Are the Dpanish still to blame for their lack of honesty ?

Are the Dpanish still to blame for their lack of honesty ?
________________
No, just for your spelling.

It wasn't until my SIL framed the question perfectly, did she get the answer she needed. Omission is a form of dishonesty.

Formulating the question too. Probably more than a correct spelling.

So your thread will be here for eternity with the first post ending with the spaniards being called dishonest whilst nobody will go through all the posts to find your SIL was not bright enough to read carefully the questions
Not that that you jumped to quick conclusions.
Who is being dishonest ?

Pariswat, your kindness is overwhelming.

I hope if you come to Valencia you will give me a call

Thank you Linca, I greatly appreciate it. As you may remember, Valencia is one place we have never visited. So we will clearly keep Valencia in mind.

Returning to the subject of "buying into" a national health service after spending 1 year in a European country, Nonconformist posted:

"IT looks as if there are some restrictions - you either need to be paying taxes or in receipt of a governemnt pension...Plus, it looks as if it doesn't include the cost of medications."

Most people living in most European countries for 180+ days or longer will be deemed a "resident of tax purposes" by they country where they are living and will owe taxes and therefore be paying taxes. So for most people that will be an easy requirement to meet.

Many commonly prescribed medications are much cheaper in European countries (because of the single payer system and other regulations). So many people will find that paying for medicines out of pocket is quite affordable.

Again, this is the kind of thing that can vary from individuation to individual, country to country. Although there are many shared structures within the EU for health care coverage and reciprocity for EU members, it is still true that Italy or Portugal may have slightely different requirements about how they treat foreigners than, say France and Germany or Spain or Poland. So if one not fixed on one destnation within Europe, it's possible moving to Europe is easier in some locations for foreigners than others within Europe.

My SIL received notice that her long term visa was approved. We will meet her at the Spanish Consulate tomorrow to pick it up. They accepted the healthcare insurance with all the restrictions. I think it is through Aetna in the UK.

Her initial apartment is about a ten minute walk from Retiro, but it will not be where she signs her first long term lease. We have talked about many areas, but she agreed, if she is moving to Madrid, she should feel the city when she leaves her building.

So, we will visit her next spring, exact dates to be determined. We will also go some other place for a week. I am not sure where, as the decision is by a three-headed monster. But Linca, Valencia is in the mix. There are other places we were considering with the criteria being a reasonable flight from Madrid in terms of time and money and not necessarily in Spain.

Thanks to those for their good wishes and counsel.

Felicitaciónes to you and your SIL and all concerned!!

If the flat is east of Retiro Park, that is a great area to live, I would think. I rented there a few years ago and liked it a lot.

Thank you Eks.

No the apartment is on the west side of Retiro nearer to the Centro. But that will be just for the first month or so.

For a more permanent apartment, we talked about the area east of Retiro as one area to explore. She also likes the barrio de Salamanca, Chueca, and along the Manzanares.

IMD - Be sure to tell your SIL to leave all US bank and brokerage accounts open and to not attach a foreign address to them. Otherwise the accounts will be blocked here. Part of the Homeland Security Act (!) and some other acts. She can put your (or someone else's) address on them and access them electronically and get money from ATMs. As I'm sure you might know, banks there will not open accounts for Americans because of the new IRS reporting requirements for them. Another money-related tidbit is that one can't pay cash for anything over the sum of €1,000. All a great PITA, but nothing to be done.

Thanks Bedar. She is leaving all her AMerican accounts and I think she is using our address. We have already told the postman as well.

But she must open a Spanish bank account, as well, to rent an apartment, so there will some transfer.

<<As I'm sure you might know, banks there will not open accounts for Americans because of the new IRS reporting requirements for them.

Is this just a Spanish regulation? Because I had no problem opening French accounts, and my French banks do all the FATCA and other reporting annually with no hassle. They just send me a form to show what they've reported and if I want to contest It I can go to the bank and do so.

As for the restriction on not paying cash for anything over 1,000 euros, not sure anyone would want to because you always want to have receipts for anything you pay in an EU country, but if you really wanted to you could pay a big bill in cash in increments and the authorities probably wouldn't know. But of course you wouldn't realize any tax benefits from it if it were, for example, for green upgrades to your home.

Not paying anything cash above 2000 € is a rule in a lot of countries to fight money laundering or tax evasion.
However it is always possible if both sides agree to do it ...
never myself of course I am a law abiding man but others ?

The money laundering threshold for US financial institutions is $10,000. That is why you will see the Mueller investigations show that real estate is prime route of money laundering in the US.

I will ask my SIL to investigate.

<i> Many commonly prescribed medications are much cheaper in European countries (because of the single payer system and other regulations). </i>

On an emergency trip to the US, I bought a medicine I have to take every day at an airport pharmacy in Rome. Because I didn't have a prescription, I could get only a week's supply, and I had to pay full price, which was around €12. (Normally I get this medicine free through our national health service.)

I wanted to get more of this medicine while I was in the US, in case my return was delayed by a few days. A doctor friend called in the prescription to a pharmacy near where I was staying, and also gave me a discount code to use. She warned me it was expensive, but I thought maybe double or triple the price. In fact the equivalent price, for a week's supply was $200. Not only that, but the smallest quantity I could buy was a month's worth for $800. (I decided that I could skip it for a day or two if my return was delayed.)

"Because I didn't have a prescription, I could get only a week's supply, and I had to pay full price, which was around €12. "

In fairness, my experience is that Italian medicine is often cheap even by European standards.

A couple of years ago, my luggage failed to arrive with me at Venice and, like an idiot, I'd packed most of my medicine in the checked baggage - after decades of lecturing folks always to put essential meds in carry-on. I'd also forgotten to take my EHIC card (=guaranteed lowest possible medicine price for EU taxpayers).

So I had to go to the pharmacy for my key, life gets intolerable without it, med. The standard rack price for my Allopurinol was LESS (about €5 for a month's supply) than the UK NHS requires under 65 yo's to co-pay.