filbert has a great idea there!

I read and replied to your post under Hostals and other lodging before reading this one.

Like the Catch-22 that another respondant mentioned (i.e., you can't get a work permit unless you have an employment contract and a Spanish Company can't offer you an employment contract unless you have a work permit), there may be a 'loophole.'

If an adequate number of people with your technical specialty cannot be found in Spain, you could get a waiver or your work permit application could be 'fast tracked.' Many countries do this for Doctors and other Professional Specialists. I don't know if that would stretch to Network Engineer or Administrator.

I assume that you are totally fluent in Spanish. If not, ignore the prior paragraph. When you visit in October, try to set up an appointment with a Technical Chief at one of the Hardware/Software houses in Madrid (IBM, Microsoft, Cisco Systems). Hand deliver a CV {Curriculum Vitae} in Spanish. If they are interested, they will find a way to help you.

Another path you might wish to explore is Academia: If you have adequate Academic credentials you might be able to spend a year or a semester as a visiting Professor of Information Technology (or Computer Sciences).

Any ladies want EU Citizenship? je je I came across this on craigslist.com and found it interesting. An Italian guy wanting to marry an American Woman, just for the papers. And no, this is not me. I dont even speak Italian. je je

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/stp/43179635.html
I copied it here:

I'm looking for someone willing to marry me just for the papers. No feelings will be involved:you can't even think about touching me,no kisses,or anything at all.This is just business,nothing else.You get Italian citizenship so that you can go in Italy at any time and do whatever you want there and I get American citizenship. You must be 18 to 25 y/o,born in the US,reliable,willing to stay in LA for at least 2,5 years and under 150 pounds:I'm good looking and the marriage has to seem believable.I'm 23 y/o, male.Contact me for more info and to set up an appointment

this is in or around hollywood
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

Haha, that ad is hilarious!

Filbert's idea is actually a really good one, because by combining the language and IT aspects, it means you have a much more valid argument that you need native English speakers (us ). I was also interested in the idea of offering online Spanish (or English, I guess) courses after I wrote a short website to help myself practise Spanish when I was learning. Correction: when I started learning... the main problem with that as I see it is that there's a lot of competition from high-quality cheap or free sites.

Dommo, do you have an NIE number? I think that's what it's called, I can't remember... I spoke to another kiwi guy who said that he had applied for a lot of jobs but never got any response until he put that on his CV. Even though you and I have legal rights to work, we can't work in Spain without it, and it takes up to two months to arrive. So I guess unless you can show that you have it, they figure they'll be waiting two months for you to start.

Mine is in the post, allegedly....

Ufff... I really hate to burst your bubbles especially since you are all so eager to start this business venture. But.... combining the concept of an "escuela de informática" with an "escuela de idiomas" is nothing new nor unique. It seems that one exists in practically every neighborhood in Madrid (I don´t know about Salamanca). And recently, I have seen a lot of them close down and go out of business.

And don´t kid yourselves, the whole English teaching sector is in a bit of a crisis, take it from someone who is in the business (and no, I am not saying this to thwart any potential competition by any means!!! ).

Ever since about 2 years ago when 3 of the largest English teaching franchises in the country went belly up leaving thousands of teachers unemployed and unpaid (yours truly included) and thousands of Spaniards with horrendous lines of credit that they are still required to pay back despite not receiving the supposed services, your average Spaniard is quite suspect of the language instruction field.

The challenges are numerous. I have since launched my own language consultancy, and while I see growth every month, it´s much slower than we had anticipated. People are reticent and capricious... one month they want classes, the next month they don´t. Gone are the days when a student would happily sign on for a year long course. That means continual recruitment of students (and in sales we all know that it´s more expensive to recruit new than renew old). Continual expense in sales and marketing... and I won´t even discuss the nightmare from the educational side when there is constant incorporation into classes and it´s difficult to maintain a constant rhythm.

Finding professional English teachers is also a challenge. Yes, the TEFL programs exist to train people how to teach, but it´s a bandaid solution to a greater problem. The majority of the TEFL programs are aimed at recent college grads who are looking for their European adventure before settling down into a "real job". This means uncommitted teachers who will leave a teaching job at the drop of a hat. In addition, you cannot put a recent college grad in a company to teach the business executives. There is just absolutely no connection. And for now, the largest piece of the fiancial pie is in in-company/business English classes.

