How to get honest accounts from residents and returnees

Key rules

• Several sources: Use more than one place to find people, because each place has its own slant.
• Returnees: Include people who left Spain, and remember that those who reply tend to have strong views.
• First message: Say who you are, that you sell nothing, and offer anonymity.
• Sample size: Aim for about 3 to 5 accounts per type of person you want to compare.

Start with a mix of places, not one

Each place you look for people has its own slant, so use several.

• It skews younger and English-speaking.
• They also include sellers and agents, and lean negative about bureaucracy.
• InterNations has organised events and a professional, social slant, with some commercial promotion.
• Expat forums are heavy on questions. They skew to practical problems and older retirees.
• Meetups, language exchanges and coworking spaces reach people who have settled in, but favour the sociable.
• LinkedIn professional groups reach people who work.
• Local clubs, churches and neighbourhood associations reach long-term residents.

Many groups ban soliciting or interviews. Ask the moderators before you post.

Find people who left

People who left Spain drop out of expat groups, so they take more effort to find.

• Ask in home-country returnee groups.
• Look at blogs and YouTube channels about leaving Spain.
• Use LinkedIn alumni and employer networks.
• Ask current residents if they know someone who left.

Those who reply choose to reply, and often have strong views. Weigh their accounts with that in mind.

Make the first message easy to say yes to

• Say who you are and why you are asking. Say you are not selling anything.
• Offer anonymity.
• Keep the message short. Ask for a brief call or written answers, and let them pick the channel.
• Thank them afterwards, and do not pay in a way that could sway answers.

Respect group rules and data protection when you contact people.

Ask questions that bring out the real story

Ask open questions about specific events, for example: "What was your first month of paperwork like?" Avoid questions that hint at the answer you hope for.

Ask about costs, problems and what they would do differently. Ask for the negatives as well as the positives. The checklist below gives the topics and the order to ask them in. Check any claim that matters against the official rules.

Balance who you hear from

Aim for variety in:

• nationality, age and income
• work: employed, remote, retired or self-employed
• family situation
• region: big city, coast or rural
• time in Spain
• outcome: stayed or left

Include some returnees. Accounts start repeating after roughly 10 to 20 conversations with a fairly similar group. If you compare across groups, look for about 3 to 5 accounts per type. A small set of stories shows patterns, not statistics.

Questions to ask people who live in or left Spain

• Note each person's profile first: nationality, visa or residence route, region and town size, arrival and departure year, age, household type, income band and work status.

• Ask every person the same questions, in the same order, with the same wording and the same time frame, such as "in your first 12 months".

• Ask about first-year admin: how many months it took to get the NIE (foreigner ID number), empadronamiento (town hall registration) and the TIE (residence card), and how many appointments (cita previa) you needed.

• Ask how they handled the Social Security number, a bank account and the digital certificate for the tax agency, and which step was hardest.

• Ask about healthcare: how they got into public care (through Social Security or a convenio especial, a paid scheme), how long they waited for a GP and for specialists, and what they pay for private insurance.

• Ask them to rate healthcare, housing and loneliness from 1 to 5, with the ends of the scale named, such as 1 for very poor and 5 for very good.

• Ask about housing: whether they rent or bought, the rent paid, the deposit and guarantee demanded, the contract length, any scams, and whether regional rent limits in stressed zones changed anything.

• Ask about language: how much Spanish they needed, whether a regional language such as Catalan, Basque, Galician or Valencian mattered, and how it affected work and friendships.

• Ask about loneliness: how often they felt lonely in the first 12 months, how they made friends, and how they stayed in touch with family.

• Ask about work and money: how they found work, their salary or autónomo (self-employed) fees, remote work, and whether their qualifications were recognised.

• Ask about tax: where they count as tax resident, whether they used the Beckham regime (a special tax regime for new arrivals), and whether they had to report foreign assets.

• Ask returnees why they left Spain and what they would do differently.

• Add "not applicable" and "prefer not to say" as answers to each question.

• Finish with one open question: "What surprised you most?"

• Write down the date of each answer and how you found the person, so you can judge whether your group is representative.

• Test the questions on one or two people first, and offer them in the person's own language.