I’ve cut this paragraph from my “Opening a B&B in Spain” thread because I’m wondering if people think it’s a “right” or “wrong” policy for a country to have and should/does the UK have the same? I’m interested to hear peoples views . . . .

There are certain rules that you have to comply with if you move to Spain to live and you are not actually moving to a job (and therefore not paying tax to the Spanish government).

The first rule is that you have to prove that you can support yourself financially. This means obtaining a “balance certificate” from your Spanish bank proving that you have at least 5000 Euros (for a single person) or 8000 Euros (for a couple) in the bank. The second rule requires you to take out a private medical insurance policy so that you will be taken care of in the event of injury or illness and not be a burden on the Spanish “Seguridad Social”.

These proofs have to be taken together to the police station where they will be officially noted and logged. Then you can be given “Spanish residence”.

The medical insurance is costing us around 500Euros each for cover until end December.

Had to do something very similar when my wife (who’s American) applied for her U.K. visa.

But if we turned round and told the Spanish that they can’t get benefits here or use the NHS, they’d bitch and moan.

And Euros complain that we don’t abide by the rules! How is this legal?

Seems an eminently sensible system for “immigrants” rather than “refugees”.

At what point do you become eligible to get Spanish welfare benefits? My simplistic understanding – despite my best efforts to get my head around this shit before the EU referendum – is that EU citizens can move freely around the EU and have access to health and welfare in their host country in the same way that host citizens can?

Or have I fallen for the UKIP/Daily Wail misinformation?

Same here, we had to prove that I earned a certain amount, our house was a certain size etc. to ensure we weren’t a burden on Ian Duncan Smith’s system.

All this despite the fact that the previous system said that she could live here as my wife provided I was above the poverty line but she would have no recourse to any benefits. So all the system you propose did was make it much harder for us to live happily as a couple in the country we call home for no gain to the benefit system.

Bull. Shit.

As I’ve said on the other thread if you are a Britishh national then you a re entitled to a Euro health card and that is all you need to provide the Spanish authorities with. There is no cash in bank rule fro European citizens. It perhaps has something to do with you moving from Africa but I’ve lived in Spain and didn’t have to take out medical insurance or provide proof of money in the bank.

All you really want from the Spanish authorities is your do-it-all number everyone in Spain has. If they won’t give you one contact your consulate (assuming it’s EU) and they’ll advise.

Edit: if you’re doing B&B that’s self-employed and you’ll have obligatory payments to the Spanish health system.

Jumped through loads of hoops to love to oz, does the requirement apply to eu citizens?

When I moved to Germany my benefits were (would have been if I had needed them) restricted for the first 2 years, I think I could get nothing for the first 6 months, then they slowly increased to 100% entitlement over the following 18 months. iirc Alpin who also lives in Germany has found it much more difficult as he is self employed.

I think the rules are the similar for the employed when going to Britain, but the rules for the self employed paying NI are probably much easier. What are the NI contributions for the self employed now? They used to be laughably low, way below the level of contributions by a PAYE employee.

But if we turned round and told the Spanish that they can’t get benefits here or use the NHS, they’d bitch and moan.

Proof of that? Or just prejudice?

Why the inverted commas? It’s almost as if the Spanish residence you are “referring” to is different from being an EU resident.

They have similar/same systems across most of Europe.
EHIC is usually only for emergency medical, not much else.

There are plenty of exemptions for temporary residency/studying/overseas workers and so on. When i emigrated permanently i started getting paperwork into place to demonstrate i had sufficient funds, then i got a job. So it was irrelevant.

When i was flitting back and forth between UK/France/Belgium/Germany i usually just had an E111 handy.

Sorry, a bit more info that might explain the thinking:

We both have British passports but have lived outside of the EU for (at least) the last 12 months. From that point of view we are immigrants rather than “migrants within the EU”. That is probably the reason for having to provide certain securities. On the plus side a benefit of not having lived in the EU for 12 months is that when our container of belongings arrives from SA we will not have to pay any import taxes. Whereas if an EU citizen had a container full of stuff delivered to his house he would have to pay import tax.

The residence in invted commas denotes he difference between being a person who resides in Spain and a person who resides in Spain and is tied into the Spanish tax system. We will be residents, but not for tax purposes. At the end of the tax year we will submit our tax returns to the Spanish tax office and then request that we become tax residents as well as actual residents.

I should also mention that neither of these laws is an issue for us. we have money in the bank anyway, for our project and we would rather have private medical insurance (as we did in SA anyway) than rely on their NHS. It seems like lots of professional people in Spain have private medical insurance.

He means a “Tarjeta de Residencia”, Captain.

Checking on the French sites for documents to provide to get one it does include medical insurance but a valid Euro card is fine initially and cash in the bank if you have no source of revenue and are not going to look for work. A B&B is work unless you do it black so will have to be declared, and the Spanish equivalent of NI paid and tax paid – the “social security number” will be required for all of that and there will be no trouble getting one.

I hope Britain makes it difficult for people who immigrate intending to work black, paying no NI or tax.

Once we have the B&B up and running, which will all be above board, we will pay tax, be entitled to the normal Spanish services and can, if we choose to, stop paying for extra medical,insurance. Presumably then we will be covered for all over Europe, including the UK (or not, depending on how you guys vote!)