You wouldn't need to have the headlights changed as a poster mentioned earlier as the States drives on the same side of the road as here

Thanks for clearing that up - it was a British guy that was explaining and it didn't make any sense to me at the time. But I am just a girl and know nothing about cars. Other than do I like the colour, does it drive good and do I look good in it !!! :wink:

sun-n-fun, get yourself a "cool sexy" little one in Spain, A car that is, (but I would take the hot sexy one if HE was Spanish) it's much easier than all that friggin around with importing/exporting.

[quote="mitzyboy"][quote=Lionelv]
Is it necessary to place our chidren in private international schools in Madrid, as they are only English speaking, or are the public schools fully bilingual?[/quote]


Here is my personal experience of putting a child in a school where your first language isn’t spoken.

As we are from Canada and French being an “official” language, I decided that I would put my daughter in a French Immersion school even though we are from English Canada.

From age 6 – 10 I had her in French Immersion and they were taught all their subjects in French and had to speak French at all times. At the end of the 4 years I took her out because she was having difficulty with subjects such as math and science because as they became harder she had more difficulty in understanding them in French.

Once I put her in an English school she excelled and was an honour student for the rest of her school years getting grades in the high 90’s.

The only difference between my daughter and your kids is she was taught French as part of the curriculum so they were taught the proper French grammar and to read, write and speak it whereas in a Spanish school they are not going to be teaching your kids to speak, read or write Spanish and there is a good possibility the teachers speak little or no English. So they will be at a disadvantage from the start.

I do know a number of people who brought their kids to Spain and put them in Spanish schools and for most of them the experience hasn’t been great particularly older kids who end up not doing well at all in school mainly because of the language issue.

[quote="mitzyboy"][quote="Lionelv"]Thanks for the info. We will do the necessary application here in South Africa.

Your welcome, although be prepared for it not being easy and a lengthy process, here is a shortened version of information I was given by our embassy in regards to working in Spain.

"All citizens of non-EU (European Union) countries, must obtain a visa from a Spanish consulate in their home country to work in Spain.
Applications for visas must be made in to the Spanish consulate with jurisdiction over one's place of residence.
Those applying for a visa to work in Spain will also require a pre-contract
Successful applicants must collect their visas in person when advised by the Spanish consulate that they are ready at the Spanish consulate in their home country.
Applications employment take several months as the granting of a visa is subject to the approval of the work permit.
Procedures for a work permit are:
The employer must first submit an application for a work permit for the potential employee to the provincial office of the Ministry of Labour Delegación Provincial del Ministerio de Trabajo y Asuntos Sociales in Spain. Once submitted,a copy of this application, bearing the stamp of this office and a file number (N.E.V), is given to the employee who must then submit this document when applying for a work and residence visa along with all other required documents. The Spanish Consulate will then inform the Regional Labour Office in Spain that the visa application has been submitted. It is however recommended that the applicant send his future employer a stamped copy of his visa application so that the employer can immediately inform the Labour Office that the visa application has been made and this office can begin processing the file. If the contract is approved, the Labour Office will inform the Spanish Consulate through the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the visa may be issued."

As non-EU citizens we are only allowed to stay in Spain for 3 months. We are in a situation similiar to yours, I have the paperwork to stay there as long as I want, my boyfriend doesn't. We did contact a lawyer in Spain, who told us if we were married it might make it easier for to him to stay longer than the three months, but no guarantees.

Long story short, he stayed longer than three months, got stopped on a routine traffic check and his passport stamp showed he had been in the country longer than 3 months and he was told to leave within days or risk being deported. You have to leave for 3 months before you can return.

You should check all this out with the Spanish Embassy in your country.

As far as I know if you earn the money in Spain you pay the same taxes as everybody else, non EU citizen or not, no special treatment for us.

For your wife, as an non EU citizen she wil not be able to work unless she applies and receives her own work permit from the Spanish Embassy in your country of residence.

I tried it, believe me it was not easy, I gave up after a couple of tries I will stick to my automatic, much easier.