Moving to another country has been my dream since childhood. And if you strive hard for something, then it becomes a reality. I will talk about how I was looking for a job, how the whole relocation process went, what documents are needed and what issues were resolved after the move.
(Many photos)
Stage 0. Preparation
My wife and I started actively refueling the tractor about 3 years ago. The main obstacle was poor spoken English, which I began to actively fight against and successfully raised it to an acceptable level (upper-int). In parallel with this, we filtered out the countries where we would like to move. They wrote out the pros and cons, including the features of the climate and some laws. Also, after much research and questioning by colleagues who had already moved, the profile on LinkedIn was completely rewritten. I concluded for myself that no one abroad is particularly interested in how long you worked (if not quite a jumper) and in what places. The main thing is what responsibilities you had and what you achieved.
view from the observation deck Mirador de Gibralfaro
Stage 1. Documents
We initially considered the situation that most likely we would not return to Russia, so we took care in advance of preparing all the necessary documents for obtaining another citizenship. In general, everything is simple here:
- birth certificate + apostille + certified translation
- marriage certificate + apostille + certified translation (if available)
- fresh passport for 10 years
- apostille of diplomas + certified translation (if available)
- certificates from previous places of work where they officially worked + certified translation
Certificates from past employers will help prove your work experience, and in some situations will remove unnecessary questions from the migration services. They must be on the official letterhead of the company, indicating your position, period of work, job responsibilities and have a seal with the signature of the personnel department. If it is not possible to get a certificate in English, then you should contact a notary translation agency. Overall, we didn't have any problems.
An interesting thing happened when it came to my birth certificate. Saints of the old type (USSR) are not accepted anywhere now, because there is no such country anymore. Therefore, it is necessary to get a new one. The snag may be that if you were lucky enough to be born in some Kazakh SSR, then "that's where the card was ordered, go there." But here there is a nuance. According to Kazakh laws, you cannot pay the state fee if you do not have a local identity card (a Russian passport is not suitable). There are special offices involved in paperwork there, but you need to give them a power of attorney, send the docks by courier, and, in principle, such offices do not inspire confidence. We have a friend living in KZ, so everything was somewhat simplified, but all the same, the process took about a month to replace the holy paper and affix the apostille, plus additional. shipping and attorney fees.
this is what the beaches look like in october
Stage 2. Sending resumes and interviews
The most difficult thing for me was to overcome the impostor syndrome and send out a resume with a cover letter to top companies (Google, Amazon, etc.). Not all of them answer. Many send a standard reply like “thank you, but you are not the right fit for us,” which is basically logical. Many companies in the application in the careers section have a clause about the presence of a valid visa and work permit in the country (which I could not boast of). But still managed to get interview experience at Amazon USA and Google Ireland. Amazon upset: dry communication by email, a test task and puzzles for algorithms on HackerRank. Google was more interesting: a call from HR with standard questions “about yourself”, “why do you want to move” and a short blitz on technical topics on topics: Linux, Docker, Database, Python. For example: what is an inode, what data types are there in python, what is the difference between a list and a tuple. In general, the most basic theory. Then there was a technical interview with a white-board and a task on algorithms. It was possible to write at least pseudocode, but since algorithms are far from my forte, I failed safely. Nevertheless, the impressions from the interview were positive.
The hottest started almost immediately after the status update in In (October). Hiring season abroad: October-January and March-May. Mail and telephone were heated by the influx of recruiters. The first week was difficult, because there was no practice of spoken English, as such. But everything quickly fell into place. Simultaneously with the interviews, we began a detailed search for information on the countries where the responses came from. The cost of housing, options for obtaining citizenship, etc., etc. The information received helped to disagree with the first two offers (Netherlands and Estonia). Further already more carefully filtered responses.
