Immigrating to a New Country? Test Before You Move!
Don't let your dream location turn out to be a nightmare.
Since the last US Presidential elections, I’ve gotten a lot of questions about my move to Spain. No one asks me why I moved anymore. They just want to know how. The desperation to escape has led to such a frenzy that some people simply hop on the first ride they can get out of there.
Those of you who have followed my travels for a while know that my move to Spain took two years. I first traveled to Málaga where I spent a month, and then I took another trip to Barcelona for two weeks. Ultimately, I moved to neither of those two cities, and happily landed in Madrid.
I’ve met a lot of unprepared nomads living in Spain.
My social circles in Madrid are mostly academics, digital nomads, and expats. I’m often surprised by how few people actually prepare for their move. Some have made no proper arrangements for housing, don’t know what to do about their taxes, and struggle to navigate the health system. Many don’t even have visas.
Don’t get me wrong. You can never fully prepare to move to any country. I traveled to the United States almost every year for SEVENTEEN years before moving, and what I found still shocked the daylights out of me. Despite all those years invested—and despite another 10 years of living there—it never felt like home in the way I needed.
I share this to say that I am not judging anyone for their decisions and that no planning is perfect. However, some planning is better than no plan at all.
Planning helped me choose Madrid, despite never visiting.
I still get occasional calls and texts from people I haven’t caught up with in a while asking how is Málaga or Barcelona. They know I moved to Spain and vaguely remember the last city I told them about.
I shared in previous posts that Málaga was always the city I wanted to live in, and it still very much has my heart. However, my test trip taught me 3 very important things that forced me to cross it off my list:
There is no direct flight to Málaga, so it’s possible to miss my connecting flight from Atlanta and get stranded in the “middle country”. This happened to me in April 2023.
Connecting through European airports feels chaotic compared to the US, and as there is no equivalent to TSA Pre-check, it wouldn’t be feasible with a cat.
Connecting at so long a travel distance feels a lot worse than a direct flight, so flying direct is worth the higher cost.
My move to Barcelona was initially supposed to be another test trip. However, I had a feeling Google would have another round of lay-offs and decided it would be wiser to get the Spanish visa while I had the job I needed to qualify.
I also had some thoughts about how the US elections would turn out for people like me, which were correct. I was also correct about Google laying off my team.
When I moved to Barcelona, I already knew all the reasons I might leave. This wasn’t my first time in the city, and armed with what I knew from before, I wanted to see whether the pros outweighed the cons. In fact, the month before I moved, I messaged my college friend in Madrid to tell her not to be surprised if I ended up moving there instead by the end of the year.
Ta-da! I moved to Madrid by November.
Choose your landing and contingencies wisely.
Even though I had never visited Madrid, I had done my research and chose it as my backup plan. I had been to enough Spanish cities at this point to filter the reviews from other people and decide whether Madrid was a good fit for me.
Unlike Barcelona, I had no reservations about Madrid itself. I just didn’t want to give up access to a beach!
So many immigrants praised Madrid as a better option for reasons that mattered most. In the end, these were far more important than having a beach. I also already knew I needed a direct flight from Atlanta to Spain to make things work with my cat, so if it wasn’t Barcelona, it had to be Madrid.
I do understand that sometimes testing is just not possible. Again, I’m not judging.
As a reminder, I am the nomad who bought an RV and towed it 600 miles away from home before ever spending a single night under my new roof. Consequently, sometimes testing is solid research and true knowledge of who you are, what you need, and what will work best for you.
Next week, I’ll share:
How to test a spot before you move.
What to look for when conducting your test trip.
Tips for getting the information you need when testing isn’t an option.
See you then!