Job Discussion Forums

mraej · Joined: 04 Mar 2008 Posts: 3 Location: Venice, CA

Hello-- I want to teach english in Barcelona. My thoughts were to move there in July, take the TESL course to get ceritified, hunt for a job, and begin in September. Does this seem like an absurd goal?

My research is leading me to believe that it will be very difficult for me to get a work visa out there. I'm generally confused about the whole process and wonder who has done it before or has any advice to offer?

THANK YOU for any information!!

Best~

mdk · Joined: 09 Jun 2007 Posts: 425

mraej · Joined: 04 Mar 2008 Posts: 3 Location: Venice, CA

hah.. well thank you for the reply.
but do you know how the work visa situation goes? i can only apply for one once i have a job (?), so how do i work out there in the meantime while i wait for the visa? and when i move to BCN, do i just go with a 3 month travelers visa? the visa red tape really has me in circles...
thanks again! Smile

oh, and i'm prepared to shell out the $ for the TEFL course once I'm out there, as well as some living $$ to keep me going for a little. have been aiming for this for the past 9 months. excited to make this happen!

sheikh radlinrol · Joined: 30 Jan 2007 Posts: 1222 Location: Spain

mraej
If you are American you can't get a work permit. You'll have to work illegally. Lots do.

mdk · Joined: 09 Jun 2007 Posts: 425

I don�t want to rain on your parade my friend, but I have seen optimism like yours come acropper more than once. I wish you well, but I remember that the year before I took my first ESL job in Tomsk, they had an ESL teacher hang himself. All of us get that moment when we realize that we are a LONG WAY from home. You have to be a resourceful person to deal with that effectively. Spain is no place to go nuts - except for those Torijas pastry things, maybe. And Bacalao.

I really think you ought to consider teaching in Mexico - where you can come across to San Diego and see a movie now and then - for a year before you tackle Spain. I�m pretty sure it will still be here.

SirKirby · Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 261 Location: Barcelona, Spain

Without an EU passport you'll find it almost impossible to get work papers so you'll have to work illegally, which lots of people do, though not in the larger (often better equipped) schools. It will be more difficult to find work...

(If you're the kind of person that will need to go home to see a movie, I'd suggest you pack it in, go home now, and never ever leave the States again... ) Laughing

mraej · Joined: 04 Mar 2008 Posts: 3 Location: Venice, CA

well i'm not one to give up and this is not my first time traveling/living abroad...so that is not the issue. the issue is really how i might be able to legally work out there. if it looks grim, good to know. if it's possible, i'm just trying to find out how.

SirKirby · Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 261 Location: Barcelona, Spain

Apply to the smaller schools, the ones a bit further out of the way, out of the city centers, who get far fewer applicants... They're generally not nearly as choosey -- they can't afford to be.

jr1965 · Joined: 09 Jul 2004 Posts: 175

Mraej,

Another route you could take if you want to be legit: Get your certificate and then work as a English-language teaching assistant in a Spanish elementary or high school. I'm in San Francisco (USA) at the moment, and there was an advertisement in one of the newspapers here last week by the Spanish Ministry of Education inviting recent college grads and those in grad school (from the US) to apply for these posts. In a position like this, you would be sponsored. Sorry, I don't have time to find the link or to provide more info, but you could probably try doing a search or contacting your local Spanish consulate for more info. Of course, you may not be placed in Barcelona, but this might be a good way to start out legally in Spain.

Suerte,

JR

jr1965 · Joined: 09 Jul 2004 Posts: 175

OK, I found that link. You wouldn't get paid a whole lot, but again, it could be a good way to start out legally in Spain.

http://www.mec.es/sgci/usa/en/programs/us_assistants/default.shtml

SirKirby · Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 261 Location: Barcelona, Spain

jr1965 · Joined: 09 Jul 2004 Posts: 175

You're sure right about that. There's not much money in English lang teaching in Spain, though I doubt money is the reason most people from North America and the UK come to Spain anyway...

gotaqua · Joined: 24 Jan 2008 Posts: 6 Location: Ca.

if you apply to that program make sure you read ALL the instructions carefully! and then double check

and you apparently get paid any where from 700 to 900 euro depending on where you are and you need a decent level of spanish to apply

mdk · Joined: 09 Jun 2007 Posts: 425

You MIGHT make it on 900 euros a month for a little while if you don�t have some emergency. I wouldn�t care to see my daughter try to live on 700 euros in Spain. Maybe of you were in the boondocks, but Barcelona and Madrid would be right out unless you could stand "living" in a rathole like El Raval or Lavapies.

jr1965 · Joined: 09 Jul 2004 Posts: 175

Yes 700 � 900 Euros a month isn't much money, esp if you're living in Madrid or Barcelona. On the other hand, this kind of program is probably one of the only ways someone from North America is going to be able to get sponsored and work legally in Spain, unless the person is a certified K-8 or high school teacher. Then he/she could probably apply to international or Montessori schools (some of these schools recruit North Americans in Spain). The great thing about a program like the one advertised above is that if you're looking to make teaching a career, something like this (i.e., saying that you worked on a program arranged by the Spanish Ministry of Education) looks good on a CV.