So do you need a visa to come to Spain? That depends on a couple of factors.

European Union and Schengen Area Countries

First of all, if you are a citizen of any European Union country or of Norway, Switzerland, Iceland or Liechtenstein, you do not need any sort of visa or permit to come live in Spain, whatever your reasons for doing so. This is because all of these countries have signed the Schengen Area Agreement, which provides for freedom of travel and settlement between them.

Non-Schengen Countries with Tourist Visa Waiver

For those of you who are not citizens of any of the above mentioned countries, don’t fret. You might not need a visa either, depending on the length of your stay. Consult the list of countries in the column on the right hand side of this page. If your country is on the list, don’t worry about a thing. Just come on over with your passport, it will be stamped and you can just walk right in, no problem! These countries have reciprocal tourist visa waiver agreements with the European Union which allow their nationals to enter and exit EU member states for a period of three months as tourists without having to apply for a visa.  After your three month stay is up, however, you must leave the EU and you may not return to any EU member state for at least six months after the end of your stay. In addition, you do not gain the right to work in Spain. You may, however, study and do non-paid internships.

How to Apply for a Spanish Visa

So now you know when you don’t need a visa to enter Spain, but when do you need a visa? You will need to apply for a visa if:

1. You are not a citizen of a Schengen country (any EU member state or Norway, Switzerland, Iceland or Liechtenstein) nor of one of the countries listed in the column on the right.
2. You are not a citizen of a Schengen country and you want to stay in Spain for more than three months at a time and/or you want to do paid work in Spain, even if you are a citizen of one of the countries listed in the column on the right. This includes students looking to do a long term study abroad in Spain (longer than three months).

What do you do if you need a visa? First you should know that there are several kinds of Spanish visas. Just head to your nearest Spanish embassy or consulate and apply for the visa that best suits your needs or goals in Spain. If you explain to the people at the embassy what your plans are they can help you select and apply for an appropriate visa and will guide you through the steps. Normally your university or school will help you to get a Spanish study visa, if you need one, by sending you documents accrediting you as a student, so check with them. Remember, though, that if you will be studying for three months or less and are from one of the countries listed in the column on the right a visa will not be necessary as it is perfectly legal to come in as a tourist and study.

The most commonly requested Spanish visas are:

• Visado de estudios (Student Visa): This visa allows you to come to Spain to study or to research and remain here until your studies conclude. It does not allow you to do paid work.
• Visado de estancia (Tourist Visa): You will need this visa if your country is not on the list of countries with tourist visa waivers provided above in the column on the right. It allows you to stay in Spain for up to three months at a time. Once you conclude your visit you will have to wait at least a further six months before you may return. You may not do paid work.
• Visado de trabajo y residencia (Work and Residence Permit): This visa allows you to live and work for money in Spain. Generally your employer must first hire you “en origen“, that is, in your home country. Then they will provide the necessary paperwork for you to bring to the embassy to get this visa. These visas usually limit the paid work you can do to the field for which you are hired.
• Visado de residencia (Residence Permit): This visa allows you to remain indefinitely in Spain, but not to do paid work.
• Visado de cortesía (Courtesy Visa): This visa is granted to diplomatic envoys, consular officials, delegates of permanent missions and employees of international or intergovernmental organisations with branches in Spain.

Most students opt to come in on a tourist visa (or just with their passport, if they qualify for the visa waiver) if they are studying for three months or less, whereas if they intend to study for more than three months they apply for a visado de estudios.

Whatever your particular case, come on over to Spain to study Spanish abroad and have the time of your life!

Spanish "Rebajas"

Will you be in Spain for the end-of-season sale period? If so, read on for some helpful tips. Twice a year in Spain shoppers are treated to an end-of-season sale period, called las rebajas, in which goods can be purchased at a significant discount. These discounts range from 30% off at the beginning of the sale period, called primeras rebajas, to up to 70% off at the end of the period, called últimas rebajas.

End-of-season sales allow vendors, especially clothing vendors, to sell off the last season’s stock, empty their warehouses and make room for new apparel or models. Spanish rebajas are regulated by local governments. Governments regulate discount advertising particularly closely, requiring stores to demonstrate that the original prices for the rest of the year were indeed those implied by the discount. To put a 50% off ticket on a 15€ sweater, for example, they must prove that for the rest of the year they were charging 30€ for the same sweater. This government oversight provides otherwise wary consumers with a degree of confidence in the veracity of discount advertising claims and so greatly increases sales, allowing vendors to effectively and reliably sell off their stock and even reverse a slump in sales for the year. In Spain, up to 20% of a store’s total sales in a year happen during rebajas.

