Trials and Tribulations

Student Finance England at it's finest

Oh yes, good old student finance.  We love a bit of student finance don't we?  We especially love having to call them when things go wrong, that's personally my favourite part. (Hint: It's not.)  
For anyone not familiar with Student Finance England they are the people who give students the loans they so desperately need, whether those loans arrive in one's bank in time for the start of term is another matter, but sooner or later it does come through.  Don't get me wrong, when I ring them they are very helpful and I cannot fault how good they are to me over the phone but being on hold is NOT my idea of a good time.

I've just had a the joy of ringing up Student Finance because it turns out I may be entitled to more loan than they had said!  I saw a Facebook post of another British language assistant in my region saying she was entitled to more so I thought I'd brave the awful hold music and try my luck.  After all, shy bairns get nowt*.  Turns out I was right!  My application had been assessed wrongly and I could now receive almost 3 TIMES as much! (And pay back almost 3 times as much... but I won't think about that just yet.)

*Geordie term for 'shy kids get no sweets'

Spanish Bureaucracy 

To put it simply Spanish bureaucracy is just a nightmare.  A nightmare and a big ol' mess.  The Spanish are far less organised than us Brits and everything seems to take an incredibly long time to process.  For example: We applied to do the assistantship in December 2013 but didn't find out our school until July 2014, we then heard a little about an orientation happening in Madrid but that we would find out the details later - well a couple of months later and 2 weeks before the orientation here we are.  Two weeks is not a lot of time to organise travel plans to Madrid when you're low on cash and settling into a new country and a new job!

The things I dread most about dealing with are getting a bank account, a SIM card and a NIE (número de identificación extranjero or foreign identity number.)  I believe the NIE proves you are eligible to live and work in Spain and is needed to set up a bank account and get a phone contract, but some banks ask, some don't, some phone provider's don't care, some do, who knows what's going on and what anybody needs?  

The process of aquiring a NIE is, i've heard, laborious to say the least.  This is how I understand it works:

• Queue at an ayuntamiento (town hall) or police station, sometimes for hours
• Get a NIE form, fill out and return
• Get given a receipt/ticket/slip of paper (I don't know, alright, it's something papery)
• Take the papery item to a bank and pay some money (€19 -ish)
• Get a new receipt and take it back to the ayuntamiento - yes you queue again

Now the next bit varies

• Be given your NIE straight away in the form of a card or certificate

OR

• Be told you can come and collect your NIE when it is ready - this could be anywhere from the next day to THREE MONTHS!

I really don't want to wait 3 months for an NIE and therefore possibly a bank account or SIM card!  I have been reassured that most are issued on the spot or within a couple of weeks so I'm really hoping I get it on the spot after minimal queuing time (queue's are boring, yawwwnnn.)

If anybody has any advice on any of these things or care to share their experiences then feel free to leave a comment! :)

Beth xx