Getting a Digital Nomad Visa, and On to Barcelona

My Spanish digital nomad visa came through. The additional documents were approved, and it's for three years to begin with. I'm in a strange state of mind, joy and nerves tangled together at the thought of a new life about to start.

Getting it was hard enough, but only once the application went through did I realize there was a mountain of things still to do afterward. I've been rebuilding my entire schedule for the year, thinking about what comes next.

I applied for the visa myself. Hiring an immigration lawyer or an accounting firm costs a fair amount, and back then it wasn't money I could pay.

Of course, even with professionals, you still gather the documents yourselves. But not having to agonize over what goes into them, or over the procedures, makes a big difference. If you can afford to spend a decent sum, I think it's better to hire someone.

Since I couldn't, I spent a month in Barcelona instead, going to the city hall and the bank, muddling through the Spanish I didn't understand with a translation app and English, and working through the procedures one by one. Looking back, it was an experience I needed. Being there for a month let me see with my own eyes, on my own feet, which neighborhoods I wanted to live in and what kind of life I could have here. In that sense too, I'm glad I applied on my own.

Four years ago, my wife and I got hold of Star Alliance round-the-world tickets. We gave up the jobs we had and the home we lived in, packed everything into one backpack each, and traveled the world on a one-way ticket for as far as it would take us. Going one by one to places we'd always wanted to see, the city where I thought, “I want to live here,” was Barcelona.

At the time, I only had the feeling; I couldn't think as far as how we would actually live there. Thinking of that city far across the sea, we started living frugally in Japan. I considered a working holiday, but a visa that ends after a year always felt too limiting, and in the end we stayed in Japan.

Four years have passed since then. A lot has happened, and we've finally made it to the starting line. It's only just begun, but I'm truly glad I kept going without giving up.

I lived in English-speaking countries for a few years, so I can speak a little English, but I can't speak Spanish at all. During last year's stay, English got me through plenty of situations, but there were also many times I felt that I really needed Spanish. Once I'm here, I want to study it properly.

I have a few jobs in Japan right now, but honestly, I don't know whether they'll continue once I move my base to Spain. I've lived a somewhat nomadic life for the past few years, but in reality it was a cycle of spending a few weeks or a few months abroad and then going back to Japan. Leaving Japan for real takes more preparation than ever before.

Within Europe, Spain is still on the cheaper side, but with the yen this weak, earning only in yen won't keep up. Somehow earning in euros: that, alongside Spanish, is my big goal.

When you start living somewhere new, much of what came before changes. Sometimes you gain things you didn't have, and sometimes you lose things you did. Maybe that's why people fear change and try to resist it. But if all you hold on to is anxiety, you can't move.

At any age, if you stop taking on new challenges, you stop growing. I've felt that throughout my life, and that's exactly why, anxious as I am, I want to move forward with even more hope.

While I was still in Japan, I set up not only the visa but also a company. I think it was one of the biggest preparations I could make. Since having a company, I can feel my thinking shifting on everything — work, money, relationships, the way I live.

And then I crossed the sea and came to Barcelona.

Right after the visa came through, I arrived feeling optimistic: “I want to move as soon as possible!” But the reality is that the complexity (and sloppiness) of Spanish bureaucracy is wearing me down every day.

Once you have a digital nomad visa, the law says you must apply for your TIE (the foreign resident card) within 30 days. In practice, that's almost impossible. To start with, you can't get an appointment online. I try every day, and a slot never opens up.

Without this card, you can't do anything in Spain. Not a SIM contract, not a resident's bank account, not even leave the country.

On top of that, to get a TIE you're required to have your empadronamiento (something like Japan's residence registration). And finding a room in Barcelona that will let you get your empadronamiento is not easy in itself.

According to Idealista's data, even a flat at around 2,000 euros a month draws more than sixty applicants per listing; viewing slots fill up within minutes of posting, and it's rented in no time. Searching from Japan on sites like Idealista, it's close to impossible to get as far as signing a lease.

Spain has a law (the Housing Law, Law 12/2023) that strictly limits rent increases on long-term leases, and more and more owners who want to avoid it are renting on short-term contracts. With short-term rentals, you almost never can get an empadronamiento. And even if you call about a newly listed flat, they hang up on you unless you speak Spanish. For us, unable to speak Spanish, it was a wall we had no way over.

In other words, it goes like this. To get a TIE, you need an empadronamiento. To get an empadronamiento, you need a room. And you can't rent that room.

You need B to do A, but you need A to do B. That was Spain.

Still, I didn't give up. I pushed AI deep research as far as it would go and contacted every agency I could find that helps people search for rooms locally. I asked for help from the handful that replied, spent my days in the city waiting to hear about viewings, and rushed over faster than anyone else to seven flats. Finally, luckily, we made it to a signed lease.

With the weak yen, every support fee and rent payment nearly knocks me off my feet, but it looks like we'll somehow be able to begin our life in Barcelona. (Though we're still moving from one Airbnb to the next.)

On top of all that, registering as self-employed (autónomo), which matters for extending the visa, and the social security procedures are ridiculously complicated. The accountant, the immigration lawyer and the bank each say something different, and I have no idea what the right answer is. Here too, you need B for A, and A for B. The Spanish-style loop is alive and well.

And yet, when I'm out in the Barcelona sun now that summer time has begun, I somehow forget all of it. The European tourist season has come around again. I'm in a situation where I can't go back to Japan (I canceled all my plans there for May), but starting tomorrow, with the new flat as our base, we'll finally, somehow, begin living here.

The day I can truly enjoy the cheerfulness of the Spaniards I meet in the streets seems to be a little further off yet.