Hi, I'm Maor. We moved to Spain, and you're not moving alone.
We've lived in a small town in Catalonia, 50 minutes from Barcelona, for 3 years now. Most of what I learned I first wrote as posts on X, along the way. I put them together into one story.
Quotes are translated from my Hebrew posts.
The work that made the move possible
Before we chose a country there was one question: how do we make a living? For me the answer was the work I was already doing.
“Affiliate marketing: I can live anywhere in the world. I have a partner network (YamiLeads), contacts all over the world, know-how in buying traffic, monetization, bureaucracy…”
@maor_damari · Post on X (Hebrew) ↗Roots: the road to a Spanish passport
“As part of the move to Spain, and the Spanish passport application that was approved… For my wife it was easy, her family still speaks Ladino. On my side, Tunisian Jews, everyone got a Portuguese passport; I didn't apply in time…”
@maor_damari · Post on X (Hebrew) ↗“I've been in Spain for 3 years, and being here made me dig into the sources a bit.”
@maor_damari · Post on X (Hebrew) ↗“Wanting a second passport is a survival tool. I avoided it for many years, but now there's no choice.”
@maor_damari · Post on X (Hebrew) ↗Citizenship routes for descendants of Sephardic Jews have changed over the years. This is my story, not legal advice.
The kids, and what nobody tells you
The hard part wasn't the bureaucracy.
“You're going to be alone with your kids for many, many, many hours”
@maor_damari · Post on X (Hebrew) ↗There were good surprises too. My 5-year-old son joined the town football club:
“Football for a 5-year-old, two coaches, 8 kids… cost? €0”
@maor_damari · Post on X (Hebrew) ↗The coaches are teenagers in a "personal commitment" project, and the parents sit in the café next to the pitch. Post on X (Hebrew) ↗
Becoming part of the place
What helped me feel at home: connecting through the locals, not only through other Israelis.
“Helping the elderly neighbour, playing decent padel, swimming with a group of locals… in the cold sea”
@maor_damari · Post on X (Hebrew) ↗What I still haven't solved
Not everything worked. Credit from a digital bank, for example, doesn't come right away when you've just moved:
“I wonder how easy it would be to get credit from them in Israel. I can't get it from them in Spain.”
@maor_damari · Post on X (Hebrew) ↗Why I built Yallocate
I learned everything above on my own, through posts, conversations and mistakes. I wanted whoever moves after me to find it in one place: the official information, what worked for real people, and people in the area you can ask.
So welcome. Tell us where you're moving, and we'll take it from here together.
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