Language Use In Ba?

[steveinbsas]

NOW we are talking

Btw, my husband is not an Argentine, and I'm still in EU. 2 years of no crime only? What is that, an eldorado? Ok, I suspect there's lessons to be learned...

Two years of residency in Argentina and a clean criminal report from Argentina as well as other countries you have lived in is required by the federal courts. Federal judges have the power to grant citizenship.

I don't know their current policies regarding the criminal background check. Perhaps some of the members who recently obtained citizenship will post about them. It might actually vary from one court to another.

Migraciones only grants residency and currently asks for background reports from any country in which you have lived for more than one year (total time) in the past three, but if you've got a criminal record for even one relatively minor offense (except traffic tickets) on any of the reports you could have a problem.

 

[Dada]

A few updates and a few new questions, after my first month of actually living in BA:

My plan was to stay away from any sort of work for the first month, in order to retune my radar to the new reality, keeping my eyes open. After that, the plan was to find a job and do the tramite. How naive First, my dear embassy informed me that my apostilled antecedentes penales might arrive in December, if we are lucky. When it does, it's still like... point zero. And of course, I'm legally unemployable until then at the very least. The idea of sitting down and compiling an appealing CV, where my only credentials are a few languages due to constant migration, without a DNI, put me off instantly and only made me want to get drunk instead, with similar chances of landing a job. Never mind. At least I will get chance and reason to see the beautiful Colonia everyone talks about.

Now the good news I had no intentions to even think about teaching English when I came here, as I'm not a native in it. To my surprise, several locals I met expressed serious interest to be my students, without me doing any sort of marketing. Just because they find it appealing to learn with someone who actually learned it themselves and knows exactly how to do it quickly and effectively. I'm talking about adults, beginners or "eternal beginners". A different niche, I guess B) An eager prospect student of mine took me shopping for course books. We left the shop deeply frustrated, as literally every textbook or audiovisual program in the shops was utterly useless. Overpriced waste of paper, full of pictures and other fluff, designed to suit the education industry where the student is supposed to follow a program for years, before getting anywhere substantial. On a more positive note, a gap in the market means a chance. Compiling a program of my own is a piece of cake, compared to a CV about my bohemian existence I feel deeply motivated now, plus my survival issues are more or less sorted, for the moment being what it is.

The question is, how to go about legalizing my status from here? This semi-legal endeavour is likely to get me through the months of waiting for papers, but I will have to do the paperwork at some point. Teaching can provide me with the same income I would get in an office, in less time spent, plus I feel like I'm actually helping people, doing something of a value. But teaching is not gonna get me the tramite, is it? Has anyone here been where I am now? I would like to hear how you solved this...

 

[ElQueso]

As for getting yourself legalized here, you don't have a whole lot of options. You can't sponsor yourself for a work visa, for example (aside from the fact you are working in the black) The other requirements still stand - you need to be married to a resident or citizen, you need to be enrolled in school, you need to have a provable income outside of a job (rental income, investment income, etc) or you need to be retired, or maybe have a baby out of wedlock (I probably forgot one or two, but they are harder to qualify for I think).

Only other thing is wait a year or more and go for the citizenship route, but someone who has not had residency can't just go ask for citizenship (and expect to get it), the process involves lawyers and a lot of time and various amounts of money.

Although I do know a guy who successfully set up a trust in Panama, with the help of an accountant there and a lawyer here and he paid monthly income into that account and that money was paid to him (it looked like a trust, from people looking at it here), and immigration approved it. I wouldn't suggest this method as it is a fraud and not very likely to continue to be a means to get residency...

Also, I don't know anything about your prospective clients, but be careful depending too much on them, at least until you're established. I have found that monetary commitments can often be quite weak here.

And my wife is one of those "eternal English students". There probably is a market for alternative teaching methods here, if you can get away from those stupid aggravating course books and audio CDs, which may work for some people, but from what I've seen through one of our girls and my wife, those courses aren't very effective (and I'm talking about a number of different courses, taught by private teachers or in classroom settings) and the majority of the people not getting anything out of it, certainly not speaking or writing English. Not to mention the one thing that always pissed off my wife - the teachers often refuse to say a word to them in their native language to explain anything! Immersion doesn't work an hour or two a day a couple of times a week!!!!

If my wife hadn't found someone already to help her and our girls (and the prof is doing a wonderful job - and she isn't a native speaker, either ), I'd be PMing you to sign you up as well

 

[Dada]

Thank you, El Queso

You're right, there are limited options, yet incredibly generous compared to other countries, I think.

Marriage - heaven forbid. Job - possible at some point but somewhat of a last resort. Baby - most welcome if comes, but highly unlikely and definitely not something to rely upon. School - Bingo! I actually am a student here already, taking proper classes. My school is not exactly a university (Casa de Letras), but it teaches exactly what I am after, apart from being located just blocks from where I live. I love them, they go straight to the point, fluff-free. That's where I'm taking my "Spanish" classes (advanced literature, aimed at creative writing). So far, I am only taking a "taller literario", as I came here at the wrong time of the year to sign up for a proper 3-year "formación" program, which they also offer. Next chance from March. I will have to investigate with them, to what extent their programs entitle me to a student visa. But that definitely is a possibility! :wub:

Btw, I absolutely feel with your wife. There's nothing worse (at beginner level) than a teacher who can't explain! The first stages, for adults, are all about explanations, in their native tongue! I'm glad you found someone who's helping you out well, finally. And thanks for confirming once again what I have been suspecting. There is a huge pool of people who are eager to learn, stuck at a shit level because of the useless mainstream education system. All the native monolingual "teachers" are only good for students from intermediate level upwards. The beginners are a market for people like me, and we're here to teach them how to turn the car key in the ignition and get the car rolling B)