# Opening an English School in Spain



## BoricuaFuego (Aug 16, 2014)

Hi Everyone. New user here, hopefully you all can help me. 

Long story short, American boy meets Italian boy, Italian boy falls in love with American boy, American boy falls in love with Italian boy, Italian boy doesn't want to move to China, American boy is honestly tired of China anyway, Italian Boy and American Boy want to get married in the next year or two. So the boys have decided to move to Spain. Now American boy needs to figure out all the ins and outs of opening a school in Spain, so he can be with the love of his life.

Still with me? Ok, good.

So I've read through these forums before posting and got some information here and there. But I'm not understand the whole process. Can someone give me a break down step-by-step what needs to be done? Do I need to apply for a business visa, or tourist visa and then once I get there, start the process of renting a space, getting the classrooms, bathrooms, fire extinguishers, emergency lights, etc to get the school up to regulation standards, then supplies and technology, etc? I just don't know where to begin. I want to get this right the first time and avoid any potential avoidable mistakes along the way. We are both thinking a smaller town would be best.

Edit: Oh, and the Italian can speak some Spanish, and so can I (my mother is Puerto Rican). Although, I must admit that I've been in China so long that when I try to speak Spanish I must translate in my head from Chinese, to English, and then to Spanish to figure out what I'm trying to say HAHA!

We both have hefty savings tucked away so we can afford to put whatever money is necessary to make this work. Please if there is anyone who has experience in this or can point me in the right direction of a step-by-step guide or something, I would greatly appreciate it!


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## GUAPACHICA (Jun 30, 2012)

BoricuaFuego said:


> Hi Everyone. New user here, hopefully you all can help me.
> 
> Long story short, American boy meets Italian boy, Italian boy falls in love with American boy, American boy falls in love with Italian boy, Italian boy doesn't want to move to China, American boy is honestly tired of China anyway, Italian Boy and American Boy want to get married in the next year or two. So the boys have decided to move to Spain. Now American boy needs to figure out all the ins and outs of opening a school in Spain, so he can be with the love of his life.
> 
> ...


Hi - I'm a British TEFL qualified former teacher, with experience gained in Spain. I wonder what is motivating you to wish to start an English school in Spain - apart from your plan to live here with your partner? 

A few initial queries, just to get the ball rolling... 


Re. your own nationality - have you researched your right to emigrate to Spain, prior to marriage with an EU citizen? I cannot comment on that aspect, but maybe one of our US contributors might post appropriate advice for you, soon.

Are you wholly aware of Spain's current economic crisis, which is impacting, heavily, on the ability of students and companies to pay for commercial English classes - and on that of language academies to stay afloat..?

Do you understand Spanish and EU business and employment law requirements? BTW, the legislation is subject to change, so you'd need to keep up-to-date whilst planning from overseas!. Have you done any research on the requirements for establishing a legal business, here - other than requesting advice from this forum?

How much do you actually know of the English language teaching industry in this country? Have you experience of owning and running an academy, perhaps elsewhere?

IME, most paying customers and their academies require their teachers to be native English speakers - so, would you expect to teach in your own school, given you've described your current difficulty in switching, fluently, between your three languages? 

Re. the requirements for establishing a language school from scratch, that's a huge topic to attempt to tackle in a forum post! I'm sure, if you were to search, online, there would be specialist web pages available, with particular reference to Spain, which could assist you. Why not do some research, yourself, first - and then return here, with any further specific enquiries? 

I hope I've given you some basic issues to consider.. 
Good luck!

Saludos,
GC


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## BoricuaFuego (Aug 16, 2014)

GUAPACHICA said:


> Hi - I'm a British TEFL qualified former teacher, with experience gained in Spain. I wonder what is motivating you to wish to start an English school in Spain - apart from your plan to live here with your partner?
> 
> A few initial queries, just to get the ball rolling...
> 
> ...


Thank you for your response.

The aside from planning to live in Spain with me partner, there is no other motivation behind it. We chose Spain due to its equal rights and recognition of gay couples. That was the most important. I speak some Spanish, and so does he, so Spain seemed like the best choice for both of us, considering adjusting and working with any potential language barriers in a European country. Also it is close to Italy and a quick flight. I want my future husband to be close enough to go back home and see his family. His mother has cancer and no one knows how little or how much time she has left, and having lost my mother when I was 19 years old, I know how precious those last moments are. In all honesty, it if Italy recognized gay marriages, we would've chosen to open up a school there instead. 

