If you’re reading this, I assume you’ve applied to NALCAP. It’s January or February, and you’re asking yourself, when will I get my placement, and what now? You should start applying for your NALCAP visa ASAP.
Sure you could just wait until you get your acceptance to start the process, but if you’ve got a pretty good inscrita number (the lower the number the better), that’s good odds you’ll get a spot (they don’t deny many people ever) and you should get started on your visa ASAP.
There are MANY, complicated steps, that are in between applying to NALCAP, getting you acceptance/region, and getting to Spain.
I got my regional placement of the Balearic Islands in April, then my school placement in Ibiza in early June. I picked up my NALCAP visa on August 28th.
If I were to do it again or make recommendations to someone else who is applying for the first time to NALCAP, this is what I would do.
The NALCAP Visa Process
First:
If you haven’t already, join the Auxiliares de Conversacion Facebook Group. This page was vital in getting through the visa process. The moderators are past auxes who know the answers to any question you might have. If you have a question or concern, I would recommend you first search the information already on the page to see how someone else handled the problem.
There are also tons of posts where people who completed at least one year at NALCAP post reviews about the location in Spain they lived in. This was incredibly helpful when it came time to pick my regional preferences.
Also, you can connect with other people in the NALCAP program super easily. There are also smaller Facebook groups for each region where you can get to know the other English speakers who’ll be living near you. This is how I found my roommates and friends I hung out with while living in Ibiza.
Second:
Next, get started on your visa application ASAP. This will help you be less stressed leading up to the day you leave. They recommend that you do not buy your plane ticket until you have your visa in hand. This is for good reason, in the case that you don’t have your visa, but it’s time to catch your flight and leave for the NALCAP program. That would put you in a tough position. So get started on organizing these things right now.
NALCAP Visa Application Forms:
1. completed NALCAP visa application form
The visa application form is on the consulate website. On the facebook group, there is a guide document that tells you exactly what to write in each section to have zero issues. Fill this out and bring it to your consulate appointment.
2. note confirming your in good health signed by your doctor
The NALCAP website doesn’t give a ton of information on this. I used the page from the facebook group that someone created. I would recommend you do the same. Locate the paper, print it out, and have your doctor sign + stamp. Bring this to your consulate appointment
3. money order of $160 from USPS
This step is vital and often overlooked or forgotten about. Before your appointment, purchase a money order of $160. This covers the cost of your visa processing and HAS TO be from USPS. If you get your money order from anywhere else, you’ll probably have to go buy another from USPS then waste your time and money. Do it right the first time!
4. a passport
I believe this is self explanatory. If you want to leave the country, you need a passport. If you don’t have one, you need to apply ASAP.
5. a photocopy of your passport
Some consulates take your passport when they take all of your forms at the visa appointment. Some do not. Make sure to bring a photo copy of your passport to the appointment
6. a passport sized photo
This photo will be put on your visa. You’ll have to bring another when you get your residency card, so this isn’t like a photo you’ll see often. Nevertheless, it’s vital for the NALCAP visa process.
7. print out of your acceptance letter/carta
This is the acceptance letter you receive from your school. After you get your regional placement on the portal website, you’ll eventually get your school. I was one of the first 300 people to apply to the NALCAP program. I got my regional placement in April and my acceptance letter in early June.
8. FBI background check apostilled + translation
This is the most important and strenuous document to receive. There is much more information on this below.
9. An appointment at the consulate office nearest to you
I am fortunate that I live an hour an a half away from a Spanish Consulate, the one in NYC. My friends were not so lucky, and lived states away. Locate the closest consulate and sent them an email for an appointment. They recommend you have all of these documents before emailing them. If you go to your appointment without your background check, you won’t be able to get your visa. That’s why it’s important to get started on the background check process ASAP.
Carta and Background Check/Apostille:
Carta:
The last two, your carta and getting your FBI background check apostilled take the longest to check off.
Your Carta is a letter from the regional government placing you at your school. Most of the time people wait to receive this to start the process. Cartas are emailed to you starting in late May all the way until early September. When it arrives depends on how early you applied/how low your inscrita number was. You need to bring this to your visa appointment – don’t wait to start getting all of your papers together until you get this
To prove you don’t have a criminal background, since you will be working with children, you need to get a federal background check. To start this process you need to get fingerprinted. I did this at my local police station, but there are many places you can get this done. As soon as you apply to the NALCAP program, this is the very first thing your should start doing.
After you got fingerprinted, use the steps here to submit your background check: click here.
Apostille
When you get your background check returned to you by your state government, you next need to get it apostilled, which is when the US government verifies that documents are legit to be used in other countries. To see the instructions on how to send it in, click here.
