Theoretically, let’s say that my Spain digital nomad visa renewal process went perfectly smoothly. My Tarjeta de Identidad de Extranjero (TIE), also known as my Spanish resident ID, expired about a week ago. Unfortunately, you can’t apply for a new one until after your old one is officially expired. So, continuing with our little fantasy, let’s say I had the appointment either this week or last week to renew it. 

Then, it takes 2+ weeks for them to print your new card. Which wouldn’t be a problem if we weren’t leaving for the U.S. on Monday next week. Because even in this perfect scenario, there’s no way that I could have my new TIE before we leave for our trip. And now that Europe has implemented the new electronic Entry/Exit System, we always use a special Spanish resident line in the airport by showing our TIE cards to the immigration police when entering or exiting Spain.

So… how will we be able to return to Spain after our trip without our new TIE cards?

The answer is a special little piece of paper called a Regreso. [Read more…]

I used to write about this topic so frequently, but it’s been nearly six years since I completed my second year as a language assistant/auxiliar de conversación in Spain through the NALCAP program. Back then, this blog was full of articles with how-to guides on topics like getting a good school placement and opening your first Spanish bank account. 🙂

A lot has changed in my personal life since then — in the past six years, I moved back to the U.S. for three and a half years, and then moved BACK to Spain on the digital nomad visa. It had been a while since I’d thought about NALCAP (other than reminiscing on what an amazing experience I had.) But last summer, I was invited by the Spanish Ministry of Education to be one of five panelists on the first-ever “NALCAP Forever” webinar, which was designed to connect program alumni.

This was when I first found out that NALCAP was having problems. [Read more…]

After two months visiting the U.S., we’re only a few days away from heading back to our other home in Alicante, Spain. I’m really excited to get back, though I’ve definitely enjoyed our time here this fall. But it has been endlessly busy! From playing in a soccer league and sand volleyball league, to two friends’ weddings and our own wedding reception, our annual Halloween party, fostering a cat, and watching the Chiefs games with family and friends, life here has looked a lot different from the Spanish lifestyle we’ve gotten used to.

But the lifestyle is one of the biggest reasons we love living in Spain, and it’s hard to believe we’re already coming up on a year since we moved to Alicante! While I had lived in Madrid for two years, life in Alicante looks a lot different, and I’m always excited when I get to experience new aspects of life in Spain.

So I thought it would be fun to share seven new experiences I’ve had living in Spain this year. [Read more…]

Raise your hand if you’ve ever watched Emily in Paris. 🙋‍♀️🙋‍♂️ Season Four recently came out, and Matt and I watched it all within a week. We’ve been Emily in Paris “fans” since it first premiered in October 2020, as we got snowed into our Montana apartment and we decided to watch for the beautiful Paris imagery, dreaming of days when the pandemic would abate and we could travel internationally again.

But four seasons in, I have to admit that we’re hate-watching more than actually enjoying the show. Vapid Emily, who represents the worst of American corporate culture and does nothing but make one baffling decision after another, floats through life in Paris with no consequences to her dumb actions. The plot holes are too numerous to count.

Has Emily ever taken the metro? Why does she leave every cafe without paying? How was her suitcase not stolen when she left it in the middle of a plaza and walked away? Why does she still know like no French? When does her visa expire? Also (spoiler alert for Season 4/5) how can she just move to Rome with no paperwork whatsoever?

I know that it’s a TV show and it’s not supposed to be anything more than fantasy. But as an actual American living abroad, I feel that Emily in Paris is missing far too many crying scenes. [Read more…]

Special edition blog! It’s officially been a month since Matt and I got married in a 10th-century castle in the countryside of Catalonia, Spain. And it was more than a wedding venue — the castle had 8 bedrooms, which meant that up to 16 people could stay there, so our families came a few days early and we spent three nights together. (You can book it on your favorite homestay booking app, like Booking.com!) Then, on the day of the wedding, about 15 more friends came in by shuttle bus from Barcelona for the ceremony.

As you can probably imagine, planning a destination wedding wasn’t easy — especially because I didn’t have a wedding planner. I figured that since it was going to be so small, I’d be able to figure it all out on my own. And I did! But it was a lot harder than I was expecting. 😅 So I thought I would share some wisdom about what it was like to have a destination wedding in Spain. [Read more…]

My dear readers and fellow Spain-digital-nomads-to-be: I want to warn you that becoming a digital nomad in Spain is not for the faint of heart. I’ve been working through this Spain digital nomad checklist for the past two+ months, as we’ve been going through the steps ourselves, and writing it all down has really caused me to reflect on la locura of the whole process.

I really hope that this Spain digital nomad checklist can be helpful, but there are a few disclaimers I want to give. First of all, I lived in Spain as a language assistant through the NALCAP program from 2018-2020. For that reason, I had some advantages when it came to several items. Not only did I already have a Spanish bank account, but I was familiar with the processes for getting a TIE and empadronamiento. [Read more…]

Now that we’ve been in Alicante long enough to feel like we actually live here, I’m able to think about how different life is in Alicante compared to life in Madrid. In case you didn’t know this about me, I lived in Madrid for two years from 2018-2020 when I was participating in the NALCAP program as a language assistant. I loved Madrid, and I will always love Madrid! And I had never lived anywhere else in Spain — until now.

When moving to Alicante, I was super curious to find out which things I thought were “Spain” things, that were actually just “Madrid” things. And after two and a half months, here are the biggest differences I’ve noticed so far between life in Madrid and life in Alicante. [Read more…]