In April, a response came from Spain (Malaga). Although we did not consider Spain, but something hooked. Tech stack is mine, sun, sea. Passed interviews, sent an offer. There were doubts about “have we chosen the right one?”, “But what about English?” (spoiler: English is very bad). In the end, we decided to try. Well, at least, live a few years at the resort and improve your health.
port
Stage 3. Visa processing
The inviting party was engaged in all registration. We were required only fresh (not older than 3 months):
- marriage certificate with apostille
- certificate of no criminal record with apostille
What kind of nonsense with 3 months we did not understand, but the Spanish government agencies demand so. And if it’s still clear with a certificate of non-conviction, then I can’t understand about the certificate of marriage
Registration of a work visa to Spain begins with the receipt of a work permit by the host company. This is the longest stage. If the application falls on the summer (holiday period), you will have to wait at least 2 months. And all two months to sit on pins and needles “what if they don’t give it ???”. After that, an appointment with the embassy and a visit on the appointed date with the entire package of documents. Another 10 days of waiting, and passports with visas are ready!
Then it was like everyone else: dismissal, fees, tedious waiting for the date of departure. A couple of days before X hour, we packed our bags and still did not believe that life was about to change.
Stage 4. First month
October. Midnight. Spain met us with a temperature of +25. And the first thing we realized is that English will not help here. Somehow, through a translator and a map, they showed the taxi driver where to take us. Upon arrival at the corporate apartment, we dropped our luggage and went to the sea. Spoiler: we did not reach literally a couple of tens of meters due to the fact that it was dark and the port fence still did not end. Tired and happy, they returned to sleep.
The next 4 days were like a vacation: sun, heat, beach, sea. The whole first month there was a feeling that they had come to rest, even though they went to work. Well, how did you go. The office can be reached by 3 modes of transport: bus, metro, electric scooter. Public transport costs about 40 euros per month. In terms of time - a maximum of 30 minutes, and then if you do not rush at all. But the bus doesn't travel straight, so delays are possible, but the subway flies from the beginning of the branch to the end in 10 minutes.
I chose a scooter, like many of my colleagues. 15-20 minutes before work and almost free (pays off in six months). It's worth it! You understand this when you drive along the embankment for the first time in the morning.
In the first month, you need to solve a number of domestic and administrative issues, the most important of which is to find housing. There is also “opening a bank account”, but it did not take us long, as the company has an agreement with one bank, and accounts are opened quite quickly. The only bank that opens an account without a Unicaja resident card. This is such a local "Savings Bank", with the corresponding service, interest, poor website and mobile application. If possible, immediately open an account in any commercial bank (all state-owned banks are easy to recognize by the presence of "caja" in the name). But with the apartment the question is not the easiest. Most of the apartments are listed on sites like fotocasa, idealista. The problem is that almost all ads are from agencies, and most of them do not know English.
about englishEnglish is an interesting subject here. Despite the fact that Malaga is a tourist city, they speak English very poorly here. Schoolchildren and students speak it well, more or less - waiters in tourist places. In any state institution, bank, provider's office, hospital, local restaurant - you most likely will not find a person who speaks English. Therefore, we have always been helped by Google translator and sign language.
cathedral
For prices: normal options are 700-900. Cheaper - either in the backyards of civilization (from where it takes 2-3 hours to get to work, but somehow you don’t want to live at sea) or such huts that it’s scary to cross the threshold. There are other options in the same price range, but killed in the trash. Some landlords do not monitor housing at all (mold in the washer, cockroaches, dead furniture and appliances), but at the same time they want 900 per month (oh, what kind of game we have not seen before). A little secret: it is always worth checking what household chemicals are under the sink / in the bathroom. If there is a can of cockroaches ... "Run, fools!".
The faint of heart, please refrain from viewingI saw such a gesture behind the refrigerator in one of the apartments. And "this" in the words of the agent "okay" ...
