[bb322]

My employer had me work with a private agency in Spain to get my Spanish work permit/visa and the fees are quite high and I am beginning to think this may be some sort of scam? As far as I know, it only costs $190 to get a visa on my own through the Spanish consulate in the US!

First they charged me a fee of 190 euros, and now they are asking for these additional fees:

Visa/NIE legalization fee: 205 euros
DHL delivery fee: 140 euros
Embossment fee: 160 euros

So this would be an additional 505 euros. Do these fees sound right for a private agency?

 

[xabiaxica]

According to this, it's 60€ if you do it yourself - plus of course whatever you have to pay for documents to be translated & so on.
Visados de larga duración

It probably isn't a scam - any agency can charge anything they like - though I would expect them to tell you the fees upfront.

 

[bb322]

After a lot of researching and investigation, this situation turned out to be a scam. The "job" I was offered was a scam along with this "visa agency" and unfortunately I fell for it. So beware that there are visa scams out there.

 

[Overandout]

Thanks for the useful info.

I wonder if it is possible to change the title of this thread to include "scam warning" or similar so that in future searches by other users this is highlighted?

Xabiachica??

 

[xabiaxica]

Since we can't name companies for legal reasons, I'm not sure how much of a warning it would be, but I will add a link to this thread to the FAQ thread.

However - when a work visa is applied for, it's the company which has to apply & of course pay the fees, which as you can see from the link aren't very high.

Unless you work in a very niche position it's highly unlikely that you'd get a visa anyway!

 

[bb322]

The company wasn't even a real company! It was just a scammer who claimed to be a visa agency. What happened was that I got a fraudulent job offer, and I was led to believe that it was real as I had inquired for information about English teaching positions abroad with the company Education First (a legitimate company with language schools all over the world), and somehow some scammers got my information and knew I was interested in jobs with Education First and teaching jobs in Spain so they formulated this fake job offer which I fell for.

I posted some information about it on "Scamwarners.com": https://scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=145455

 

[xabiaxica]

The company wasn't even a real company! It was just a scammer who claimed to be a visa agency. What happened was that I got a fraudulent job offer, and I was led to believe that it was real as I had inquired for information about English teaching positions abroad with the company Education First (a legitimate company with language schools all over the world), and somehow some scammers got my information and knew I was interested in jobs with Education First and teaching jobs in Spain so they formulated this fake job offer which I fell for.

I posted some information about it on "Scamwarners.com": https://scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=145455

So it was a position teaching English in an academy?

That would have rung bells immediately. The chance of the Spanish govt issuing a work visa for teaching English in an academy is pretty much zero.

Some come on student visas (in themselves not that easy to acquire now that only certain courses count for that type of visa) & get legitimate part time work that way - but a full work visa for teaching English in an academy, with so many EU native speakers available & looking for jobs.... do the maths

 

[xabiaxica]

wow! just looked at your link

2600€ a month PLUS an apartment PLUS round trip travel costs from home country PLUS so many other things

All written in rather poor English.......

I'm sorry you've been scammed - but all of that really is too good to be true!

 

[bb322]

Actually teaching English in Spain is quite common? I've done a lot of research on this and there are a lot of job opportunities teaching English abroad in Spain, there is even a program through the Spanish government where you can do this, so it's not something that's unrealistic at all. And the reason why I fell for this scam originally was because a day prior to receiving this fake job opportunity, I had been looking at the English teacher job opportunities abroad on the Education First website and submitted my information inquiring for more information about the job opportunities here: Find Your Role | Careers at EF

I just did a google search to find this job opportunities, and I came across this website claiming to be called "English First" that seems to be copying Education First (a legitimate company) and I believe that I could have submitted my information on this website and this is how the scammer got my information: ESL Jobs - EF English First - Now Hiring

But regardless, soon after submitting my information inquiring for more information about these jobs, I received an official looking job opportunity, their email had all of the official Education First logos on it, and contact information for the Education First language school that actually does exist in Barcelona, which is why I believed it was a legitimate offer. And of course, I was especially excited about this offer as teaching abroad in Spain was exactly what I was looking into doing.

When they first asked me to pay fees for the "visa", they only asked for 190 euros which is a normal fee for a visa so I wasn't concerned at that point until I had a lot of trouble trying to send the money (my card kept rejecting it and flagging it as fraud) and so I began to wonder if this was a scam/a fraudulent company, and so I asked others their opinion and they seemed to think that everything seemed fine, and I could not find any information online about this scam either, so I continued. I wish I listened to my instincts though. But yes, looking back on all of this now obviously this opportunity does seem too good to be true.

 

[Tigerlillie]

So it was a position teaching English in an academy?

That would have rung bells immediately. The chance of the Spanish govt issuing a work visa for teaching English in an academy is pretty much zero.

Some come on student visas (in themselves not that easy to acquire now that only certain courses count for that type of visa) & get legitimate part time work that way - but a full work visa for teaching English in an academy, with so many EU native speakers available & looking for jobs.... do the maths

To be fair the OP hasn't stated whether the offer was in a private academy or a state school.
There are special govt programs both in Spain and France for Americans who wish to come to Europe to teach english but I think these programs run through the state school system and not private academies.

