For families
Emigrating with children to Spain
In Spain your address chooses the school. Admission to a público or concertado weighs your home address most, and that address only officially exists after the empadronamiento — the registration at the town hall that your children's health card hangs on too. Anyone who knows the order arranges school and healthcare in one movement; anyone who doesn't gets stuck on it longest.
First the question that comes before everything, if it applies to you: with joint custody you may not simply take the children abroad. You need the consent of the other parent, or substitute consent from the court — leaving without it is legally child abduction. Sort that out before you look for a house.
Then the Spanish side. If you stay longer than three months and do not work in Spain, at registration you show sufficient means for everyone who comes along and full healthcare cover. You arrange the NIE at the consulate in the Netherlands, so your first weeks are not spent getting an appointment. If you arrive outside the regular enrolment period, schools take in children without Spanish — how, is in the school article.
And the Dutch side, which weighs more with children: childcare allowance and child budget do not stop by themselves on the day you leave, and anyone who lets them run gets a claim for repayment months later. You let your health insurance connect to the new cover; the dog or cat travels within the EU without quarantine, with one waiting period that can shift your departure date.
School and healthcare — and the address that chooses both
Going to school in Spain: three kinds of school, and an address that chooses
Público, concertado or privado — and an admission in which your home address weighs heaviest. How enrolment works, what happens if you arrive outside the regular period, and how schools take in children without Spanish.
Updated 11 September 2026
Empadronamiento: the registration everything else hangs on
Your registration at the Spanish town hall is free, takes a quarter of an hour, and is the condition for your health card, your children's school and your registration certificate. Yet it's the step people get stuck on the longest.
Updated 11 September 2026
The Spanish healthcare system: three routes in, and one safety net that costs money
Whoever works in Spain is automatically in public healthcare, pensioners come in with the S1 — and since 2018 legal residents without work have access too. For whoever falls under nothing there's the convenio especial: € 60 a month, with one important exception.
Updated 28 August 2026
Taking medicines across the border: certificates, supply and the 90-day ceiling
For medicines under the Opium Act you need a certificate — and the Dutch system only carries you for three months. What you arrange with the CAK, what Australia wants to see at the border, and why finding a local doctor simply belongs to your first weeks.
Updated 11 September 2026
The questions that come before everything
Emigrating with children after a divorce: the consent that comes before everything
With joint custody you can't just go abroad with the children — you need the consent of the other parent, or substitute consent from the court. What the court weighs, and why leaving without consent is legally child abduction.
Updated 11 September 2026
The income and health-cover requirement: what Spain wants to see before you may stay
Whoever stays longer than three months and doesn't work in Spain has to demonstrate two things — sufficient means and full health cover. What exactly is tested, which evidence counts, and why there's no amount here.
Updated 28 August 2026
Applying for the NIE from the Netherlands
You can already arrange your Spanish identification number at the consulate in the Netherlands. Whoever does so doesn't lose their first weeks in Spain to securing an appointment.
Updated 11 September 2026
Partner comes along without a job of their own: deregistering, healthcare, AOW and the house
Your partner has a job, a visa or a right of residence there; you come along without a job of your own. Administratively you're then no passenger: the deregistration, the end of your health insurance and your AOW accrual apply to you separately. What you get back if you arrange it well, what it costs if you let it slide — and when "just staying registered" is allowed after all.
Updated 9 September 2026
The practical side
Renting in Spain: five years of protection, one month's deposit, and the costs the landlord bears
Spanish tenancy law protects you better than its reputation: five years of security of tenure, a deposit capped by law, and since 2023 the agency fees are the landlord's. Plus the scam signals you need all the more as a foreigner.
Updated 11 September 2026
Stopping allowances on emigration: do it yourself, and in time
Housing allowance, healthcare allowance, childcare allowance and child budget don't stop by themselves on the day you leave. Whoever lets them run gets a reclaim months later — this is what you arrange per allowance.
Updated 11 September 2026
Cancelling your health insurance without a gap
Your Dutch basic insurance is tied to living or working in the Netherlands and stops being a given on emigration. The art is to have the end date match your new cover — and to know which route belongs to your situation.
Updated 28 August 2026
Taking your pet to Spain: chip, jab, passport — and 21 days of patience
Within the EU your dog or cat simply travels with you, without quarantine. There are only three requirements, and one of them has a waiting period that can shift your departure date if you start too late.
Updated 11 September 2026
In the Spanish step-by-step plan the family travels along: school, healthcare and documents per family member, with the timing watched — the empadronamiento before the school enrolment, the allowances stopped on the right day.
The departure guide
Five mails, and you see your whole journey
Not ready to start yet? Choose your destination and we'll send you the departure guide: five mails in a week and a half, with the order, the pitfalls and the real costs. After that at most one mail a month: first the question where your plans stand, then now and then one thing that fits the time of year or your country. No newsletter, and you can switch it off at any time.
Ready to begin?
Forty-four journeys are fully ready: your step-by-step plan, your documents and your costs in one place, with the timing watched. Pay once, and it's yours.