This is the part of the process that takes the longest. It can take 9-12 weeks to be returned to you, once it’s been picked up from the PO Box. I mailed my background check on June 8th, and I got it back to me on August 17th. I reached out to my local representative, because they can submit an inquiry on your apostille’s status. This can possibly speed up the process.
why to start early
Once it is mid summer, every single person will ask their representative to reach out. This will effectively do nothing if you wait until everyone realizes this might speed things up. This part of the government is backed up during this time, because it gets thousands of requests. You do NOT need to wait for your acceptance to do this. Start this process NOW.
Most consulates require that you also translate you apostille. I believe you can scan your finished apostilled document and send it to a translator, and they will email it back to you rather quickly. There is a list of approved translators on the facebook page.
Consulate Appointments
The majority of the consulate offices require you have your apostille and translation in hand when you give them your visa application. Your visa takes about a month to be processed after you hand it in. You can see how long this process gets dragged out, resulting in many auxes not being able to be in Spain for the start of the program.
If you are timely with completing all of this, you should be able to get to Spain for the first day, October 1st!
I arrived in Ibiza a week before the program started with my parents to get my footing. During this time I paid the deposit for my apartment, and I was able to get familiar with the area before I started working.
NON-NALCAP/Visa related steps
Third:
After, the third thing I would do is to start joining more specific facebook groups and group chats once you get your placement.
On the facebook page, there is a post with a link to each regional group. People start to make introduction posts when they get the school they will be working at, to find others they potentially can live with! This results in smaller facebook groups or group chats where you can get to know the people who might be your best friends this upcoming year.
The best part about the regional groups is that people from previous years are still a part. You can ask about where they lived last year to get a start on potential housing as well as what they thought of the area and their experience living there!
I found my roommates through these Facebook groups! As people kept posting that they got placed in Ibiza, we kept adding more people to our Whatsapp group chat. My roommates and I found our apartment on Idealista and we hang out with our NALCAP group chat often!
Fourth:
The next thing I would do, is to start brushing up on your Spanish! There are many well known language learning apps, like Duolingo, Mondly, or Rosetta Stone. There are free options, like looking up PDF versions of language learning textbooks. You could take a spanish class at your local community college over the summer.
I have been taking Spanish classes since I was 8 years old through my public school system, and stuck with it. In my senior year of college in preparation, I took a difficult Spanish class then used a website called iTalki to practice all summer long.
I realized I can understand, read, and write decently, but I couldn’t speak at the same level. ITalki is all talking based Spanish lessons. I took two a week, where I talked with my tutor about a Spanish TV show we both were watching, La Casa de Papel, if you were curious!
It didn’t feel like work or studying, and my speaking level increased drastically. To me, speaking would be one of the most important skills I needed, so it was what I focused on.
There are people doing the program who know absolutely no Spanish, and some who are basically fluent. If you end up somewhere more remote, life will be difficult if you don’t know any Spanish and the locals don’t know English. While you have the time, might as well give yourself a head start and learn a little!
Fifth:
The final thing I would do is to start looking at apartments and housing two months before your start date. The Spanish website idealista.com is one of the best to use to get a gist of potential rent prices. You can look there, on AirBnB for long term renting, ask the teachers at your school if they know of anywhere, and ask past auxes what they did. Many Spanish people are not super timely, so you might have to wait until a few weeks before til your future apartment is on the website.
This will put you in a great position to have options when you get to Spain and are looking to put down a deposit and reserve your space for the program! You should see the place you are living in person before you put down any money, so you don’t get scammed!
Also, be realistic about what you can afford. Take a look at what each region pays their auxes in comparison to the apartment costs. You will probably have to live with roommates if you’re in a bigger city in Spain
Additionally:
Get excited for your trip! If there are certain places you want to go, make sure you make a list and and create a plan! I only did NALCAP for a year and had less time to fit in all my traveling. For that reason, I ended up going solo on a bunch of trips. Solo traveling is SO much fun, but something that is hard initially to jump into. I have a post all on beginner tips for solo travelers here and another on how to do things alone here, which you should check out! You have a TON of time alone since the program only has us work 15 hours a week.
Also, do some math about how many trips you want to go on to decide how much money to save. I personally brought $10,000 and was able to go on a average of 2 trips a month, plus two 2-week long trips during vacation times. How much do you want to travel while you are in Spain?
Conclusion
These are the five tips I wish I had to prepare myself for the start of the NALCAP program! I hope you get placed where you wanted and have the most amazing time! If you are interested in choosing Ibiza like I did, check out this post to read about my experience and if I would recommend it.
And if you catch the travel bug while abroad or aren’t 100% set on Spain, here are some other websites and programs (some like NALCAP, some not) that you can apply to if you want to travel or move elsewhere!
