hikerchick73

I am going to Spain at the end of April. My father is from there & I'll start in Madrid staying w/family. I'm a licenesed massage therapist in the US & would LOVE to work there ~ preferable like Barcelona or another city near the coast. I'll be there 6+ months. SUGGESTIONS/TIPS/Feedback???
Thanks!!

elina

I suppose it works in Spain the same way it works in other EU countries. First you have to find that job, and that it easier to do when you are already there. And then, after you can name the employer, you apply for a work permit and a visa.

CotswoldScouser

Do you have a Spanish passport, or can you get one before you leave?

If you do, you simply job hunt. With unemployment in Spain roughly twice US levels, that won't be that easy, but it's legal - and over the summer season, concentrating on the Costas, there ought to be a reasonable amount of jobs going.

If you don't, I'm afraid Elina has misunderstood the law in Spain and in the rest of the EU.

An employer in the EU has to demonstrate to his national government that you have skills he can't find anywhere in Europe. And he has to prove he's looked throughout Europe - even down to showing copies of the ads he's placed in the German Massagers' Weekly. If he can so demonstrate (and to be honest, I wouldn't hold my breath), then you can apply for the relevant visa and enter Spain. You CANNOT work on the tourist entry permit you get on arrival as a tourist without a visa.

Nor, BTW, can someone who's not a citizen of an EU/EEA country stay in Spain for over 3 months without applying for a special visa.

elina

"An employer in the EU has to demonstrate to his national government that you have skills he can't find anywhere in Europe."

I know that is what it says in the rules and regulations. But I cannot believe that the employers of all the Australian bartenders and Russian construction workers would have done so.

david_west

The Aussies are under 26 so can get working holiday visas (and a lot of them have, or can get, British Citizens – their Grandparents are British) and the “Russians” aren’t Russians, they’re jam-rolls Czechs, Lithuanians, Latvians etc – ie EU citizens.

It is hard for a yank to get a work permit in the EU, unless they have a seriously scarce skill (or are loaded in the first place)

massagediva

I'm afraid the standards for massage therapists in Europe(don't know about Spain specifically) are much higher than those in the U.S. In most of Europe/Canada,you need to have a full university degree in such a program.I completed an 1100 hour program,about twice as extensive as the average,but still puts me way behind those standards!

elina

"and the “Russians” aren’t Russians, "

They are Russians. At least they speak Russian and usually say that they are from St. Petersburg area. And there are a lot of them. Also many Chinese and Turks working in restaurants, and I cannot imagine that there wouldn´t have been an EU-citizen in need or capable of doing those jobs.

I think your chances are better if you have spezialized in some "more exotic" type of massage. I took once Chinese massage in Canary Islands (Spain), and the person who gave it was a middle-aged woman from California.

CotswoldScouser

Elina:

What's your point? That you can get round the work permit rules? Quite untrue. You can't. Hikerchick will get a work permit (if she's not Spanish of course) only if her employer can demonstrate she has skills absent among the other 500 million of us. Which is pretty unlikely.

Or that it's possible to work illegally? Of course it is: there are few laws it's not possible to break.

But there are risks involved in working illegally - from the high likelihood of detection and deportation, to much more frightening risks of exploitation and abuse. Risks worth taking if you're a fit Russian construction worker, tougher than any employer and faced with living death in Novosibirsk as the alternative to a cash in hand job on a Barcelona building site.

A lot less sensible if you're a young woman in a physical contact profession with a pleasant life to return to in North America. There's any number of desperate young women working illegally as masseuses in Europe: what they're actually doing, and how they're living, really isn't likely to be hikerchick's idea of a pleasant career break.

hikerchick73

Thanks for all your input guys! Didn't mean to start anything with this question. I hear what you're all saying. I did attempt to get my citizenship (which would have made everything easier) ~ but there were problems because my dad is a Dual Citizen (w/Canada) & he had his Canadian passport current (vs. his spanish) when he had us. I have Dual Citizenship as well (w/Canada)...so we were afraid they were going to find that out too. Countries don't like that! So, anyway - it set us back & made it so it'll be hard to work in Spain now. I'm okay if I don't work ~ just thought the experience of "living" there (including working) would be fun...but I can always do it in other ways. I've heard with resorts & stuff though they hire mostly foreigners in the summers & it's easy to work. But who knows. Thanks again!!

blackduff

Hikerchick
On a different thread but this one is approprate.

http://www.spainexpat.com/

This gives a lot of information about working in Spain, etc..

Blackduff

hikerchick73

Thanks blackduff! Great websites (both) you offered (on my other post too).
This posting board has been very helpful! Someone from Craigs List recommended it.