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Everything you need to know about acquiring a visa to live, study and work in Barcelona
Are you from outside the EU and looking for a way to live, study and work in Barcelona? Oxford TEFL can help you make this dream a reality.
We provide a visa support service for those who wish to study with us in Barcelona and we have an almost 100% success rate for those coming from the UK, United States, Canada and Australia (and many other countries).
Unlike many other course providers, we offer our visa service from within the school rather than outsourcing to another company. Our Spanish Visa Support Officer, Diana, will be your point of contact throughout the process to help ensure that your visa application is as streamlined, stress-free and low-cost as possible.
Find out here everything you need to know about how we can help you obtain your visa to come to Barcelona and become a successful English as a foreign language teacher.
🔶On tablet and mobile, please, swipe right to see the entire table.
No Visa Required* (up to 90 days) | Schengen Visa (1 month) Basic Option | Long-Term Student Visa (7 months) Most Popular | Long-Term Student Visa (12 months) Best Value | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Who is it for? | *Citizens of many countries (e.g., Australia, Brazil, Singapore, UK, USA) can visit Spain for up to 90 days without a visa. Click here to see the full list. | Those who require a visa to visit Spain, but only plan to take the CELTA course before moving back home, or before moving on to another country. | Those who want to live and work in Barcelona with as much flexibility as possible, but aren’t ready to commit to a full year. | Those who want to live and work in Barcelona for at least a year, and are committed to professional development. |
Where do I apply? | N/A | At BLS International in your country of residence (NOT in Spain) | At the Spanish consulate in your country of residence (NOT in Spain) | |
Can I work? | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
Can I extend/renew if I decide to stay longer? | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
Course Requirements | N/A | CELTA (face-to-face in Barcelona, full-time) + 6 months of our Developing Teacher Course with Spanish + Oxford TEFL Visa Service | CELTA (face-to-face in Barcelona, full-time) + 11 months of our Developing Teacher Course with Spanish + Oxford TEFL Visa Service | |
Time Needed to Apply (approx.) | N/A | 4–6 weeks (2 weeks to gather the required documents + 2–4 weeks for BLS International to process your visa application) | 3 months (2 months to gather the required documents + 1 month for the consulate to process your visa application) | |
Fees | Starting from €1550 CELTA course: €1550* | Starting from €1610 CELTA course: €1550* Schengen Visa Support: €60 | Starting from €3530 CELTA course: €1550* 6 months DTCS: €1800 Long-Term Visa Support: €180 | Starting from CELTA course: €1550* 11 months DTCS: €3300 Long-Term Visa Support: |
Payment Deadline (FULL Fees) | 1 week before your start date | 6 weeks before your start date | 3 months before your start date | |
Notes | — | The full fees listed above must be paid before we can provide visa support or prepare a letter of enrolment for your visa application. |
*CELTA course fee includes early bird discount.
Maybe. Visa requirements depend on your passport. We recommend checking your country’s requirements in this page: Who Needs a Schengen Visa.
If you are a Canadian, Australian, or New Zealand citizen, you may be eligible to apply for one-year Youth Mobility Visa/Working Holiday visa. Spain has an agreement with these countries that allows people under 35 to live and work in Spain for up to one year.
The requirements for this type of visa will change a bit depending on which country you’re from, but this visa is generally easy to acquire.
There are three main ways you can come to Barcelona to study with us. The option you choose will depend on your goals and the amount of time you are planning to stay in Barcelona.
1. No visa required (up to 90 days)
Citizens of many countries (e.g., Australia, Brazil, Singapore, UK, USA) can visit Spain for up to 90 days without a visa (visit Who Needs a Schengen Visa for the full list). This is enough time to take your 4-week Cambridge CELTA course in Barcelona and still have enough time to enjoy the city, travel freely within Spain or visit other countries in Europe before / afterwards. It is not possible to work legally on this visa.
This visa is usually stamped on your passport upon arrival in Spain.
2. Schengen Visa (1 month)
For citizens of some other countries (visit Who Needs a Schengen Visa for the full list) you will require a visa to visit Spain for up to a month. This is enough time to take your 4-week Cambridge CELTA course in Barcelona, but you would need to leave Spain immediately afterwards.
This visa application will take around 4–6 weeks (2 weeks to gather the required documents + 2–4 weeks for your visa application to be processed)
3. Long-term student Visa (7-12 months)
For those who would like to live, study and work in Barcelona with as much flexibility as possible, this program is ideal for you. On this visa, you would take your 4-week Cambridge CELTA course in Barcelona and then our Developing Teacher with Spanish course. This means that you will be able to gain your teaching qualification, develop your skills, learn Spanish and work legally for up to 30 hours per week.
This visa application will take around 3 months (2 months to gather the required documents + 1 month for the consulate to process your visa application)
Highly unlikely. Finding an employer to sponsor a work visa as a non-EU citizen without residency through birth, ancestry, or marriage is unlikely due to EU hiring laws.
Employers would need to prove that no suitably qualified EU citizen could do the job before hiring a non-EU citizen. This work visa is more feasible in areas of labour shortage (e.g. the nautical and maritime sector) but highly unlikely in foreign language education.
