Spanish visa for US citizen help!

Il Trap

Mods; if this is in the wrong forum please feel free to move.

Any further light that anyone may be able to shed on this would be greatly appreciated:

I (an Irish passport holder) am moving from Ireland to Madrid very soon and plan of staying there for the next year at least. My girlfriend, who is a US citizen, is planning to come to Madrid in January to live with me and teach English.

Now, obviously its pretty straightforward for me to stay in Spain, being an EU citizen but less so for her as she will need a visa to stay beyond 90 days.

Basically she needs a work or a student visa as it isn't really much of an option for her to come on a non-profit visa. It also appears that she needs to have a Spanish employer 'sponsor' her, as such ie. submit an application on their side to the Spanish authorities to have her as an employee, in advance of her applying on her end. This also tricky because she needs to give over enough time to going through the visa application process which can take weeks so its something that I reckon we need to move on quickly.

I'm slightly anxious though because I'm not sure what avenues to go down in terms of securing teaching employment several months in advance.

I know that there are also auxiliar teaching assistant programs where a student visa is granted and the candidate can work a maximum if 25 hours a week. That would suit fine also, but its getting the promise of acceptance on to such a program 3-4 months in advance, in order to get her visa sorted in a timely manner, that is the concern.

So, basically I'm looking for any advice, tips, links, suggestions, contacts, experiences of others, alternative options etc etc that might be able to help. I've not arrived in Madrid yet but I plan on doing alot of work 'on the ground' when I get there. I'd just like to get the ball rolling with her visa application ASAP and get it sorted so we can plan ahead.

Again, any help very much appreciated. Gracias!

Marcusm

How long have you been together and do you live together? IN addition to spouses of EEA citizens gaining residence rights, generally unmarried partners who can prove that they are in a relationship equivalent to marriage for at least 2 years and who live together are entitled to transfer residence alongside the EEA partner.

The key point here is that if your girlfriend is already part of your settled life in one EEA country, the other country cannot put up a barrier (require a visa) which has the effect of reducing your rights to freedom of movement and establishment.

Il Trap

Marcusm wrote: »

How long have you been together and do you live together? IN addition to spouses of EEA citizens gaining residence rights, generally unmarried partners who can prove that they are in a relationship equivalent to marriage for at least 2 years and who live together are entitled to transfer residence alongside the EEA partner.

The key point here is that if your girlfriend is already part of your settled life in one EEA country, the other country cannot put up a barrier (require a visa) which has the effect of reducing your rights to freedom of movement and establishment.

Thanks for the reply and the info. Unfortunately, we're not in that situation at this moment. She hasn't lived in the EU before so this move is all new territory.

Marcusm

I cannot see, on that basis, that she has any rights that a usual US citizen would not have. If you were married (genuinely) then you would be entitled to have her move to Spain to join you - your rights in this regard might actually be stronger than having her join you in Ireland. As that is not the case, it is irrelevant. You need to find a Spanish immigration expert/agent.

schemingbohemia

Also remember there is 40% youth unemployment in Spain, a significant number of under-employed EU English language teachers already there and you can see that you face an uphill struggle.