ARCHIVED - Cartagena surprised to see number of Brits living in the municipality has increased

There seems to be a last minute panic of Brits “thinking about moving to Spain”

“Neither the confinement, nor the restrictions imposed by their government have stopped the increase in the number of those who have decided to live in the Cartagena municipality,“ said the councillor with responsibility for statistical data in Cartagena on Monday, obviously blissfully unaware that hundreds of expats have been living in the municipality for years and have simply never bothered to register on the municipal register.

To his surprise, the number of Brits signing on to the municipal padrón has increased by nearly 200 people to almost 2200 residents.The number of Brits in Cartagena hit a low last year at 1,976 following a “deep clean” of the municipal padrón list, many of those who had once lived in the municipality but had returned to the UK without notifying the council removed from the list.

But now, with Brexit looming in just a few months, and facing the prospect of having to lift their heads above the radar and decide once and for all whether they live officially in either the UK or Spain and pay their taxes in one or the other, Brits are rushing to register officially and secure the pieces of paper that allow them to stay in Spain and secure ownership of the new TIE residency card, with almost 200 people signing on to the municipal padrón.

To a lesser extent, there has also been an increase amongst citizens of French and German origin, the French increasing from 256 in 2019 to 265 in 2020 Germans from 328 to 355.

It’s astonishing to see the amount of people on social media who seem to be completely oblivious to the fact that the Uk is about to finally exit the EU starting their post with the words” we have been thinking about moving to Spain for many years and have now decided to make the move……” can anyone recommend a nice area of Spain......"

There are also lots of “looking to come out to Spain in the autumn; obviously I need a contract so does anyone know where I can get a job…..”

And plenty of: “I am looking to make a move out to Spain. Has anyone got a rental for six months from the beginning of January so I can see what it's like to live there first??”

It’s a shame nobody in the UK seems to be interested in making a programme warning all of these people that:

- The UK is leaving the EU, so this means that they can´t just come here and move into a house without obtaining residency, which means either having a job contract or having sufficient funds to prove that they can support themselves.

- Anyone without residency can only spend 90 days here before they have to leave the country. And yes, this does also apply to France, and Italy and Greece…….. all of which are in the EU so they can´t spend 90 days in Spain and then pop over the border to France for a month and then come back to Spain as some people seem to think they can!

- There aren’t exactly many jobs here at the moment. Businesses have been forced to cut back because of Covid, we’ve just moved into the deepest recession the country will face probably in our lifetime and businesses are shedding staff like autumn leaves.

- We’ve got Covid here as well! This autumn is not going to be much fun for many businesses because of the 14 day quarantine imposed by the British govt. which is making it impossible for airlines to even half fill most of their flights at the moment, pretty much cancelling out the biggest tourism market for Spain, and on Friday Germany, the second largest market for Spain, advised its residents not to come to Spain and insisted they take a PCR test if they did.

- Plus the possibility that Covid may lead to localised lockdowns this autumn could make it difficult for those planning to try and side-step Spanish bureaucracy and fast-track residency so they can beat the 31st December free healthcare deadline.

It’s not as though Brits will be unable to move to Spain post-Brexit, but there will certainly be a few more hoops to jump through in order to gain the necessary pieces of paperwork to move here lock, stock and barrel and the question has to be asked:

Have they left it too late to be in by December ???????