I am looking to backpack in Europe for a year. I am 20 yrs old and am just wondering how difficult it is to get casual employment in Europe. Do I need any working visa's?
Thanks.
Cheers, Liz
[email protected]

If you haven't already, check out Lonely Planet's BB called The Thorn Tree, Western Europe branch. The posters there have alot of experience with the backpack route and a younger average age than Fodors (luv 'em both, don't get me wrong!).
www.lonelyplanet.com then to the TT.

If you have the right to citizenship of an EU country, and if that country is one of the 15 current member states, you can work just about anywhere in the EU, with no more complications than any other citizen. If that country is one of the 10 new members, you can work in that country, or in the UK or Ireland, just like any other citizen.

If you're a citizen of many Commonwealth countries (which your URL implies you might be), and have a British grandparent, you can get a UK Ancestry Visa which entitles you to work in the UK (but nowhere else: not even Ireland)

Otherwise, life gets messy. If you're Canadian, you might be eligible for Working Holiday Visas in a few countries, which let you work IN THAT COUNTRY ONLY. If you're American, you probably aren't. Most citizens of rich countries can enter the UK/Ireland for six months with little questioning: but they get visa-free entry to all of the Schengen area for only 90 days in any 180 day period. You can organise things to give you a clear year in Europe (Switzerland and the 10 new EU members aren't in Schengen) but the sequence of countries you visit needs thinking about.

Botton line: without citizenship of an EU country, or an Ancestry/Working Holiday Visa, you can't work legally. And the jobs open illegally, especially outside the UK/Ireland, are hotly contested by illegal immigrants far more desperate for work than you'll be.

In practice, without wishing to be a wet blanket, trying to work casually in much of Europe is likely to get you deported - and have "deportee" on your file at every border you ever come to. Unless you can get citizenship, or a concessionary visa.

But good luck

If you do qualify for citizenship in an EU country, then make sure you give yourself plenty of time to file the paperwork, etc. I mean MONTHS before you take off on your backpacking trip.

There was another poster here recently who wanted to do the same thing as you, and thought a couple of weeks would be enough time to file for EU citizenship and get everything back before he flew out. Nope. Nope. Nope.

My sister backpacked around Europe for 5 months, several years ago, and even though she had a few negative experiences (she got robbed in Barcelona, for instance), she had the most amazing time, and became a much more self sufficient person than she had ever been before.

I hope you have a great year traveling!!!

Students can get short-term work visas for the UK and Ireland. Check out www.bunac.co.uk. It has all of the information you will need.

Here's a CNN article that you might find helpful:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TRAVEL/ADVIS...oad/index.html