Comment by embedding-shape
8 hours ago
> Never occurred to me that moving to any other EU country might be harder than that.
I don't think it is? I moved to Spain from other EU country the same way, basically bought the cheapest one-way plane ticket I could find, spent ~1 month here before deciding I wanted to live here, then got myself the local residence card one morning and that's about it. Everything else just worked by using my passport in the meantime.
It depends on the country. And Spain is not as simple as you say. Even getting the NIE is very difficult due to the foreign police not making enough appointments available. And expensive immigration agencies hoarding those appointments to make money.
Then you need a social security number exist is different than the NIE, you need empradonamiento, you need to register with the health service and you need to set up your tax if you're going to work here (or if you live there more than 180 days of the year)
No, it is significantly more difficult in other EU countries, yes.
Here in Finland for example the process is actually no different than for a non-EU migrant (same amount of time taken for an unproblematic application, same amount of appointments). You are just much more likely to be accepted but in fact they do still reserve the right to reject people. And it is, probably unintentionally, much harder to exist in Finland as a non-resident as you can't have a bank account, can't use foreign phone numbers for most things and any phone you can get is very limited (can't call many numbers, etc). I couldn't even log into the local eBay for the first 6 months. All the Nordics I would guess are similar.
And people have contested in the comments to you that Spain is not actually so easy as you suggested...
I actually don't know any western country that is as easy to move to as the UK was pre-Brexit. I still think the UK is in fact one of the easier Western countries to move to, especially if you can't find moderately paid work
Countries with a national id system I would guess tend to be more difficult overall though. And the UK famously is not one of those.
In Barcelona it is impossible to get an appointment for the residence card. There is online booking system, but it never shows any available slots. But then there are few companies that for 50-100 euros can get an appointment.
But then even with appointment one only gets a temporary permit unless one already got a job offer. One gets the permanent card only after starting a business or buying a property or getting a work.
Also to open a permanent bank account one needs to have at least a temporary residence. Otherwise banks can only open a tourist account valid for few months.
"There is online booking system, but it never shows any available slots. But then there are few companies that for 50-100 euros can get an appointment." ^^^ shouldn't complain about this on Hacker News. I wrote my own bot and it took a day or so. The appointment slot came in in 30 minutes thereafter ;)
If you're an EU citizen you by definition have a permanent permit, until either your country of origin or host country leaves the EU. If you are not then woe be you, but that's a separate matter.
In theory yes, one can stay in Spain as a citizen of a EU country indefinitely. In practice for anything in Spain you need a tax number. Even to get an Internet connection at home one needs it.
That's not actually the case, strictly speaking. Residence in another EU country requires meeting certain criteria even if some countries (like the UK when it was in the EU) do not check or really enforce them. This also means that an EU citizen can be deported from another EU country back to their home country if they don't meet those criteria.
"Permanent residence" is also again different and requires residence under those criteria for at least 5 years.
It's not just registering. This assumes you had a job contract lined up or sufficient funds to support yourself.
I had neither when I moved, sold my things, tried to survive, ended up sleeping outside for a few days and I found a job after I moved here, not before. But yeah, there is one or two more appointments in reality, one for the social security and one for registering with your local city government, both a lot easier to get than the residence permit which can be a bit of a hassle unless you work with agencies to get it.
> Then got myself the local residence card one morning
Well, exactly. Some countries require/required registration and residence card. That did not exist in the UK when it was in the EU, you just showed your passport/ID card when you needed to prove your right to be there (basically once in a blue Moon). Even now EU residents don't have any physical documents.
The National Insurance number @pdpi mentioned is unrelated as everyone has one once they work and an appointment is not always required to get one, and you can actually start working before you get one.
If you work as an employee there is also usually nothing to do regarding tax.