LaProfa,

Suggest you reach out to Chica - she is a wealth of information and is more than willing to share her expertize inbetween running a business and changing diapers.

If you will send me a private message, I'll send you some more info and Chica's email addresses -

I do laud you for wanting to broaden your horizons, Europe is very different from America. I know there are alot of Americans living in Spain, your best bet is to talk with them on how they did it.

The other way of getting her is coming as a student and seeing what opens.

regardless good luck

The best way for someone like Nicole982 to get her foot in the door is to get a student visa.

You can then work legally part time. The longer you are here, the more likely it is that you will find someone to sponsor a legitimate work visa. Once you have the work visa, you can work anywhere you want.

I do know lots of Americans (and other non-Europeans) who have carved out very interesting lives here in Madrid and make a good living. Nearly all have some special talent, experience, creativity, knack for business and/or drive to succeed. It's not at all impossible, but you have to really want it to make it work.

Generally speaking the easiest way to live and work in Madrid or Spain in general is to teach English. There is huge demand for teachers right now. (only requirement 4 week TEFL or CEFL certicate).Most people I've talked to that have made Madrid home started out at English teachers and either gone private or used it as a spring board to another job or business.

Unfortuanatly the downside is the cost of living in Madrid is brutal and the wages for starting teachers are very low.

Important note: if you choose to come to Madrid and teach English make sure you have savings to last a few months and secondly that you don't undersell you self, you can't live in Madrid teaching English for 10 euros an hour (or about 10,0000 euros a year), absolute minimum is 15 euros!

Search "teaching english in madrid" and you'll find tons of information inlcuding cost of living wages, getting work permits etc.

And who knows, we may actually see you one day at one of MadridMman's lunches

good luck

Hey Madrid Man (or anyone else out there w/ a work visa)

I just want to make sure i'm not confusing things. In this thread you said-

"I know you work legally with a work visa but if you'd lost your job (and hence your work visa) and had to find work somewhere else I'm sure you'd find this all to be true. What kinds of things CAN you do being non-EU (and without residency, that is). If one has a work-visa that's a whole different thing."

I just wanted to get some clarity on the work visa...if you lose your job or quit do you lose your visa too??? Later you go on to say--

"Once you have the work visa, you can work anywhere you want"

I'm in the process of getting my work visa and am happy to have to opportunity to have someone sponsor me but I'm not sure the job will acutally last long so I have to look at plan B...cause you should always have a plan B (i.e. applying for another job if I should need to in the future). But can I do this if this first job doesn't pan out? Does the work visa allow for multiple jobs or possible holding two jobs at once?

greetings from chicago

~M

Ha! See, I disappear from the board and still find my name all over it!

To answer LaProfa's question (thanks Puna!) I am an American married to a Spaniard. We were married in the States and then had the marriage legally recognized once we moved to Spain. Once that was done we applied for the Libro de Familia. Then, I applied for my legal residency in Spain. In order to do so I had to apply for a visa (reuniting family members) at the Spanish Consulate in NYC enabling me to stay in Spain long term while my paperwork went through.

My residency is under the "regimen comunitario" giving me the same rights as other EU citizens (no need to get a separate work visa). It has to be renewed every 5 years and is valid for as long as I am married. If, God forbid, we ever got divorced, my rights to live and work in this country would end. However, because we now have a son who is both a Spanish (and US) citizen, I would legally be allowed to stay and support my son until he turned 18.

I have debated the issue of becoming a Spanish national, but since it is not 100% clear if I would lose my American citizenship I have decided not to walk that path and have just remained a resident. Being a resident gives me almost the same rights as a Spaniard, except for voting in national elections and perhaps a few other obscure things.

Hope this has answered your question.

It's to my understanding that the family who owns The American Store is Filipino-American (arrghh... us Filipinos, we are everywhere ), so that would explain the Asian woman working there!

Going to work for an American company does not assure you of a good salary either. Amana has a the contract to do all of the Heating Ventaltion and Air Conditioning work for several of the major hotels that are under construction on the Med. both in Spain and other countries. They have had an ad looking for experienced HVAC supervisors for a few years detailing the work. Well DD sold his business last January and has been driving Mrs. Dweller up a wall, so he decides to respond to that ad. Sent off the resume and low and behold the phone rang about a week later. We talked on the phone and all sounded good until they asked how much I would need to take the job. Now bear in mind I have been doing that sort of work for over 30 years, so I told them that to go into a foreign country I would need $250K per year and they would have to furnish my housing and a car. The reply was "HA we can get a Spaniard to do it for $30K and not have to furnish the perks you are demanding" to which I replied "if that is true why haven't you been able to fill the job for over two years?" That job is still open and listed in the trade journal.

Expierience and an American company is not a gaurantee of a liveable salary. Knowing the cost of houseing and food cost, it would be a real crap shoot to go without a legal job lined up before leaving.Chica and I have discussed the cost of housing before.

By the way MM you have not given us a report as to how things are going for you lately!!!

desert dweller wrote: Things are very busy these weeks. But this conversation would be off-topic.

My First or Second post. Just a quick thanks to Madrid-Man for the website and forum.

If your here to teach English then they tend to turn a blind eye to you, In the process of getting my TEFL and I've talked to loads of teachers Americans and EU nationals and about 95% never bother registaring. Although I am here legally (married to an EU national) I'm not sure I want to go through the hoops to get a working permit. Working without papers means not having to pay the Social Security of 230 a month but agencys deduct 15% rather than 7%. It also means buying private health care (expensive at my age 40+)

I have noticed that alot of Americans (usually at least a third of each class) come and do thier TEFL but few stick around. I suppect most come to try Spain for a few months and then go home or move on.