Then from the business side, because the market is flooded with "native speakers" who sell themselves as English teachers (some legitimately and some not), the overall price for English teaching drops making it hard for language schools to find and employ good teachers (because the pay is dismal since no one is willing to pay more) and the big multinationals who want the English instruction are looking for the cheapest way to do it. It´s a constant challenge and until you can build up a dossier of corporate clients who are willing to pay between 35-40€/hour of instruction so you can pay your teachers a fair wage, it´s a long road to hoe.

I´m not trying to be pessimistic about this at all, but rather realistic. I´m more than happy to help you out or offer you advice based on my experience, but believe me, if it were so easy, it would have been done eons ago!

However, I think you are on the right track, you just need to think it through a bit more. Look for the negatives, not just the positives. But hey, you don´t need me to tell you that. I surmise that you all have a bit of business experience behind you!

Good luck!

No sweat guys - I would expect someone already in the location to dampen expectations. Who heard of anyone encouraging competition? I know someone who set up a language school in a suburb of Madrid a year ago. Yes there have been peaks and troughs but by and large it has been a success. Plus, get this. The owner predicted (almost with 100% certainty) when there would be slow and busy periods. Apparently there are well-known peaks and troughs in this business year. I also know of schools that prosper in the centre, and some of the ways they attract customers.
-- Finding professional English teachers is also a challenge. --
I think this comment is one indicator as to potential business. I still feel though that a combined Spanish/IT (why just Spanish, we could get in German or French teachers as well) course would appeal to extranjeros (we'd have to be careful on budgets/numbers here of course)
Naturally, there's a lot more research required here isn't there? (I guessed we already knew that) :p

Chica's response sounds about right.

I'd figured it would probably be difficult and competitive. And while I think the idea of teaching business/IT Spanish to foreigners is a good one, we also have to be realistic about how large the market is. I'm looking at being paid about a quarter of what I got in London, for basically the same job. Life here is cheaper, but not that much. I can afford to make that sort of sacrifice for lifestyle and other benefits (sun, language and looking at Spanish ladies ), but realistically not many can. It's going to limit the amount of time I can spend working in Spain too, I suspect. On a salary of 30k euros (if I'm lucky) I won't be getting home to NZ to see the family too often....

Actually Filbert, I welcome competition. Especially the kind of competition that is going to raise the level and standards of English teaching here in Spain and not those who are looking to make a quick buck while exploiting woefully underpaid, undertrained, undersupported teachers. If we (I) don't fight to bring respectability to the profession, who will?

And it's a no-brainer to expect (predict??) that there are slow periods in the business. Isn't there in any business? English teaching is definitely a cyclical business.

But all that aside, I honestly applaud your enthusiasm and again, am more than happy to answer your questions and help you in any modest way that I can (I don't have all the answers by any stretch of the imagination).

Good suggestion Lemming. I had thought about sorting out my NIE before I went over permanently. The only slight problem is making a personal appearance at a police station. I was trying to curb my habit of flying to Madrid every other weekend in favour of saving the money for my eventual permanent move. I take it there is no way of getting around this? I guess I'll just have to go across for the weekend! Oh the horror

Haha, god that sounds awful!

Plan on it taking at least a day though. I was lucky and got out in a couple of hours, but I could see that sometimes it would take a LOT longer. That was on a weekday too, I don't know if the police station is open on weekends. Get there early is my advice. And you'll need an address to pretend is yours in Madrid too - do you have a friend there or something?

Good luck!

Hey I'll jump in a little late here on this one but I had some ideas-

First (wink) you said you "weren't a refugee", it made me wonder, what if someone made the case to the Spanish government that you WERE a refugee of a country that had an illegal election? Seing as how we all know now Gore really won in 2000. Cultural assylum anyone?

If you want to live in Spain, you could do what I did, just come here and look for a job and be prepared to wait it out. Maybe even choosing a smaller, less visited destination (I hear Murcia's nice) would mean that an academy would be more likely to hire you under the table and possibly help you get your work papers, which would involve two trips to the States, one to file at the spanish embassy, and another (assuming you go back to spain after that) to pick it up, exactly what I did. I strongly believe that if its what you want (to live in Spain) you will find the way. I don't reccomend marrying someone for their papers, though Im sure some people are less scrupulous about this...