Madrid DNV meetup recap, 47 showed up at La Latina
That's a huge turnout. I missed the La Latina one because I was stuck dealing with my padrón appointment, but I'd love to see the notes on what people are paying for health insurance renewals right now. My quote just jumped by twenty percent and I'm stressing it.
Check sanitas or adeslas through an expat broker. Usually they give you a fixed rate for the first year that stays low if you don't over use it. I'm paying about 55 a month.
Wait, did anyone at the meetup talk about the Social Security situation for US based contractors? I'm still getting conflicting info from my gestor about whether the certificate of coverage is actually getting approved in 2025. This part is a total mess for me.
The consensus was basically that if you're a 1099 it's fine, but if you're W2 with a big company they are getting super picky. Three people there got rejected last month for that specific thing.
I was actually at that Madrid meetup in La Latina and honestly 47 was almost too many. It was super loud and hard to really talk to more than the three people standing right next to you. Your Bilbao group of 12 sounds much better for actually making friends. The bigger these get, the more they just turn into people handing out business cards for their immigration law firms. I'd stick to the smaller vibe if you can.
forty seven people is wild. when we did the first meetup in bilbao we barely had five. glad to see the madrid community is growing so fast. i'm mostly curious if people are finding apartments easily in la latina or if the prices are as bad as they say on idealista.
Did you guys talk about the income requirements shifting for 2025? I heard the SMI went up which means the minimum savings or salary needs to be higher now. I hope your notes covered the new 2025 thresholds.
The vibe at the meetup was awesome. It's nice to talk to people who aren't just tourists. One thing I took away from the convo was that digital certificates are mandatory for everything now. If you don't have yours yet, get the Clave app immediately.
La Latina was a great choice for this. I'm moving to Madrid in March and posts like this make me feel way more confident about the move. The fee transparency is especially helpful since some agencies are definitely predatory toward Americans.
so glad i made it out. it was nice to realize everyone is struggling with the same paperwork hurdles. for those who weren't there, we spent a lot of time talking about how to get the TIE appointment without paying a bot. it's still possible if you check at 8am on tuesdays.
8am on Tuesday is the myth that never dies. I've had better luck on Friday afternoons right before they close for the weekend. Just keep refreshing.