Sunday, November 7, 2010
How to find a free host family in Spain for a non-student?
How to find a free host family in Spain for a non-student?
I have thought about Spain for a long time and want to get serious about getting there. I know all about couch surfing and travel companion matches but all I'm looking to do is live for a little while (eg a few months) with a family, help them out on their farm or in their house hold in exchange for a room and meals. Help? Oh, and what papers I would need to apply for to enter and live in Spain, though not permanently.
Other - Spain - 4 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
There are Au Pair agencies. EF and CIEE both arrange those situations. Otherwise, I know of no one who will put you up for free...Your suggestions might work out, but I don't know of any agencies that arrange such a situation. Be careful...there are a lot of "agencies" that are scams out there...make sure you have a reputable one. (the above are both reputable and qualified). If you arrange something privately, you run the risk of finding yourself in a situation that could get very dangerous...such things only happen occasionally, but still..you don't want to be the one...
2 :
If you're a US citizen you will find this very difficult, if not impossible, to do. Firstly, with an American passport you can only stay in Spain (and the Schengen Zone) for 90 days out of every 180 days as a tourist and you cannot work. Long-stay visas are available, but again you cannot work and will need to prove that you can support yourself financially without working. Unemployment in Spain, and the EU, is very high at the moment, and there are many people who might be happy to take this type of work. Spanish and EU citizens will get preference over anyone from outside the EU.
3 :
This site is the best place - designed for people wanting to stay for free, and earn their keep with a little work. http://www.workaway.info/
4 :
This is how it works: when you have a work offer, you apply for a work permit including the contract the employer is offering yo . It's not that you get your work permit and then start looking for a job ,but the opposite. If you work for food and shelter, that's simply illegal. If you work, you get paid, pay taxes and have to be included in the Social Security (so that you have right to health care and those taxes you pay will be used for calculation for your retirement pension). For that kind of job you won't get a work permit at all, since to give a job to a foreigner, there has to be residents here that can't/won't take that job. And since that's not qualified job, with the current unemployment rate it's quite impossible that an employee is willing to go through all that redtape nightmare to hire you. If you want to do that kind of work illegally, I doubt anyone will really dare doing something so risky and illegal for a perfect stranger (it might work with a friend, but a stranger? I doubt it). With a tourists visa you're not allowed to stay here more than 3 months. If you stay longer, you may be deported if the authorities find out you're here without a residence permit. We have lots of illegal immigrants, you may not be deported at all, but the risk is always there. You could try finding some work as au pair, as it has been mentioned. That's the closest to slavery that's legal (working for food and shelter plus an indecently low amount of pocket money) in this country. I don't mean to be harsh, it's only that things are really tough here now.
Read more other entries :
