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Welcome on ½ûÂþÌìÌà Mary_Ann,

the Barcelona expat network might help you to make contacts in BCN before you leave the USA

I used to live in BCN and I really, really liked the city. I wish you a lot of success in this new adventure!

Julien

Thanks Julien! Everything I've read about finding work looks like you need the local paper (nothing on the internet). This will make things difficult to plan in advance.

Yes indeed it will be much easier to find a job when you'll be in the country. Learn as much Spanish as you can, it will help a lot

Yes learn the language.
There is plenty of information on the Internet just type in the Spanish for "work" and then "Spain" or "Barcelona".
You have good qualifications by the sounds of it so it should be easier.
Sorry only do Portuguese or English.
Good Luck.

My husband and I are tenatively moving with his company from Houston to Barcelona.  Start early on your visa applications if you plan to stay more than the 90 day tourist time limit.  It is very involved to get a visa to live in Spain.  Their government requires stringent background checks, verification of medical insurance, etc.  Visit their embassy website.  It is a very involved process.  Best of luck.

Forgot to mention that it can take 6 months to get visa to live in Spain.

Mary_Ann wrote:

My husband is fluent is Spanish and I'm learning like crazy. We both have PhDs in chemistry and were wondering if there were opportunities to teach chemistry, english, etc...

Just giving a quick glance at the listings I came up with this:



One of the drawbacks to "learning Spanish like crazy" and wanting to move to Barcelona is the importance of a knowledge of the catalan language ...  This job listing for secondary school chemistry teachers/substitutes (which is written in catalan) closes with language requirements as "Idioma Acreditar el coneixement adequat, oral i escrit, de la llengua catalana." ... Any position that deals with public administration will require a knowledge of catalan.

But don't let that get you down ... there are also listings where your knowlegde of english coupled with your PhD in chemistry may just put you in over the top ... check this one out:



Keep pushing.  You can make it work if you want to.

Good luck.

Look into visa requirements too ... it is real REAL tough (some say 6 months ... I struggled for 30 months ... believe it or not!)

Thanks for all of your replies. We have some questions

1. I've been reading about TEFL. This might be something we could do. But I'm unsure of the way to get a work visa:

Do we try to secure teaching english in Spain, do they then support your work visa?
Or do we get our own work visa take a TEFL exam (while still in the US) and then look for a position in Spain?

Most of you are suggesting we try to get the visa while we are in the states. But what if we get the visa but don't have a job yet? Is it just easier to get a job in spain if you already have your visa?

Thanks so much for your responses.

2. My husband runs an internet business. The good news is that he can do this from anywhere. But what are the rules for visas? If I get a visa -- is he covered? Or do we both need our own?