 

[xabiaxica]

To be fair the OP hasn't stated whether the offer was in a private academy or a state school.
There are special govt programs both in Spain and France for Americans who wish to come to Europe to teach english but I think these programs run through the state school system and not private academies.

True, he hadn't, although he has now.

If it had been through the state system the visa issue would have been dealt with for him, of course.

Bottom line - if a company asks you to sort out your own work visa there's something dodgy going on.

 

[bb322]

True, he hadn't, although he has now.

If it had been through the state system the visa issue would have been dealt with for him, of course.

Bottom line - if a company asks you to sort out your own work visa there's something dodgy going on.

They "referred" me to a fraudulent visa agency, who requested the usual documents required for a visa (passport photos, etc.) they also went as far as creating fraudulent documents for me.

I have already lived in Spain before and have went through a process of getting a visa, which I did on my own, but I am aware there are agencies that help you with the process, and all of the information they asked me for was information I already knew was required to obtain a visa so it didn't cause any red flags for me initially.

 

[Pesky Wesky]

Actually teaching English in Spain is quite common? I've done a lot of research on this and there are a lot of job opportunities teaching English abroad in Spain, there is even a program through the Spanish government where you can do this, so it's not something that's unrealistic at all. And the reason why I fell for this scam originally was because a day prior to receiving this fake job opportunity, I had been looking at the English teacher job opportunities abroad on the Education First website and submitted my information inquiring for more information about the job opportunities here: Find Your Role | Careers at EF

I just did a google search to find this job opportunities, and I came across this website claiming to be called "English First" that seems to be copying Education First (a legitimate company) and I believe that I could have submitted my information on this website and this is how the scammer got my information: ESL Jobs - EF English First - Now Hiring

But regardless, soon after submitting my information inquiring for more information about these jobs, I received an official looking job opportunity, their email had all of the official Education First logos on it, and contact information for the Education First language school that actually does exist in Barcelona, which is why I believed it was a legitimate offer. And of course, I was especially excited about this offer as teaching abroad in Spain was exactly what I was looking into doing.

When they first asked me to pay fees for the "visa", they only asked for 190 euros which is a normal fee for a visa so I wasn't concerned at that point until I had a lot of trouble trying to send the money (my card kept rejecting it and flagging it as fraud) and so I began to wonder if this was a scam/a fraudulent company, and so I asked others their opinion and they seemed to think that everything seemed fine, and I could not find any information online about this scam either, so I continued. I wish I listened to my instincts though. But yes, looking back on all of this now obviously this opportunity does seem too good to be true.

There are indeed a lot of English speakers working here as English teachers. In fact it's the most common profession for people from the UK and Ireland, and xabiachica knows as she was once aan EFL teacher, but there's the thing. In Spain employers are legally obliged to offer jobs to members of the EU before any other nationality. Only if the job cannot be covered in that way can it be offered to other nationalitites, and that has to be proved. It is therefore extremely unlikely that an American would be offered a job teaching English.
Another point, teaching English is not a well paid profession. I don't know anyone who gets paid 2600€ a month for teaching, let alone with an apartment and flights home. It's more around 1000€ take home pay with no extras. I wouldn't expect even the director of a school to have those conditions, so if that's what you're hoping for, TEFL in Spain is not for you

 

[xabiaxica]

They "referred" me to a fraudulent visa agency, who requested the usual documents required for a visa (passport photos, etc.) they also went as far as creating fraudulent documents for me.

I have already lived in Spain before and have went through a process of getting a visa, which I did on my own, but I am aware there are agencies that help you with the process, and all of the information they asked me for was information I already knew was required to obtain a visa so it didn't cause any red flags for me initially.

I don't know how long ago you worked here & got your own visa - but the system now is that the employer has to apply for the visa to employ a non-EU citizen,

As Pesky says, and as I think I posted earlier on this thread, in Spain now, any private employer has to prove to the govt that there are no EU citizens available for the job, before a work visa would be issued.

Again - it's the employer who applies for the visa - not the employee. So the potential employee should never be asked for any fees at all.

 

[Keral]

What about staying in Arizona and teaching English to the people there?? There are many that do not speak english..

I have to agree with patsy wetty as teaching anything is one of the lowest paying jobs around and to include a salary, housing is dreamland.. Maybe the head of a big university in the US would get that but in Spain??.

try workaway or wwoof for volunteer positions that include a bed and food for a little work.

 

[Isobella]

There. Are a lot of scams with recruitment agencies, in the UK too. Many jobs advertised do not exist. One in the UK is work on cruise ships others offering construction jobs in Spain. Been in the news a lot.

 

[Pesky Wesky]

I have to agree with patsy wetty as teaching anything is one of the lowest paying jobs around and to include a salary, housing is dreamland.. Maybe the head of a big university in the US would get that but in Spain??.

ound::scared:ound:

 

[Megsmum]

ound::scared:ound:

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