So, it´s been a while I´ve written something here. Sorry about that!
Let´s say that in between moving continents, attending a Participatory Video Festival in Belgium, working in Burkina Faso for three weeks, visiting friends and family in the Netherlands and trying to settle here in Spain, writing for the NonMad somehow slipped in between. Bad excuses of course, so I am back!
So, I decided to start from the beginning. We moved!! From Cali, Colombia to Salobreña, Spain. The two of us, three cats, four suitcases and a bike. As you can imagine, this required quite a lot of preparations and thinking, and because I thought it quite stressfull to think about all we had to take care of and things I was afraid I was forgetting, I decided to just make a little list. To share. In case you are ever thinking about undertaking something similar.
Where to?
Well, I guess that if you have decided to move already, you will also probably know where you are moving to! For us, it was about the first time in our lives that we were completely free to choose where we would move to. Since we both work freelance and remote, no job was deciding for us. However, we díd know that we wanted to move back to Europe. And my geographical line was drawn from Montpellier (southern France) southwards. From there on we first started deciding on a country, which became Spain in the end. Partially because of the language and the climate, but also because Madrid airport is very well connected internationally (convenient for my job) and Malaga is connected very well within Europe (good for our families and friends). Also, we wanted to be close to both sea and mountains. So, in the end we decided on Salobreña. A cute white village in the province of Granada in Andalucia. By the sea, but at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, making it the best of both.
However, I know that many others will choose their final destination depending on other factors, maybe you are moving for a job, a lover or family or just because they have always dreamt about living in that place. And in the end, I really feel that about any place can be a home, as long as you have some nice people around you 🙂
Visa requirements or working visas
Of course, a first step in moving somewhere else is figuring out any visa requirements, how to obtain residency, etc. Since we are both EU citizens, moving to Spain did not require any visa. We are allowed to stay for 90 days with a NIE (a Spanish identification number for foreigners). However, after these 90 days you have to ask for permanent residency, which requires a job contract or, as in our case, subscribing our companies in Spain. When I moved to Colombia I could stay on a tourist visa for 180 days a week, but could not do any formal work. However, since I moved to Colombia with the reason to work at CIAT, they provided me with a working visa for my stay there. So, make sure that if you want to work in the country you are moving to, you have the papers to do so.
Book flights
Then, next step. Book your flight. In our case, once we had put a date, it was real. It was really going to happen, and we had a date we could work towards. Even though our flight was of course one-way, I bought a return ticket Cali-Madrid, for this turned out to be a lot cheaper than a one-way ticket. Also, we still had another 500 kilometer to cover from Madrid to Malaga, but since the flight connections were bad, ánd we were travelling with our kitties, we decided to rent a car in Madrid.
Bureaucratic things to take care of…
Then, since I had lived in Colombia for about 5.5 years, I had to take care of unsubscribing myself from many systems there. For example,
- I had to close my bank account,
- Ask to be unsubscribed from the social security
- Unsubscribe from the taxing system (especially the yearly taxes I pay for my car)
- Unsubscribe my company from the Chamber of Commerce
- Informing my landlord that I wished to stop the rental contract (check in your contract how many months in advance you need to inform, in my case it was two months)
- Unsubscribe myself from the municipality (and when I moved from the Netherlands to Colombia I asked for an official emigration record, of which I would stop to be a Dutch resident)
- Stop any internet or phone plan you might have
Ship your stuff, or sell it?
This, of course, is completely up to you. It depends on the distance you are moving, the value of your things, etc. Since the distance from Colombia to Spain would mean we would have to ship our stuff we decided to take a second look at our furniture. I love building my own furniture, which means everything was built out of pallets, tomato crates and pimped flea market findings. Absolute great personal value, but maybe not worth it to spend a minimum of a 1000,- euros on shipping. So, time to make a list of things to give away and sell. Since our airline, Avianca, allowed us 2 suitcases each down in the plane, as well as a small suitcase and a handbag as take-on luggage, so we cóuld take some things! So, I started separating those things with high personal value, mostly because they were souvenirs from some travel somewhere or a special gift from someone. We were lucky that Thomas flew to Denmark some months earlier for work and he already took one suitcase full of books. Which is good, because I love my books. They all have a special meaning, and special memories of who gave them, why and where I was when I read the book. And of course there is our vast collection of travel guides and photo albums.
