not result in a better pension.

Horlics

Are pension rights maintained? I thought you had to keep paying into the UK system until you reach 30 years of contributions.

snikpoh

I thinks it's semantics - your rights are maintained in as much as if, for example, you have 20 years of payments when you leave UK, then at retirement age you still have 20 years worth of pension to collect.

Why 30 years anyway, isn't it now a lot more before you can take a FULL state pension?

chrisjolly

There is some debate about changing the UK licence but as far as I am aware it is required and if you stop paying your National Insurance contributions then you only get a percentage of the full pension. It is so easy and cheap to pay Class 4 that it is very well worth doing. The difference between having paid twenty years and thirty is a lot. Obviously up to the individual but I think it is worth doing. I paid it for years while I was working out of the UK and am now on a full pension and very happy to receive it every month.

snikpoh

There's really no confusion about driving licences. If you have a plastic card with an expiry date (as most of us do now) then it does NOT need changing.

I agree about the class 4 payments but if you are working in Spain, then this goes towards your overall pension so any top-ups (in UK) are a waste of time, surely?

chrisjolly

If you are paying into the Spanish Social Security system then you need to have worked a long time before you qualify for any pension and the money you have paid in is never refunded or transferred to the UK system. I know because that's what happened to me.
I much prefer using a Spanish licence especially when it come to being stopped by the Guardia. They don't always understand the finer points of EU legislation. It is easy to do so why not if you live in Spain.

stevescot

If you are retiring after 2016, you will be claiming the new state pension.
For the full amount of this, you will need 35 years of contributions.
If you are paying into the Spanish system, these will count but will be paid at a pro-rata amount. You could continue to pay Class 3 contributions to the UK (currently just under 14 pounds per week) in order to get the full UK state pension.

snikpoh

Thank you - that's exactly what I thought.

stevescot

That's not my understanding of it. For example, if Spain requires you to have 10 years paid in before any kind of pension is payable, and say you only have 6, then any payments you have made in any EU country have to be taken into account to make up the minimum period. So, if you've paid 20 years already in the UK, you have the qualifying years. Then what you have paid into the Spanish system is paid pro rata... So, e.g., if there maximum pension is achieved after 30 years and you've paid in 6, you would get 6/30th or 1/5th of a Spanish state pension.