The realtor, of course, will assure that everything is okay, and this is generally just in case. Such especially cunning realtors are immediately visible, they consider all visitors to be idiots and begin to hang noodles on their ears. It’s just worth paying attention to this at the first viewing (this will help save time in the future and recognize such apartments from the photos on the site). Options 1k + - as a rule, "expensive-rich", but there may be nuances. It is worth adding to the cost of housing in your mind “for electricity and water” ~ 70-80 per month. Comunidad payments (garbage, entrance maintenance) are almost always already included in the rental price. It is worth noting that you will immediately have to pay 3-4 monthly rents (for the first month, a deposit for 1-2 months and the agency). Mostly ads from agencies.
There is almost no central heating in Malaga. Therefore, in apartments with a northern orientation, it will be, without exaggeration, VERY cold. Windows with aluminum profiles also contribute to the cold. From them it bleeds so that it howls. Therefore, if you shoot, then only with plastic ones. Electricity is expensive. Therefore, if there is a gas water heater in a rented apartment, this will save the family budget.
At first, it was unusual that when you come home you don’t undress, but change into homemade, but still warm clothes. But now they've kind of gotten used to it.
Having rented an apartment, it becomes possible to complete the following stages of the "Moving" quest: registering in an apartment at the local city hall (Padron), obtaining local medical insurance (a la CHI), and then attaching to a local hospital. All documents and questionnaires are filled in Spanish. I can’t tell you the details about these procedures, since there is a person in the company who deals with all this, so I was only required to fill out questionnaires and come to the address at the appointed date / time.
Separately, it is worth mentioning the mandatory visit to the police and obtaining a resident card. At the visa center, when they received a visa, they were scared that if you didn’t visit the police for the actions previously described within a month upon arrival, then you would burn in a hellish flame, straight deportation, fines and in general. In fact, it turned out that: SIGN UP (done on the site) is necessary within a month, but the queue for a visit can easily be a couple of months of waiting. And this is normal, there will be no sanctions in this case. The received card does not replace an identity card (foreign), therefore, when traveling in Europe, you must take both a passport and a card that will play the role of a visa.
How is it in Spain?
As everywhere. There are pros and cons. Yes, I will not praise much.
The infrastructure is very well equipped for people with disabilities. All metro stations have elevators, the floor of the buses is level with the pavement, absolutely all pedestrian crossings have a ramp (perforated for the blind) to a zebra, and almost any shop/cafe/etc can be reached by wheelchair. It was super unusual to see so many people in wheelchairs on the street, because everyone was used to the fact that "there are no disabled people in the USSR." And any ramp in the Russian Federation is a one-way descent.
bike path and pedestrian crossing
Sidewalks are washed with soap. Well, not with soap, of course, some kind of cleaning agent. Therefore, white shoes remain white and you can walk around the apartment in shoes. There is practically no dust (as an allergic person, I immediately notice this), since the sidewalks are tiled (for sneakers, slippery in the rain, infection), and where there are trees and lawns, everything is neatly laid so that the soil does not weather. The sad thing is that in some places, either it was poorly laid, or the ground sank, and because of this, in this place the tile rises or falls. There is no particular rush to fix this. There are bike paths and there are many of them, but then again, there are many places where it would be nice to re-lay these paths.
sunset at the port
Products in stores are of high quality and inexpensive.
For an example of a position from checksUnfortunately without translation and transcription. Each check is food for a week, including wine, for 2 people. Approximately, because there are no checks from fruiteries, but on average it comes out around 5 euros
Sausage is made from meat, not the strange combinations of multiple E's and chicken meat. The average check in a cafe / restaurant for a business lunch is 8-10 euros, dinner 12-15 euros per person. Portions are large, so you should not order “first, second and compote” right away, so as not to overestimate your strength.