After this first selection, I create an Excel file with the things for sale and disseminated this amongst the Cali networks. This was great, other people happy, we happy. The final things I gave away to neighbours or friends, up until the point where we had just 4 suitcases left (and I am happy that my dear Thomas only needs half a suitcase to fill up with his clothes, so I could use the other half for some extra clothes and shoes from my side ;))
Also, we both had some boxes at our parents´ places in the Netherlands and Denmark. Time to figure out how to get thóse to Spain as well. We both used transportation companies that often, for not too expensive, take some boxes when they have some room left. In my case I just typed into Google ´transport moving company the Netherlands Spain´ and emailed the first 10 that appeared if they could give me a price. They finally came to pick up the boxes at my parents´ house and dropped them off in Spain.
Saying goodbye 🙁
Of course, we threw a nice goodbye party for all the lovely and amazing friends and neighbours we have in Cali. It was hard to say goodbye, but we also know it wouldn´t be the last time for us to be in Colombia, and that real friendships can survive great distances. The last days we spend doing all kinds of cool things with our friends and trying to not think too much about what was to come.
Moving our cats!
So this was probably one of the trickiest parts. I have three really cute adopted former street cats, but of course without any traceable family tree. Luckily I had an amazing veterinarian who helped me with everything. I started with all these preparations 4.5 months ahead, because I had heard it could take some time!!
Step one was to chip the cats. This was they receive a small microchip in their necks. The EU requires this, and upon our arrival in Madrid they scanned the chip, after which they had all the digital documentation right at hand.
Second step it to make sure all vaccinations were up to date.
After this, the main thing was that the EU requires a certificate that they are not infected with Rabies and have been adequately vaccinated against this disease. The only way to prove this, which is accepted by the EU, is sending a blood sample to a laboratory in Texas. Yes, in the US! This was a very exciting one, of course for the result, but also whether the blood samples would even make it all the way to Texas without breaking. And I should mention that this step was way too expensive to have to repeat. So you can imagine I was super happy when I received that call that all was good and that I could pass by the week after to pick up their certificate.
Then, I had to make reservations on my flight for the cats. On long flights they are not allowed to travel in the cabin, and there are also limits to how many animals can come per flight. So, it´s good to make reservations very much in advance. And so I did.
Then, there are some very strict restrictions on how the cage should look like. Every airline will have their restrictions somewhere on their website, and again, my vet helped me make sure it was ok. Still, I made a movie of one of the cats inside of the cage and showed it to the airline, to make sure I would not have any trouble. I put some of my old shirts and a blanket they love inside the cages, so they would feel I was a little bit there. Then, in discussion with the vet, I got them some organic calming drops. Don´t ever sedate your animals, it can be very dangerous in case of, for example, vomiting or turbulence. The animal will not be able to react in a normal way. Feed them the last time a couple of hours before the flight. Given the normal amount of food they eat, I did not think they would be able to survive so long without any food, but of course they can! Because of the stress of the travel they are less hungry in general as well.
One week before flying, I had to give them a final anti-flee and anti-parasite shot.
And then, one thing I unfortunately learned by mistake, through which they did not let us board with the cats on the original flight, and thanks to Avianca for changing our flights without additional cost to a couple of days later. In Colombia a final stamp of the department of animals is needed as well as a letter from the veterinarian stating that the animal is healthy to fly. This stamp can only be obtained at the aiport during specific hours and is only valid for 24 hours. I am not sure whether this is an additional Colombian bureaucracy (they love stamps) or whether this in international, but on the morning of our rescheduled flight I had to take all documentation and the cats to this office at the airport, as well as my own passport and information of where we would move to, etc. With this final documentation, we were all ready to board. Unfortunately Thomas and I were not on the same flight anymore, now that we had to reschedule, and thus, he had to wait 5 hours in Cali airport with 1 cat and I waited for 5 hours at Madrid airport with the other two. But, all was good in the end!
So, there is a little bit about the things we were thinking of and had to deal with when we decided to move.
I am sure I might have forgotten something, but in general it felt like we were pretty organised and started well in time.
So, any thoughts? Anyone any moves planned any time soon?
