Job Discussion Forums

[mozsmith]

I am having serious doubts about actually getting to Spain to teach next year, even though I will have a degree.

At the moment I am struggling to understand Spanish work\study visa requirements from an Australian perspective. One of my classmates laughed when I told her (she recently came back from studying in Oviedo). She said that the bureaucracy in Spain was so complex and slow nothing got done.

I am not sure what TEFL options\schools are better. Should I choose CELTA over a smaller TEFL school?

Any advice would be great guys, because I am a little lost at the moment!!

[CairoMig]

What is a CELTA school? If you mean should you do a CELTA or something else, in Spain it means nada. You might as well go to the police station with a toilet roll instead of a CELTA if you think it's going to help you get work papers. The only "official" qualifications accepted in Spain are those which come from the Spanish ministry of education (such as degrees from approved Spanish universities or those from overseas which have managed to go through the seemingly impossible "convalidacion" process). CELTAs and other such things are useful for teaching in academies but don't really mean much from the bureaucratic point of view.

If you want to teach here, just turn up, teach a bit illegally (saves on paying income tax and social security which are, let's face it, not worth it as most academies (and the British Council) "divide" salaries into "pluses" i.e for transport, clothes, food, etc, which means your basic salary (i.e. which you'll get if you bother registering unemployed some day) is usually 1/3 of your overall take home pay.

As someone who worked in Madrid for 8 years.....I'd say you're better off getting some work and going to the UK every 3 months. EasyJet's really cheap!

[Spainish]

I wouldn't worry for a minute about a visa because basically it's not going to happen!

I've been here for nearly 3 years and I don't even bother to leave every 3 months as some people try (note: the UK is part of the European Union so it wouldn't count, you'd have to go to Morocco or something every three months to follow the tourist visa rules).

Basically, if you are 'western', Spain doesn't care if you are here illegally. There have been times where I was waved through customs checks just because I have a US passport. Though I don't think it is right, they are more worried about south americans and moroccans, and I have never once heard of an American, Canadian, Australian, etc. being deported for over staying their tourist visa or working illegally.

It's extremely difficult to get a work visa (at least now, though they are working on a new law that might ease things up a bit), and as Cairo pointed out, it may not even be worth it (unless you planned on living the rest of your life here, but with a work visa you probably wouldn't want to be a teacher anyway! At least not in the current TEFL certificate and private academy world).

CELTA is no more valid here than a TEFL certificate (at least in 95% of the cases I've heard of), so you'd be better off going for a cheaper TEFL.

Just my dos centimos...

Spainish

[CairoMig]

Remember that although a member of the EU, the UK isn't a schengen country. This means that when you enter or leave Spain to go to the UK, your passport will be stamped. This means that once the time is up, you can leave the Schengen area (e.g. go for a weekend in London) and come back and get a new stamp which lasts for 3 months.

[Meg4]

Taking a trip to the UK (or anywhere for that matter) and then returning to Spain won't automatically "restart" your 90 days in Spain.

The law says that you can stay in Spain for 90 days within a 6 month period, so technically if you stay for 90 days you would then have to leave Spain for another 90 days (to total the 6 months) before you could return legally and get a new 90 days.

But, personally as an Australian, Canadian, American, etc. I wouldn't worry too much about overstaying the 90 days.

[Victoria Morley]

You got it, these guys know the score in Spain. Americans, Canadians, Aussies, guys who technically are not allowed to work in the EU are working mainly as English teachers in Spain.

Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on who�s looking, the immigration people bother more with other passports ie: South American, Africans, Moroccans, when it comes to issues like illegal work, overstaying their visits or visas.

As Spain is Schengen once youve entered Spain, you can go to the other EU nations quite easily. Can�t add much more about the immigration law but what I can say is go for it, Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, theyre great cities, you�ll have a great time in Spain.


victoria

[Granada Girl]

Working in Spain illegaly was no problem for me! I was there (just left hace 2 semanas) for over three years teaching with no paperwork whatsoever!! I am CELTA certified, which i'm sure helped, but you can always put up signs for private classes. I made a lotta dough doing that, along with working at academies.

[Granada Girl]

Working in Spain illegaly was no problem for me! I was there (just left hace 2 semanas) for over three years teaching with no paperwork whatsoever!! I am CELTA certified, which i'm sure helped, but you can always put up signs for private classes. I made a lotta dough doing that, along with working at academies.

[sciphoto]

so you were just workig in grnada??i am trying to get back there to teach, wat is the average cost of housing there now and was it hard to find a job at first?? ho much money did u have saved up to get by the first month,,,currently i am living and teaching in prague and i can't wait to get to granada next year, feliz ano nuevo a todos