On the long-term student visa, you will be able to work legally for up to 30 hours per week. This is more than enough for teachers as you will most likely teach 20-25 hours per week as a full-time teacher.
In order to be able to do most things in Spain, you will need to register for your foreign identity card (TIE / NIE). To make the application, you will need to physically go to a local council office. So, before arrival in Spain, we recommend making an appointment for this.
Ideally, the appointment would be within the first month of your arrival (your appointment day / time must be outside of your CELTA course schedule). This is because it may take time to find an appointment and then it will take around one month to receive your card.
Once you have your card you will be able to do things such as apply for work authorisation, open a bank account, join the gym, and most other things.
If you have trouble making an appointment, we can recommend an external service which can assist you with this (there will be an extra fee for this service but due to the high demand for these appointments, we highly recommend using the service to help ensure there are no delays).
Looking for a job as an English teacher is like looking for any other job. After you have attended the appointment for your foreigners ID card (TIE/ NIE), you will be able to start interviewing for teaching positions.
If you are offered one, your employer would then apply online for a student work authorization on your behalf. Getting approval for work authorisation usually takes another 1-2 months.
If your student visa is for a longer period (12 months as opposed to 7 months, for example), employers will feel more reassured that you will be able to work throughout your contract.
As one of our graduates, you will be able to take advantage of our comprehensive careers service to help you find teaching work.
The cost of living in Barcelona can vary considerably depending on your lifestyle and living arrangements. We recommend reading this blog post for a general idea: How much does it cost to live in Barcelona?
English teachers in Barcelona are not high earners but it can be enough if you work full time.
The average salary for full-time (20-25 hours per week) teachers is around €1400 – €1600 gross per month, if you are working for a reputable company and teaching some private classes (which pay fairly).
In addition to this, it may take you around 3 months after graduation from the CELTA (depending on the time of year as well) to get your paperwork in place and build up a full-time schedule. For this reason, we recommend coming with plenty of savings.
Since 1998, we have been helping aspiring teachers from outside the EU come to Barcelona gain their CELTA qualification and live, study and work. This is how we would help you:
Before arriving in Spain:
After arriving in Spain:
Before your visa expires:
To make your long-term student visa application, the following documentation will need to be provided to the Spanish Consulate (this may vary slightly from country to country):
Because of all the documentation you need from your home country, if you already know you are going to Spain for a long time, it is recommended to apply for your long-term student visa at the embassy or consulate in your home country.We will advise you of where your closest embassy is located.
If you are already in Spain and decide to study here, you can do the visa application process while in Spain. Any non-Schengen area citizen can apply for a long-term student visa while they’re in Spain.
Yes. If you are enrolled in the program with us and you would like to extend your visa with us, we will provide the letter and guidance you need to do so. The visa extension can be applied for from Spain (you do not need to return to your home country to do so).
The maximum length of time you can study with us on the long-term student visa is 18 months. The fee for providing the documentation needed for your visa extension is €60.
It is a requirement of the Spanish consulate that all course fees (CELTA + Developing Teacher Course with Spanish in this case) must be paid in advance of providing any documentation needed for your visa application.
If you prefer to reduce the initial fees, you could reduce the number of months on your visa application (to 7 months minimum) and extend while you are in Spain (in which case, the full fees for this extension would be needed before providing the documentation for your visa extension).
If your previous course was related to teaching or Spanish, we will be able to renew your visa. In this case, your previous school will need to provide a certificate of completion (certificado de aprovechamiento).
Yes, but you would need to leave the EU for a minimum of 3 months to be able to obtain a new tourist visa. This visa will be stamped on your passport on arrival back in Spain.
The total fees will depend on the type if visa you apply for and the length of stay in Barcelona. Take a look at this table for a full summary.
The next step is to apply for the program so that we can check your background and suitability.
->Apply for 4-week CELTA course in Barcelon (choose this option if you do not need to apply for a visa).
->Apply for 4-week CELTA course in Barcelona + up to 10 months Developing Teacher Course with Spanish (choose this option if you need to apply for a visa but you do not want to stay a full year in Barcelona. Let us know on your application that you will be applying for a visa and for how long you would like to stay).
->Apply for 1 year program (4-week CELTA + 11 months Developing Teacher Course with Spanish + Visa Service (choose this option if you would like apply for the long-term student visa to live, study and work in Barcelona for one full year).
->Apply for the Developing Teacher Course with Spanish (choose this option if you already have a CELTA / TEFL certification and you would like to enrol in the Developing Teacher Course with Spanish to apply for a long-term student visa).
Diana Guralev has been teaching English since 2014. Originally form Slovakia, she lived in several different countries before settling down in Barcelona, where she obtained the Cambridge CELTA with Oxford TEFL.
As our Careers Advisor and Visa Support Officer, Diana is in a unique position to help you live, study and work in Spain legally and also fnd a great teaching position in Barcelona. Diana’s strong connections with highly regarded schools in Barcelona will help ensure that the transition for our non-EU applicants from CELTA graduate to working teacher will be a smooth as possible.
Download our Barcelona Visa Service Infopack now!
Would you like to stay in Spain to teach English? Receive information straight into your inbox about how our visa support service can help you live that dream.
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