If you're planning to relocate to Barcelona with your family, there are many things to consider before you make the move. In this blog post by RELOC Barcelona, a provider of relocation services, we'll share some tips to help you prepare for your new life in this vibrant city, including finding the right accommodation, essential documents to bring, and important steps to take upon arrival. We'll also provide advice for families with school-age children, including information about schooling options and the best neighbourhoods to live in.
Before relocation
First move to temporary accommodation for a month or so to get to know Barcelona and its surroundings and to take some more time to find long-term accommodation that really suits you.
What to consider
In case you need to end your rental contract back home (or to rent or sell your earlier home) consider leaving your furniture in deposit with your “to be” removal company. This has a marginal cost and allows you more time to know your new destination best and decide on long-term accommodation, while avoiding the costs linked to your earlier home.
What to remember
Remember to bring with you to Barcelona: debit/credit cards, your ID cards/passports, marriage and/or family certificates, birth certificates for the children (in case they do not have an ID or passport). In addition, online access to your home bank account is desirable to swiftly perform transfers and payments at the start of your stay (e.g., for rents, deposits, etc.).
Find the best relocation service
Bear in mind that some admin steps will be needed on arrival, even if you are an EU national. The most pressing ones are:
1) requesting the NIE/TIE (identification number for foreigners in a small green card)
2) opening a Spanish bank account (for utilities and alike, online)
3) registering with the social security system (done by the employer for their employee but by you for the remaining family, to get access to the Spanish medical system – online)
4) registering your address in Spain (city-hall, in person)
5) changing your car plates, if applicable.
Relocation package: Children
If you have school age children try to move during the summer or, worst case, during Christmas to ease their adaptation; make sure that they speak a bit of Spanish before coming as it will help them feel less foreign and integrate better;
Note that if your children do not speak Catalan fluently, then public schooling is NOT an option in Barcelona, unfortunately. Catalan is used for approximately 70% of subjects in public schools, the remaining 30% being Castellano (Spanish) and English. So private schooling is the only real choice in this case. There are many international or bilingual schools (including French and German schools, besides several British or American schools and other Spanish/English schools) but of course they are expensive. If you have toddlers, then you may try to place them in public kindergarten as slowly they will learn Catalan and Spanish.
From our experience, when you have children, the easiest choice is to live close to your children’s school. This will allow them more independence (to travel between school/home or meet their friends) when they are older, they will be closer to their school friends, making their social interactions easier, and, most likely, the after-school activities will be closer as well. This means the adults will be doing the longer commuting. So, again, choose well where you decide to live. Public transport in Barcelona is quite good (train and metro, especially) and you can live outside the city, if that is your preference, and use public transport to reach work.
Hope this article helps you to have a general overview on the various alternatives to reside, study or work in Spain. Should you have any questions on any of the above procedures do not hesitate to contact us!