I’m live in Canada. I’m about to graduate high school in January, so I’m 17. My girlfriend is an exchange student from Brazil. She is supposed to be going on an exchange program to Spain next school year, probably around September, I don’t know what the school year is like there. She is going into grade 12. I will be 18 and I’m interested in going to Spain and staying there, but I’m going to serve a mission for my church when I’m 19, so I need to be saving money, therefore I would need to make money. I read some of the info about work visas and stuff on this site and it all seems pretty hard to do. Is there like an easier way for me to be able to work there as an 18 year old and since I only want to be there like 10 months tops?

Hey Cra-Z.
Yeah, the work visa sitch is tough. Sorry. Not everyone gets a work visa however, and I’ve known Americans/Canucks/Aussies to have stayed in Spain for years at a time, working and living illegally, so there is some hope if that’s what you want to do. You only have 90 days with your Canadian passport, but with the EU countries’ border agreement you can stretch that out if you know what to say.

Being 18 I think the best chance you might have to find work is to work at a bar. To do that you’d definitely need to be in a heavily touristed area or speak Spanish. Do you speak Spanish? That’d help. Knowing French might help you to learn faster too… Location matters a lot. Where’s she going to be moving to?

Not to be discouraging either, but there’s a lot of age discrimination in Spain. It’s a traditional type of place, keep that in mind.

Wages are low, but so is the cost of living. You’d probably be able to make enough to live, but not enough to save.

If you’re really dedicated to following your girlfriend to Spain however,  keep up hope and you can make it work. Check out the info on this site. There’s a lot about teaching English (although again, your age might be a hurdle), visas, cost of living, etc. that will help you figure out if this is the right decision for you.

I don’t speak Spanish, yet… Haha. I do speak French fluently though and I’m learning Brazilian Portuguese right now. I’m not aware yet the exact location she will be living. She doesn’t know yet either, she’s waiting on her Dad in Brazil to get it set up. This is really good information, thanks a lot. I might have to start some sort of online business so I could do that too and get some extra cash. I’m planning on being an entrepreneur anyway, might as well start soon. I’ll post whenever I get any more information for sure. This is a great site, serves its purpose well. My search for information pretty much just ended here because there’s so much information. I read about the visas and the cost of living, but I’ll check the English teaching thing out for sure.

Good for you! Entrepreneurship is the way to go if you can. If you’re running an online business you’ll need:
a) a good laptop
b) a good Internet connection
c) a non-lucrative visa

If you have a bit of money to sort these things out then great. If you’re serious about starting an online business let me know, PM me and we can talk.