Travel restrictions to those holding a non-lucrative visa.

The idea of taking out residency is that you are showing a commitment to living in Spain and becoming part of the community. The rule is no longer than 6 months in 1 year out of the country except for emergency or extenuating circumstances. During the first 5 years which is called temporary residency, you cannot be out of Spain for more than 10 months in those five years.

Now, whether they could check if you went to another Schengen country I have no idea. However, your passport would be stamped if you leave the EU area which is how they can check on you. 

It is one of the stipulations of the NLV (doesn't apply to those who became resident under the withdrawal agreement) and there have been cases where extending the NLV has been refused under those conditions. 

Once you have lived in Spain for over 5 years then you become a permanent resident and the travel outside becomes less onerous.

I can tell you, after living in Spain for five years, and having visited France and Italy by car several times in that period, that there is never any border check on passports, you just sail through almost without realising you are in a different country.

The only time your passport will be checked is if you catch a ferry to, for example, the UK, or take a plane from Spain to another country.

Thank you for your prompt response.My intention would be to rent for a year then buy a villa in Jávea.....so the commitment to Spain would be final. The 10 month restriction I could live with if, at the same time, I could visit the Schengen area for short breaks without it counting toward the 10 month rule. This is the crux of my query. Nobody appears to be able to give me  clarification on this issue.

Thank you for your prompt reply. I wouldn't wish to fall foul of Spanish law as if all goes to plan I'd have sold up in the UK and bought property in Jávea.

I think I pointed out that it is leaving Spain, not the Schengen area, that is the rule. 10 months outside Spain. So saying, we went to France and Italy earlier on in the year by car and no checks were made at all. 

One ray of hope. The 6 months out of Spain has recently been challenged (successfully) in the Supreme Court. There may be changes to this rule in the offing.

Once you have gained permanent residency after 5 years, you can actually leave Spain for 6 years out of the ten years your residency card is valid for and for 12 consecutive months without losing residency.

Well, living in Javea will be like being on holiday for you! It's one of my favourite places and I imagine is a great place to live.

Two months out of the country every year isn't too draconian an allowance, is it? Several weeks holiday and a few weeks kept in reserve for family emergencies and the like.

I admire your concienciousness, but I really wouldn't worry about the odd car or train trip to neighbouring countries.

Thanks for your interest. I was caught out badly by the driving licence fiasco. I sold my house in the UK, went through lawyers to get the NLV (expensive exercise) and drove to Denia. If you remember the Spanish government withdrew the right to drive on a UK licence for people who were resident. As a result I returned to the UK and bought a house.....now I was without furniture! The irony was/is that now there is a reciprocal agreement in place regarding driving in Spain on a British licence. I was out of pocket by £70k as a result of this nonsense. I think this explains my belt and braces approach to future plans.

Hi Tony,

I've lived in Spain for almost 8 years and in that time, despite being an ardent traveller, I haven't felt the need to leave Spain, other than an annual trip back to the UK to see family, either flying direct, or driving through Spain and France.  During this time, I've visited the best that the Costa Blanca has to offer from north to south, Costa Calida, Costa Almeria and Costa Granada.  I've taken holidays in San Sebastian, Bilbao, Pamplona, Madrid, Toledo, Zaragoza, Barcelona, Valencia, Benidorm, Lorca, Mojacar, Granada, Jaen and Cordoba, and next Spring, I'm doing a tour, visiting Ronda, Jerez and Seville - and that doesn't include the lovely cities we have on our doorstep, such as Alicante, Elche, Orihuela and Murcia. I feel that I'm only just starting to scratch the surface of what this wonderful country has to offer.  Also next year, I'm planning to visit Segovia and Burgos, and I want to spend time touring the vineyards of the Navarre region and the foothills of the Pyrenees, the wide open spaces of Extramadura, bordering Portugal, and the cooler, green landscapes of Galicia.

I also admire your conscientious approach and understand why you feel that way (although the only time I've heard of travellers being stopped for passports checks within Schengen, was during Covid, when people were not allowed to travel in and out of Spain when we were in full lockdown).  However, I really think you can satisfy your wanderlust within Spain, saving the 2 months in each of your first 5 years of temporary residency for travel outside of Spain.

Kind regards,

Kim

P.S.  I don't work for the Spanish Tourist Board!  ;o)

Hello Kim,

Thank you for your positive imput. It is much appreciated.

The biggest drawback to limitations on travel, on a personal level, is that for 20 years I have spent at least two months/year on a small island in Thailand.......I'm loathe to give this up entirely as I'm now part of the community. I am considering reducing this period to six weeks a year in order to comply with the Spanish travel restrictions but this would severely limit the time I could spend visiting the UK. On reflection, another option would be to cut the six weeks back to one month.

This morning I downloaded the Bing new search engine which uses AI & GPT-4. It has cleared up many of the more complex questions regarding travel and my tax position in Spain.

I intend coming out to Jávea again in March before making my final decision on whether or not to move permanently to Spain. This time I'll drive over and spend longer than my previous trip of 25 days. For the record, I have also spent three months in Denia in 2020 and a further ten days in 2021.

Again, thank you for taking the trouble to reply and give me the benefit of your experience.

Kind regards,

Tony