Gran Canaria
 

I’m looking at moving to Gran Canaria to practice as a midwife. I have children and a partner also. Has anyone moved there from the uk with an NMC pin? Can anyone inform me of the following please:
transition to be able to practice
salary
hours
work life balance
schools
housing

thank you in advance

Re: Gran Canaria
 

Are you an EU citizen? If not, you may have problems getting a work visa.

Re: Gran Canaria
 

As Fred has pointed out your first big stumbling block is getting a Visa if you dou are not an EU citizen o can get an EU passport by descent. Then how is your Spanish?

Re: Gran Canaria
 

I live in England. Why would there be a problem with visas if I am to work in the country?

Re: Gran Canaria
 

Can you please signpost me to the evidence which states that a visa is unlikely to be granted please as I live in England. Thank you.

Re: Gran Canaria
 

You can only get a visa that allows you to work in Spain if you have already been offered a job in Spain. You will only get a visa if that job cannot be fulfilled by a Spanish or EU citizen and you would have to apply at the Spanish embassy in London.

The sad reality is that , after Brexit, you are extremely unlikely to get a visa that allows you to do any work at all, even in a bar.

Re: Gran Canaria
 

That’s very sad to hear. So get a job offer first then apply for visa from there? Are you also a midwife?

Re: Gran Canaria
 

It doesn't work like that. First you need to get a job offer and then if the organisation wants to employ you it is they who have to apply for a work permit for you. This costs them money and takes time to get. Therefore they are only likely to be willing to do that if the job is one that involves skills that can't be found locally. Only once the work permit has been issued can you, the individual, then apply for a visa to allow you to come and live and work in Spain. If the visa is granted you would also, once you have arrived in Spain, have to register as a resident and obtain your TIE (identity card for foreigners). The visa would have to be renewed after the first year, for a further two year period, and then renewed again after that for two years more, with you having to prove at every stage that you are still in employment.

I don't know if you've seen this account from someone who did move to Spain to work as a nurse, but it seem quite a realistic account.

How To Live & Work In Spain As A UK Nurse

Re: Gran Canaria
 

Agreed. Sadly those blindly voting for brexit ruined it for everyone. Whereas once you were free to live and work in Spain or anywhere in the EU, now you can't. Do you have any Irish ancestry perhaps? :)

As a general rule of thumb you now need to possess a skill that cannot be found locally, so basically you need to apply for a job for which the employer cannot find anyone from Spain or the EU. But if there's a shortage of staff you might be in luck.

In Gran Canaria there are a number of private hospitals so maybe it's worth scouting them out for vacancies. Just off the top of my head I can think of HPS and Vithas (both up north).

P.S. I'd start learning the language basics asap, maybe through a phone app? I know an anesthesiologist who moved to Spain (albeit as an EU citizen) and he really dug into his language lessons before his move.

Re: Gran Canaria
 

I think the one thing people gloss over is that you won't get a job in public services without fluency. Complete fluency. Because patients (or students), their families and/or carers will probably not be fluent in English, and when it comes to important life issues will be more comfortable speaking their native language. You need that fluency (written and conversation) before you are approved to roles requiring government body registrations. Handovers will be done in the local language. Notes will be written in the local language.

So if you don't speak fluent Spanish, you won't be accepted on their version of the nursing/midwifery register, and you won't be able to practice legally, therefore unable to get a job. So when people ask you about your fluency in Spanish, they just identified your first challenge (not even post-Brexit work or residence visa hoops)