So you want to move to Spain? Read this first

If you'll now permit me (oh what the hell, it's my blog), I'm going to address an issue that seems to be very important for a vast group of people on the internet.  Those people who seem to be convinced that after college (or after high school...) they will be moving to Spain.  And those people who also have it planned to stay in Spain after they finish their study abroad term in the country; they just won't get on the flight back to the US.

I'm here to burst that bubble, poop that party, rain on that parade.  Because guess what.  You want to move to Spain/overstay your visa?  Good luck with that.  Really.  I'm just going to make something clear here: you have no idea what you're planning.

*Note* This post is geared mainly towards North Americans, since Europeans don't have to worry about anything I'm saying here.  And because everyone I've seen saying things like this is from North America, and not Europe.


First off, life in Spain is not all snowflakes, kittens, puppies, roses, rainbows, unicorns, etc.  I mentioned this in a previous post about what it's like to grow up in Spain, and it should be reiterated.  Life in Spain is not any better than life in the North America.  The grass is not greener on the other side, trust me on this one.  Granted, I do consider Spain my home and do yearn to go back constantly.  But I also grew up there.  I'm already familiar with the culture, the language, the people, and there are still things I'm always learning.  I'm not an expert on the country.  I just happen to actually have vital experience from, you know, having already lived there.

Second of all, for the people who are convinced they're just going to be able to pack up and move to Spain and everything will be all hunky-dory, let me just say, you will need a visa in order to be able to do anything.  If you're planning on being there for more than three months (if you hold an American passport) anyway.  If you want to find a job, you'll need a work visa.  Which you can't get if you don't already have a job.  Seriously.  And if you think "Well, I'll just go without a visa and see what happens!  I'll work under the table and pay everything in cash!"  Go right ahead.  Then watch as you can't buy a plane ticket back home because you can't pay in cash.  And on the off chance you can pay for your plane ticket in cash, you may not be able to get back into your home country, since no doubt your tourist visa will be more than expired.  And if you do get into the US again, Spain is under no obligation to let you back in.  "So I'll just never leave!  I'm so over the materialistic and capitalistic mentality of the United States anyway!"  That's great.  But then you can forget getting a real paying job, where wages are guaranteed (jobs that hire under the table are under no obligation to pay their employees, and they can pay you as little as they want).  You can forget ever getting married to the Spaniard of your dreams since your papers won't be valid, and any children you may have will never actually belong to you by law.

And if you plan on extending your student visa to stay there, you should expect the same treatment by law.  Expired papers, like no papers, are never something you want to have.  You won't have access to health insurance, you won't have identification (something required in order to do anything in Spain, including buying bus tickets and renting an apartment).

If you want to be in Spain legally, your best bet is the work visa, and again, you need to have a job already lined up in order to apply, or at least a corporate sponsor who's willing to pay for all the legal fees required to get you a work visa.

On the bright side, if you speak English, you do have an opportunity for a work visa: teaching English.  Most agencies don't even require you to have any teaching credentials, they just want you to speak English.  However, you will almost always be up against people from the UK and Ireland who also speak English.  And since they're from the EU they don't require visa sponsorship, as well as the fact that they speak the Queen's English, which is standard English in Europe.  American and Australian dialects, while not necessarily frowned upon (at least not officially), are considered somewhat inferior.  It is not impossible, however, and there are a lot of people who teach English in Spain and elsewhere in Europe.  For North Americans, the tendency is for temporary work visas for a year or so, so you'll need to constantly renew if you want to stay.

Lastly, people from a North American background aren't always seen in the highest light in Europe, Spain not being an exception.  Even Canadians, because if they're not mistaken for Americans (to their great offense), people in Europe tend to be pretty clueless about Canada to think that they're any different from those neighbors south of the border.  Regardless of how "un-American" you may like to think you are, if you've never left North America, chances are you are more American than you realize.  Culture is something so deeply engrained in us that even if you think you're not really adherent to any supposed cultural norms, you adhere to others that are far less obvious.  One of these is eating styles.  In Europe, and Spain in particular, vegetarianism, especially veganism, is a foreign concept.  In a part of the world where just about everything eaten (and otherwise) involves some kind of animal by-product, people who believe that this is wrong are seen as weird at best, rude and inconsiderate at worst.  If someone invites you over and offers you some chorizo and a tortilla de patata and you refuse on the basis that you're vegetarian/vegan, you will be seen as rude.  Being invited to someone's house means that you are a special person, and refusing to eat the host's food, that they have prepared just for you, is a deep insult.  And even if you're not vegetarian or vegan, problems will still arise.

Now if, in the end you do still end up finding a way to move to Spain and live there legally, that's great.  Congratulations are in order.  As long as you realize that life in Spain will not be perfect, that it's not the dreamland you've imagined and that the men are really not as hot as you thought they were from all those sports and movies you watch, and that there will be things that you weren't expecting and will probably never get used to, ever, you will most definitely have a very rewarding experience.