As far as my right to emigrate to Spain, prior to marriage with an EU citizen, I have no idea how that works. My partner's initial idea was for me to work as a teacher in Spain which would allow me to circumvent the tourist visa rules, but I just can't work for other people. It's just not for me. I currently own 2 English schools in China, and in the process of opening a 3rd also in China and I just can't not have control over my curriculum, schedule, pay, etc. It's just not for me. So I came up with the idea to open my own school. I don't know how that all works, which is why I came to this forum. On other website they say you can open a business and acquire a residency permit, but there are no details given on how exactly that is accomplished.

I was not aware of the financial crisis in Europe, so thank you for informing me of that.

I don't know much about running an English academy in Spain, outside of the fact that most students want certification and to pass Cambridge exams, to improve their future employment prospects. That is not vastly different from China where the main motivation is to learn English to pass multiple exams including IELTS and TOEFL. But as I said i do have experience in running multiple schools here, so learning new laws and requirements of another country, and meeting the expectations and needs of students in that country will not be too difficult, I believe. I'm not afraid of hard work and long nights. I just want to know ahead of time what to expect and what to plan for.


And, yes I do plan to be the teacher for my school. I am deeply invested in my student's English education and not to say that I do not trust or value other people's input or experience, I would just rather be involved in their education as much as possible so I can determine and implement their learning step-by-step. It's just easier for me that way. The firs thing I did when I opened my school was throwing out all of the textbooks that my students, and every other student in China used to learn English, and creating my own textbook. 

I have researched this topic ad nauseam. Which is actually what lead me to this website because someone posted a similar question on here a few years ago, and while the answers where useful, it did not completely answer my questions. Which is why I posted this topic to see if I could gather more information.


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

BoricuaFuego said:


> Thank you for your response.
> 
> The aside from planning to live in Spain with me partner, there is no other motivation behind it. We chose Spain due to its equal rights and recognition of gay couples. That was the most important. I speak some Spanish, and so does he, so Spain seemed like the best choice for both of us, considering adjusting and working with any potential language barriers in a European country. Also it is close to Italy and a quick flight. I want my future husband to be close enough to go back home and see his family. His mother has cancer and no one knows how little or how much time she has left, and having lost my mother when I was 19 years old, I know how precious those last moments are. In all honesty, it if Italy recognized gay marriages, we would've chosen to open up a school there instead.
> 
> ...


 unless you have a _serious _amount of money to invest ( half a million I think - check the consulate website ) & will be providing jobs for locals, you cannot move to Spain to open a business as a non-EU citizen

you could also buy property worth half a million or more, free of financing

marrying your partner before coming will be the only way around that


as for opening a language school - I also am a language teacher & I have at various times looked into opening a school, but have decided that although I have a solid & expanding client base, now isn't the time, for me at least


I believe Cazzy, one of our members has recently done so though


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

xabiachica said:


> I believe Cazzy, one of our members has recently done so though


Yes she has and I dont think it was straight forward. Lots of rules, regulations and red tape if memory serves.

Here are a couple of old threads on the subject

http://www.expatforum.com/expats/sp...6-opening-residential-academy-casa-rural.html

http://www.expatforum.com/expats/sp...0-question-about-opening-language-school.html

Jo xxx


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## brocher (Mar 21, 2011)

Your research needs to start with the American Consulate to see if you qualify for any kind of visa, and you'd probably have to be in the Us while you apply.

As Xab says, if you're from the US the odds are you can't follow your plans anywhere in Europe unless you have a very serious amount of money to set up a business employing locals or buy a very expensive home.

You don't want to be an employee but that's highly unlikely anyway, as the employer would have to prove that there is no EU national who could do the job.

Even if you could find a way to proceed, while there is demand for English teachers there is also an inordinate amount of well qualified and experienced teachers available. Add the obvious effects of the current financial crisis, and it's not hard to see that the rates people pay for a lesson could be very low, say 10€/hr.


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

There's some more info in this thread, but until you know what's happening about visa/ marriage I think your plans will be on hold
http://www.expatforum.com/expats/sp...ving-spain/358465-teaching-english-spain.html


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## Cazzy (Nov 23, 2008)

I have just opened a language school and it was a nightmare!! Everything is now running well but my outgoings are colossal.


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## andmac (Nov 9, 2010)

We opened one three years ago. The initial investment was not enormous but considerable, but the red tape was a nightmare. And yes, the monthly outgoings are colossal!Think rent, salaries, social security, utilities, good internet, books and materials, advertising, general maintenance of the academy, more social security, the list is virtually endless. Some months in the beginning, without capitol, there would have been way too much month and not enough money!


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