La Comunidad Mailbag: Settling in Spain

A few weeks back I joined James Blick on Green Spain to chat about life in Galicia.

Many of you have reached out with questions (great to meet you all!), so I’ve put together this mailbag special for my Settling in Spain series.

Settling in Spain is for paid subscribers - regular articles remain free as always.

Got questions of your own? Submit them here

Looking back, what’s the one thing you’d have done differently in the first 90 days?

Honestly, I don’t think I’d have done anything differently myself, but there’s one pattern I’ve seen with so many people who move here: they put “learn Spanish” on a someday to-do list instead of diving in from day one.

There’s also a temptation to seek solace in the familiar - sticking to places like Starbucks or the local Irish bar, or prioritising friendships with fellow English speakers.

Speaking the language is still the single biggest factor in whether you can truly make the most of life here.

I got lucky in that sense - the first Spanish city I lived in was Alcalá de Henares, where nobody spoke English and the cafes, bars, and restaurants were overwhelmingly local. It forced me to learn fast.

You don’t need to be fluent - for the first year or so, you just need enough Spanish to make an effort. You can get by in the big cities with a few words, sure, but making real friends and actually becoming part of a community requires the language. And beyond the practical side, it’s an incredibly rewarding thing to do in itself.

Having made the decision to move to Spain and followed through on it, you’ve already done the hard part. Don’t hold yourself back by sticking to what you know.

You’re already out of your comfort zone - that’s exactly where all the good stuff is waiting!!

How long did NIE/residency approval actually take once you were on the ground?

September will be my 10th anniversary in Spain, so my memory of the exact timeline is a bit hazy.

What I do remember is that getting the appointment - the cita - is often the most time-consuming part. Once you’re actually sitting in front of someone, it’s pretty straightforward.

And a decade later, I still have the same flimsy green piece of paper to show for it. No photo, nothing. It’s an impressively useless document.

Please note that this was my experience as an EU citizen, so if you’re coming from outside the EU, the process will be different.

If anyone has gone through the process more recently than me, let me know how long it took in the comments - I’ll round up other readers’ experiences to share.

We’re moving to Madrid in September. What books would you recommend reading before arriving in Spain?

I read Ghosts of Spain by Giles Tremlett before moving to Spain in 2016, and it was brilliant preparation for life in Spain. I still regularly leaf through it when writing about this wonderful land.

I have just finished Madrid: A new biography by Luke Stegemann. It is an outstanding journey through the history of the city. I’ve interviewed Luke twice for the La Comunidad podcast.

You can listen here.

Other books I enjoyed: