Job Discussion Forums

[TheodoreN]

I apologize if this particular question has been addressed already in this forum. I have read back at least a few years and did not see anything that explicitly detailed the process for acquiring a teaching job for a person in my situation. The situation and the questions arising from it are as follows:

My wife is a both a U.S. and Italian citizen. I am only a U.S. citizen. We are currently living in the U.S. but would like to move to Rome within the next year or two for work and graduate school studies. As she is currently with child and I will be the main provider, upon arrival I would need to secure work in a reasonable amount of time. I will have my CELTA by then and a reasonable amount of work and teaching experience along with intermediate level Italian, so I�m assuming finding a teaching job, though it may take some knocking on doors, will not be out of the question. To that end, I�ve been reading through the EU Directive 2004/38/EC which outlines the rights of EU citizens and their family members for living and working in EU states. The Italian legislative decree of February 6 2007, no. 30 more or less approves everything stated in the earlier EU one. In reading through these decrees, along with consulting expat forums and speaking with Americans living in Italy, it seems that through my marriage, I qualify for residency and work rights fairly soon after moving to Italy.

Article 3 of the EU directive calls for member states to �facilitate entry and residence for [family members]�irrespective of their nationality.� Article 9 elaborates on this wherein it requests that �Member States shall issue a residence card to family members of a Union citizen who are not nationals of a Member State, where the planned period of residence is for more than three months.� They are supposed to issue a �Residence card of a family member of a Union Citizen� within 6 months of the date of the non-EU family member�s application, though a �certificate of application� for the residence card is to be issued immediately.

Article 23 touches directly on work rights for these non-EU family members, �Irrespective of nationality, the family members of a Union citizen who have the right of residence or the right of permanent residence in a Member State shall be entitled to take up employment or self-employment there.� Article 24 seems to indicate that non-EU family members also have immediate access to work when it expresses that �Union citizens residing on the basis of this Directive in the territory of the host Member State shall enjoy equal treatment with the nationals of that Member State within the scope of the Treaty. The benefit of this right shall be extended to family members who are not nationals of a Member State and who have the right of residence or permanent residence.� Finally, the language of article 25 is a bit dense, but it seems to imply that governmental agencies and employers cannot discriminate against non-EU family members of EU citizens as expressed in the following language: �Possession of a registration certificate as referred to in Article 8, of a document certifying permanent residence, of a certificate attesting submission of an application for a family member residence card, of a residence card or of a permanent residence card, may under no circumstances be made a precondition for the exercise of a right or the completion of an administrative formality, as entitlement to rights may be attested by any other means of proof.�

My basic question is this: when I apply for work at language schools in Rome come early September in 2014 or 2015, will they be open to hiring me if I explain to them and prove that my wife is an Italian citizen and I thus have rights through her and then show them the �certificate of application� for my residence card? Or would they refuse to hire me until I obtained the actual residency card which could take up to 6 months, but more likely would come within 3 months? Article 23 strongly suggests that due to my right of residence (note that it says nothing about having the actual printed residency card in hand) I also have a right to employment.

Perhaps someone on this forum has been through this exact same situation or knows an American married to an Italian who dealt with the same issue with whom they could help connect me. My main concern is not quitting my job in the States, selling everything, moving to Rome, and then finding I can�t get clearance to work until I have the actual residency card in hand which would effectively mean I would have to wait until the smaller hiring window in January, and thus blow through more savings in the previous months.

Thank you for help in answering this question.

Theodore

Links:

EU Directive: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2004:158:0077:0123:EN:PDF


Italian Directive: http://www.camera.it/parlam/leggi/deleghe/07030dl.htm

[Teacher in Rome]

[TheodoreN]

Thanks for the input TIR. I understand the level of uncertainty; this seems to pervade most areas of Italian law and bureaucracy. Assuming though things go smoothly acquiring initial employment, what do other teachers do during breaks and the summer months when no income is coming in from the day job? Is there enough demand to string together private tutoring lessons to make ends meet between contracts?

What other jobs are promising for non-Italians/those not yet fluent in Italian? Restaurant work, tour guiding, working with international businesses that use English?

And how easy is it to sub-lease a rental during the summer months? I'm thinking if we come back to the States in the summer to visit family/work part-time we would not want to be shelling out 500 euro for each month's absence.

[Teacher in Rome]

You'll have a lot of down time as an ELT teacher. June / July through to September, two to three weeks at Easter and Christmas (minimum), and lots of public holidays as well. Teachers often go and teach in summer schools (these can be summer camps for teens, or in the UK, for example).

It used to be fairly easy to get casual work as a tour guide, but I think this has been tightened up in recent years. I suggest you google tour guide companies in Rome and contact them directly to find out about requirements etc.

I don't think it would be easy to get work in a restaurant if you don't speak Italian. (Unless you're a cook, that is, and happy to work long hours at low wages.) Forget waiter work - most customers in Roman restaurants are Roman and most wait staff are students / professional waiters!) International businesses in Rome are either going to use their own staff to write in English, or more probably, will stick everything into Google translate. All these are very large generalisations, but I don't think it's easy to get work in Rome by virtue only of the fact that you speak English. You'll need other skills, probably (plus a good level of Italian) and there's huge competition for jobs.

Yes, it can be possible to sublet, but check the terms of your rental agreement. If there are two of you + baby, I think the chances of you getting away with paying �500 rent a month are slim to none. That's the sort of rent you pay for a room in a shared flat with shared kitchen / bathroom. I last lived in Rome 7 years ago and paid then �750 a month for a one-bed flat in a good location. That was a bargain, then. Places in the centre will start at around �1000 minimum I'd say. (Even places in the concrete periphery are not much less.)

Other possibilities might exist. If you're studying, the University might have some cheaper accommodation, or might even offer employment. If you're religious, you might find work in one of the many Catholic organisations, but this isn't something I know about at all.

[TheodoreN]

I'm wondering also the typical times, if any, that private language schools are in session. I ask this because the school I'm interested in attending has 90% of their classes between 8 and 12:15 in the morning leaving my afternoons and evenings wide open. I do know that probably once or twice a week I would have one afternoon class and am curious if schools allow some flexibility for scheduling teachers who are also in school themselves.

[Teacher in Rome]

It depends on your employer, and the type of students / clients they have. So if they train in companies, you'd probably need to be available to suit the client - which could be morning, afternoon, evening or a combination of all three. If they teach kids, you'd either be working directly in the schools (so you'd need to be available in the morning) or you'd be teaching remedial English / supplementary lessons, so you'd need to be available in the afternoons.

Most employers will try to be flexible, but most will also expect you to be available. You'll probably be limiting your chances of earning money if you can't work half the day. For example, when I needed to find teachers for big contracts, I'd take on those first who could offer me the greatest availability. I'd then schedule their hours at the client, but that normally meant from 9 to 1pm, then 2 to 4, for example. Scheduling lots of teachers who can't work this time or that time rapidly becomes a hassle for the employer, for the client, for the person who has to run payroll...

[Gregorio]

I am just wondering if you have already registered your marriage in Italy? If not, doing this now, through your consulate, could speed up the process. If you were to arrive in Italy with the Italian form of your marriage certificate when you register with the questura, you would then have the receipt for your residency and this marriage cert. Also, if you don't have it yet, get your codice fiscale. I don't think anyone could argue with your legal right to work if you have all those documents.

[TheodoreN]

Thanks for the feedback Gregorio.

We actually married in Rome so our wedding is registered both with the civil and Catholic authorities there. We already have 2 certified copies as well of the marriage certificate from the Roman authorities in their multi-language form, which as you suggest, may facilitate the process. My wife will be going back to Philadelphia in the fall to get her fingerprinting done for her passport. At that time I may try and apply for my codice fiscal or next spring when I apply for my citizenship via jure matrimonis.