Thanks terp, great information, the 30 month renewal does put a different slant on things, Going the EEA path is fine however until our properties are sold one of us always needs to be here in the Philippines,we run the rentals as a business. the work offered to me is likely to start in Feb 2014 in Spain and may only last 6 months, i doubt our sale here would have happened by then and definitely not the building of Mamas house. its a real shame I wasn't aware of the EEA back in 2004, i worked for a Austrian development agency from 2000 - 2004, of course i was overseas but my pay etc was all paid into an Austrian bank, i even have a pension card from my then company that will give me a small pension from Austria once i reach 65.

Johny