That said, I'm sure there is plenty of opportunity around. What sort of companies have you approached so far? There may be other firms looking to hire or you could go after some remote contract work too.
I've approached lots of startups and nobody is really interested in remote employees. I'm starting to think I should try to approach big companies but that will probably be just as difficult to break into.
There do seem to be lots of local jobs in Barcelona and Madrid but I'd rather not wait a year to get a job.
http://lexuniversal.com/en/news/10787
Maybe you can work for a local company sooner than one year via that visa.
Which part of Spain are you moving to, and what kind of visa does your wife have?
We're thinking of moving to Madrid or Barcelona. We prefer Barcelona, but there seems to be a lot more work in Madrid, we'll see what happens.
Both of us are in the process of applying for a non-lucrative visa. We haven't actually submitted our application yet, which will take 3-5 months to be processed, because we're waiting on the FBI background check which takes 6 weeks.
It's quite the process to move to Spain but it'll be worth it!