Alastair Johnson

Alastair Johnson is the co-founder of Moving to Spain, the consultancy that has helped 700+ clients move to Spain through personalized relocation plans, supported more than 3,000 with visas, residency, and tax, and educated 350,000+ people through free guides, tools, and webinars.

Born and raised in South Africa, Alastair has relocated internationally five times. He moved to London at 22, spent seven years there, then relocated to Sydney, where he and his wife and co-founder Alison built their life for fifteen years and became Australian citizens. Their son Sam was born in Sydney in 2008. The family later moved to Spain for what was planned as a one-year sabbatical. Three months in, they decided to stay, and they have lived in Spain ever since.

That direct, lived experience of relocating across three continents, including with a school-age child, sits behind every piece he writes.

Before launching Moving to Spain, Alastair and Alison founded Where I Can Live in 2017, an international relocation platform that helped people move to a range of countries, including Spain. Moving to Spain grew out of that work as the Spain-focused offering, drawing on what they had learned helping clients navigate one of the more complex relocation destinations in Europe.

Before that, Alastair spent 15 years at AstraZeneca, ending as Regional IT Manager for AstraZeneca Manufacturing across Asia, a role that covered operations in multiple countries and involved significant international travel. He brings that operational and cross-border background to the way Moving to Spain is run today: clear guidance, realistic timelines, structured client work, and an accountability model in which MTS refunds its own fees if it falls short.

At Moving to Spain, Alastair focuses on the technical end of relocation: Spanish visa categories and pathways, tax residency and how it interacts with the move, and access to Spanish healthcare. He has worked directly with hundreds of clients, hosts the company’s webinars (attended by more than 1,000 people a month), and regularly sits on panels and joint sessions with immigration lawyers, gestores, and tax advisors across Spain. Moving to Spain has been referenced by major international media outlets, including Forbes and HuffPost, and Alastair is a regular speaker at international relocation events.

Areas of expertise

• Spanish Non-Lucrative Visa
• Spanish Digital Nomad Visa
• Spanish tax residency and the move year
• Accessing Spanish public and private healthcare as a new resident
• Relocating to Spain with school-age children
• Choosing where to live in Spain across regions and cost-of-living profiles
• Working with Spanish-speaking professionals as an English speaker
• Relocating to Spain from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia

Experience and credentials

• Co-founder, Moving to Spain
• Co-founder, Where Can I Live (2017–present), the international relocation platform that preceded Moving to Spain
• Helping people relocate to Spain since 2017
• Resident of Spain for over a decade, currently based in Catalonia
• Personally consulted with hundreds of relocating households
• Host of recurring Moving to Spain webinars, attended by 1,000+ people each month
• Regular speaker at international relocation events
• Referenced by major international media outlets, including Forbes and HuffPost
• Fifteen years at AstraZeneca, ending as Regional IT Manager for AstraZeneca Manufacturing Asia
• Dual national: South African and Australian

Languages

English (native), Spanish (functional working level, comfortable handling day-to-day, professional, and household matters in Spanish).

What I do not do

Alastair is not a lawyer, tax advisor, or immigration consultant. Moving to Spain provides structured guidance, planning, and access to a vetted network of more than 45 regulated specialists across Spain who deliver the formal legal, tax, and immigration work.