About the slowness of the Spaniards - in my experience, this is rather a myth. The Internet was provided to us the next day after leaving the application. Transferring the number to another operator exactly on the 7th day. Parcels from Amazon from Madrid arrive in a couple of days (one colleague was even delivered the next day). The nuance is that grocery stores here are open until 21-22:00 and do not work on Sundays. On Sundays, there is not much work at all, except for tourist places (center). This is just something to keep in mind when planning to shop for groceries. Vegetables and fruits are better to take in local shops (Frutería). It is cheaper there and always ripe (in stores, as a rule, a little underripe, so as not to spoil), and if you make friends with the seller, he will also sell the best. It would be remiss not to mention alcohol. It's plentiful and cheap! Wine from 2 euros to infinity. The unspoken law “cheap means singed and generally fu” does not apply here. Wine for 2 euros is quite a real wine, and quite a good concentrate with a dye not diluted with alcohol.
I did not find the difference between a bottle for 15 and for 2. Apparently I don't have the makings of a sommelier. Local wines are almost all from Tempranillo, so if you want variety, you will have to pay more for Italy or France. Jagermeister bottle 11 euros. Many different types of gin ranging from 6 to 30 euros. For those who miss "native" products, there are Russian-Ukrainian shops where you can find herring, dumplings, sour cream, etc.
view of the city from the wall of the Alcazaba fortress
Public medical insuranse (CMI) - turned out to be good, well, or we were lucky with the clinic and the doctor. According to the state insurance, you can also choose a doctor who knows English. Therefore, I would not recommend taking out private insurance immediately upon arrival (~45 euros per month per person), since it will not be so easy to cancel it - the contract is automatically concluded for a year, and it is rather problematic to terminate it ahead of schedule. There is also such a point that not all the specialists you are interested in can have private insurance in your area (there is no dermatologist in Malaga, for example). Such points must be clarified in advance. The only advantage of private insurance is the ability to quickly get to the doctor (and not wait a couple of months as in public insurance, if the case is not serious). But even here there are nuances. Since with private insurance, you can wait a month or two to popular specialists.
view of the city from the wall of the Alcazaba fortress from a different angle
From mobile operators ... well, there’s not even anything to choose from. Unlimited data costs like a cast-iron bridge. With traffic packages, either expensive or little traffic. In terms of price / quality / traffic ratio, O2 approached us (contract: 65 euros for 2 numbers of 25 GB each, unlimited calls and SMS within Spain and home optics for 300 Mbps). There is also a moment with home Internet. When looking for an apartment, you should ask which provider is connected and look for an optics cord. If you have optics, great. If not, most likely it will be ADSL, which is not famous for its speed and stability here. Why is it worth asking which specific provider started the cable: if you try to connect to another provider, they will offer a more expensive tariff (because first the new provider files an application with the previous provider to disconnect the client from its line, and then the technicians of the new provider come to connect ), and cheaper tariffs “no technical ability to connect” in this case. Therefore, it is definitely worth going to the owner of the line and finding out the tariffs, but it will also not be superfluous to collect the connection cost from all operators, since bargaining is appropriate here and they can pick up a “personal tariff”.
the day after Gloria (port)
Language. English is not spoken by as many people as we would like. It is easier to list the places where it can be spoken: waiters/salesmen in tourist cafes/shops in the center. All other questions will have to be solved in Spanish. Google translator help. I still wonder how in a tourist city, where the city receives the main income from tourists, the majority does not speak English. The topic with the language was very upsetting, probably because expectations were not met. After all, when you imagine a tourist place, you immediately assume that the international language will definitely be known there.
sunrise (view from San Andres beach). Docker floating in the distance
To study Spanish, the fuse somehow quickly disappeared. There is no incentive. At work and at home - Russian, in cafes / shops there is enough basic level A1. And without incentive, there is no point in doing it. Although, I learned about many people who have been living here for 15-20 years and know only a couple of phrases from Spanish.
mentality. He's just different. Lunch at 15, dinner at 21-22. All local food is mostly fatty (salads generally float in mayonnaise). Well, with food, this is of course a matter of taste, there are many cafes with different cuisines and you can find something to your liking. Spanish churros, for example, go very well this way.
