[gr366]

+1 on the difficulty of getting in to Spain.

Prior to a year of living and working abroad, my wife and I hired a Spanish immigration lawyer to provide us with visa options (as Americans we can typically only remain in the European Schengen Zone for 90 out of every 180 days). I've got a web development company and all U.S.-based clients, so in theory would have been bringing money into the Spanish economy. The lawyer came back with 3 options for me:

  1. Be a student
  2. Retire (with proof of savings/income)
  3. Be independently wealthy (again with bank account proof)

So we lived in Madrid for our allotted 3 months and then moved on to Buenos Aires, where the visa restrictions are a lot more lax and they have a year-long visa option for foreign business owners had we decided we wanted to stay there.

Anecdotally, the number of American expats in Madrid was minuscule to the number we met in Buenos Aires, and the ones in Spain were there almost always after having been sponsored by large companies.

[molmalo]

As a national of Argentina, I can say that the number of expats here is high, because our National Constitution states that it is "to all men in the world who wish to dwell on Argentine soil". And article 25 reads: "The Federal Government will encourage European immigration, and it will not restrict, limit or burden with any taxes the entrance into Argentine territory of foreigners who come with the goal of working the land, improving the industries and teach the sciences and the arts." (Further reading in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_Argentina )

This leads to an explicit invitation to come, to everyone who wishes to work here. In the las 3 years, almost 45k people came to live here, from Spain alone. (This article from El Mundo is from 2010, the number has increased since then, http://www.elmundo.es/america/2010/11/30/argentina/129114534...).

And a nice incentive is that there is A LOT of demand here for developers. I hope you enjoy your stay here! =)