Employment + Visa + Wages

Neilcampbell31

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Aug 22, 2011
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Hi Everyone,

I am moving in January looking to take a career break for circa 12 months.

There are a few things I would to try to get some help on regarding jobs, wages and visas before I leave and this seems like the right sort of information platform.

1. Employment This seems to be a difficult point reading through this website. I currently work in commercial property and am RICS qualified. Althought I would like to find a job in this field, I appreciate that it will be extremely unlikely considering my language barrier. However I am very interested in doing a TELF/CELTA course and look employment through this route (I fully appreciate how difficult the job and the course is!). Does anyone know what the job market is like in this field?


2. Wages / Cost of Living If I manage to secure a job teaching English, does anyone know what the wages are like? What about rent? This would be in a cheap & cheerful house share if possible rather than a single bed place. I need to calculate a budget and it's a bit difficult at this stage. Any advice would be helpful.


3. Visas Having done my research, it seems like the tourist visa lasts 90 days or 180 days with the extension. The research online is mixed in the opinion regarding renewing it over the border; how easy is it to pop over the border and renew for another 90 days if needed?


4. Documentation If/when I manage to secure employment and my employer is looking to 'sponsor' me, what documentation do I need? I can tell this will be a problem if I do not prepare accordingly. Does anyone know what I would need to bring & get translated in Spanish in order to get a working visa if I secure an employer to make the application?

Any help on this would be really helpful!

Thank you very much.

Neil
 
Neilcampbell31 said:
Hi Everyone,

I am moving in January looking to take a career break for circa 12 months.

There are a few things I would to try to get some help on regarding jobs, wages and visas before I leave and this seems like the right sort of information platform.

1. Employment This seems to be a difficult point reading through this website. I currently work in commercial property and am RICS qualified. Althought I would like to find a job in this field, I appreciate that it will be extremely unlikely considering my language barrier. However I am very interested in doing a TELF/CELTA course and look employment through this route (I fully appreciate how difficult the job and the course is!). Does anyone know what the job market is like in this field?


2. Wages / Cost of Living If I manage to secure a job teaching English, does anyone know what the wages are like? What about rent? This would be in a cheap & cheerful house share if possible rather than a single bed place. I need to calculate a budget and it's a bit difficult at this stage. Any advice would be helpful.


3. Visas Having done my research, it seems like the tourist visa lasts 90 days or 180 days with the extension. The research online is mixed in the opinion regarding renewing it over the border; how easy is it to pop over the border and renew for another 90 days if needed?


4. Documentation If/when I manage to secure employment and my employer is looking to 'sponsor' me, what documentation do I need? I can tell this will be a problem if I do not prepare accordingly. Does anyone know what I would need to bring & get translated in Spanish in order to get a working visa if I secure an employer to make the application?

Any help on this would be really helpful!

Thank you very much.

Neil

Hi Neil. English teaching jobs (from what I've heard) are generally easy to find. Most, however, are very low paid. The best gigs seem to happen when a teacher finds his own private pupils and can charge half-decent rates. As far as I am aware, not many English teachers make enough to live on here. Rent is high (compared to wages), and the cost of living (supermarket shop, etc) is on a par with the US/UK in many respects. You'll most likely find yourself relying heavily on savings. In theory, you can cross the border to renew your visa. I'm sure you'll be ok for a year but as far as I heard they're making it more difficult for people staying longer than that. If you use the search facility on this forum, I know that there are threads addressing all of these issues in much more detail.
x
 
Most of the answers to your questions have been answered in previous threads; just use the "Search Forum" tool and you're good to go!

Regarding teaching English -- I do it, but it was my established profession before ever coming to BA (so it just so happened that when I started dating an Argentine and stayed, I was able to keep working in my field.) Personally, I wouldn't pay almost $2,000 USD for a TEFL/CELTA course if you're *only* planning on teaching in Argentina, especially for only 12 months. You just won't earn enough for the investment to pay off. Your wage might be 40-50 pesos an hour through an institute, or 60-70 for private students, but schedules can be unstable and you aren't paid for the travel/prep time required for each class. Assuming a workload of 10-15 hours per week, you'll earn enough to pay for daily living expenses (groceries, dining out, cell phone, etc), but will likely need to dip into savings for rent, travel, and emergencies.

On a related note, I feel like there is a steady stream of similar "moving to BA, never been there, have a college degree but no Spanish skills, looking for job/room" posts from newcomers... would likely be helpful to others if some of these guys would post some kind of follow-up, reporting back on whether they secured employment, how and where, how BA compared to their expectations, etc.
 
Here are a few threads that deal with the questions you asked:

Working Visa

Job Offer in Buenos Aires

Enrolling for Student Visa? / or sending money for residency?

90 day visa EXTENSION?

And here's an interesting post about TELF:

Alilou said:
I was a conversation assistant for the ESL program at my university. I highly recommend trying teaching out before taking a TEFL course. The course fees are ridiculous (I just googled it and the first rate I found was $1790 without accommodation)... it would take you months to earn that much as a teacher. I think if you are a native, you should just study the basics online. And a lot of students just want to talk... and have no desire to learn formal grammar. Although its not necessary, I like having a course book... I use Intelligent Business Upper Intermediate for all my adult students. I think its nice to have it as a guidelines. And the students take you more seriously! I just make sure I review the concepts in each chapter before class. If you still feel like you need the course at the end of the year, do it. I don't want to dissuade people from taking TEFL courses but I just want to let them know that it isn't always necessary.

I found the threads using the search feature with terms like teaching english, work visa, visa run, job offer, etc.
 
You´ll find a lot of information regarding your questions in the threads. Search around.

I am teaching here. Fortunately I get to share bills with my husband. Most qualified teachers I know here aren´t really making enough to pay for rent as well as the weekly things they want to do. None of my friends live extravagantly but, just going out to dinner and to a bar/club once a week is getting more expensive. Rent is in U.S. dollars and teacher pay is in pesos. The rates aren´t that favorable.

My teacher friends are relying on savings to help carry them through their time here. The few that aren´t relying on savings have to schlep around the city for long hours working several jobs in order to make enough to pay their bills. Imagine leaving your house around 8am and not getting back until 8pm or 9pm everyday. Some have to run all over the city each day too. I am someone that needs my relaxation and time at home especially because teaching is often very active. I couldn´t keep a pace like that all week and do a good job.

If you want to pm me about specific rates or questions please feel free.
 
I did an online TEFL course. http://www.teflcorp.com/. it was great and cost me 1/10th of the price of doing it in the classroom. most institutes these days do want their teachers to have some sort of degree and with so many native speakers here looking to do classes they can afford to be picky.
 
@starlucia, in reaction to your post, I had contributed a while back requesting for information on accomodation as I was considering moving from UK to BA.

I have finally accepted the offer with a Claims handling company in BA. I am yet to start work so I can't ell at the moment what it is like. However, the company is very supportive. They pay for my flight and first months accomodation. They are also assisting me in acquiring a visa and will be paying for health insurnce.

I hope to meet some of you guys when I finally arrive!
 
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