The manner of walking in a line - I probably will never get used to it. 2-3 people are walking and can occupy the entire sidewalk, of course they will let you in if you ask, but what for walking together and at the same time shying away from each other is a mystery to me. Standing somewhere at the entrance to a covered parking lot (where the echo is louder) and yelling into the phone (or a nearby interlocutor) so that even without a phone you can shout to the other end of the city is a frequent occurrence. At the same time, a stern look at such a comrade is enough for him to understand that he is wrong and lower the volume. When a look is not enough, the Russian mat helps, although, probably, it's all about intonation. At "rush hours" in a cafe, you can wait forever for a waiter. First, an eternity to clear the table after previous visitors, then an eternity to take the order, and then the order itself at about the same time. Over time, you get used to it, since there is no such competition as in Moscow, and no one will be upset if one client leaves (one left, one came, what's the difference). But with all this - the Spaniards are very friendly and helpful. They will really want to help you if you ask, even if you don't know the language. And if you say something in the slightest degree in Spanish, they will blossom in a sincere smile.
Hardware stores here are crazy to the edge. Prices in the same Mediamarkt are quite high. And this despite the fact that you can order on Amazon many times cheaper. Well, or, as many Spaniards do, buy appliances in Chinese stores (for example: an electric kettle in the media market costs 50 euros (so Chinese that even the Chinese could not even dream of), but in a Chinese store 20, and the quality is much better).
Barbershops are great. Haircut with shave ~25 euros. Note from the wife: beauty salons (there are no hairdressers as such) it is better to choose those in the center. There is service and quality. Those salons that are in the sleeping areas are far from perfect and at least can ruin your hair. It’s better not to do manicures in salons at all, because Spanish manicure is trash, waste and sodomy. You can find manicure masters from Russia/Ukraine in the VK or FB groups who will do everything with high quality.
Nature. There are many and they are different. The usual pigeons and sparrows in the city. Of the unusual: ringed turtledoves (like doves, only more beautiful), parrots (they are even more often seen than sparrows). There are many types of plants in the parks, and of course palm trees! They are everywhere! And they create a feeling of vacation every time you look at them. Oily fish, fed by locals and tourists, swim in the port. And so, on the beach, when there are no strong waves, you can watch flocks of fish gurgling right at the shore. Malaga is also interesting because it is surrounded by mountains (for hiking, that's it). Plus, this location saves from all sorts of storms. Recently there were Gloria and Elsa. All over Andalusia, the devil was going on (I'm not talking about the rest of Spain and Europe), but here, well, soooo, it rained a little, a little hail and that's it.
sea
cats, birds, plants
the cat is waiting for its order
doves
in general, there are no street dogs and cats here, but this gang lives on the shore and hides in the stones. Judging by the bowls, someone feeds them regularly.
fish in the port
citrus fruits here grow on the street just like that
street parrots
Salary. Some of the expenses I have already mentioned in the text, including rent. In many salary ratings, they like to compare the salary of IT specialists with the average salary for the country/city. It's just that the comparison is not quite correct. We deduct housing rent from the salary (and the locals usually have their own), and now the salary is not so different from the average local one. In Spain, IT workers are not some kind of elite as in the Russian Federation, and this should be taken into account when considering moving here.
Here, not so high incomes are compensated by a sense of security, quality products, freedom of movement within the EU, the proximity of the sea and the sun almost all year round (~ 300 solar per year).
To move here (Malaga), I would recommend having at least 6000 euros. Because renting a house, and even at first, you will have to equip your life (you can’t move everything).
sunset view from Mirador de Gibralfaro
Well, like everything I wanted to talk about. It turned out, perhaps, somewhat chaotically and a “stream of consciousness”, but I will be glad if this information is useful to someone or if it was just interesting to read.
Source: habr.com