The single window for foreigners serves a thousand people in a year

They've attended a mean of three individuals a day in the course of the first yr and over the past two months the demand has virtually doubled.

They've attended a mean of three individuals a day in the course of the first yr and over the past two months the demand has virtually doubled. The Welcome Desk, the one-stop store designed to streamline administrative procedures for foreigners who've chosen Barcelona to start out a enterprise or to pursue college research or as a result of they've signed a contract or as a result of they're digital nomads, has far exceeded a thousand customers because it opened , on the finish of 2021 at 22@. Its managers hope to multiply the exercise throughout 2023.

“Earlier than, the expertise went the place the business was, now the business goes the place the expertise is, and the expertise appears to be like for cities with a superb high quality of life, good connectivity and the place there may be an entrepreneurial ecosystem; Barcelona may be very properly positioned however we've to facilitate the arrival of this expertise”, maintains Pau Solanilla, Commissioner for Metropolis Promotion. 40% of the customers of the Welcome Desk are between 17 and 29 years outdated and one other 42% between 30 and 40 and 96% have college, post-university or doctoral research.

“I acquired uninterested in the climate in London and I prioritized the standard of life that Barcelona gives with its seashores, close to the mountains, its good climate, good gastronomy and since I noticed that there's a very attention-grabbing startup and enterprise motion”, explains Koen Vandecaveye. . This 44-year-old Belgian left his nation to settle in Shanghai, the place he lived for ten years. He then spent one other twelve in London and moved to Barcelona a yr in the past.

His first contact with the Welcome Desk was by video name. In reality, 45.7% of the providers offered in the course of the first yr have been on-line. "Folks wish to come understanding what procedures they should do and so they ask all types of issues... along with visas and permits or municipal procedures, we additionally assist them with questions on faculties or learn how to discover a flat...", explains Yasmin, who with Faizan attend in individual or via the display screen in six languages.

As for municipal procedures, virtually half of the procedures have been to register newcomers on the register. And of the central administration, appointments to acquire the EU registration certificates (36%), the Foreigner Identification Card (20%), or the NIE for non-residents (9%) have been essentially the most defendants.

"With European residents, the procedures are often simpler, issues get difficult with non-EU customers or with blended marriages... we've seen instances of all types...", explains Jaume Baró, director of Enterprise Companies at Energetic Barcelona.

That is the case of Koen. Her husband has a Chinese language passport, however the marriage certificates arrived late... “in the long run it took us seven months to have the ability to regularize her scenario, in the event that they hadn't helped us, it could have been chaos to make appointments and are available again and are available again... ”, she admits. She works in Barcelona

Customers have come from 93 nations, 56% from outdoors the European Union. By quantity, most are from Italy, the USA, the UK, Colombia, France, Germany and Italy. 25% state that they've come to Barcelona to work in a extremely certified place, 22.5% to pursue graduate or postgraduate research, 15% to undertake, 9% to work in a analysis middle and a big 8.3% declare themselves a digital nomad.

The origin of the Welcome Dek dates again to earlier than the pandemic. The Worldwide Expertise Monitor, the surveys that Barcelona International prepares each two years, highlighted the difficulties confronted by foreigners in finishing up administrative and tax procedures. “We adopted up and checked out how different cities have been doing it; we appeared on the Amsterdam mannequin and studied how we may implement it in Barcelona”, explains Cristina H.Valiñani, challenge supervisor at Barcelona International. The Metropolis Council supported the challenge and materialized it in 22@.