A Spanish store announces its best discounts.

As mentioned, there are two major sale periods in Spain every year. These are las rebajas de invierno (winter sale) and las rebajas de verano (summer sale). Generally speaking, the winter sale begins on January 7th, the day after Epiphany, and lasts through February and in some cases even into March. The summer sale begins on July 1st and lasts until the end of August. Increasingly, though, this varies as regional and even municipal governments make their own rules. In the city of Madrid, for example, the winter sale formally began on January 1st this year while Madrid’s summer sale will start on June 21st, a full week before everyone else. This clever bit of municipal legal engineering provokes a flood of early consumers looking to get the jump on everyone else into Madrid from the surrounding area. It might also lend some credence to a common quip of Spaniards from other regions that “Madrid always has to be first.”

This year's bargains are aggressively priced.

The most popular items fly off the shelves in the first weeks of the sale period – along with the most common clothing sizes. It is near the end of rebajas you can find the cheapest buys, but it may be much more difficult to find what you’re looking for as all that’s left by then are usually the most unwanted items. The best deals can generally be found during segundas rebajas, in the middle of the sale period. Nevertheless, it is possible to find some real bargains during últimas rebajas if you are patient and persistent enough, especially if your clothing size is not average. This year many merchants have languished due to the world recession and so have begun the winter sale with very aggressive discounts of 50% off right from the beginning in a bid to reverse their fortunes. So if you’re lucky enough to be in Spain for the sale season, seize the opportunity to do a bit of shopping on the cheap!

Need to practise your regateo (haggling) in Spanish? Take some Spanish lessons abroad to hone those haggling skills down to a fine art.

Each year revellers from all around Spain, Europe and the world gather in Puerta del Sol, Madrid, to ring in the New Year in style

In the Spanish speaking world, New Year’s Eve is called Nochevieja (literally “old night”). This year’s celebration at Puerta del Sol will be a special one as it is the first time in six years the plaza is fully open and free of safety barriers, construction equipment and other obstacles. In the past six years construction workers had been busily building the underground regional train station (now operational) and pedestrianising the above ground areas. It’s been rough going for this city, with frequent pedestrian pile-ups in this most central of Spanish plazas, but the work has finally paid off; the plaza is now absolutely gorgeous and it will be quite a treat to chime in this new year at our new plaza! The countdown begins at 20 seconds to midnight at which point our New Year’s ball begins to steadily descend, finally touching down at midnight.

It is customary to eat twelve grapes in tune with the twelve strokes of midnight, one grape per stroke. If you successfully eat all twelve before the twelfth gong sounds, congrats, you’re in for a lucky year. This relatively recent tradition only started in the early 20th century, when a bumper crop left farmers in Alicante with more grapes than they knew what to do with. To stimulate demand for grapes that year they devised this tradition which has since spread to all of Spain and beyond. Its popularity is such that there is even a related turn of speech in the Spanish language; “¡nos van a dar las uvas!” (meaning, “soon it will be grape time”) is often said to chide the sluggish into hurrying up.

Will you be in Spain for the New Year? Come on over to Madrid and join the party at Puerta del Sol. This is an experience everyone should have at least once in their lifetime. Even if you can’t come over, go ahead and pick up some grapes and see if they can’t bring you some luck in 2010, Spanish-style!

The Three Wise Men in Spanish tradition.

As Spanish tradition has it, the three wise men of Biblical lore are the ones who bring good little children their presents and they do so on the eve of Epiphany, known in Spain as día de los Reyes Magos or simply día de Reyes.

Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar (from Asia, Europe and Africa, respectively), the three Kings of the East, ride through each city and town in Spain on camelback on the night of January 5th and deliver presents to Spanish children. It is customary to leave out some drink and food (usually wine and sweets) on a plate for them and their camels. On the following day, the plates appear clean and in place of the food are gifts. Families also leave their shoes in a line and awake to find each of them filled with presents for the whole family.

The roscón de Reyes.

Parades called cabalgatas are held on the night of January 5th in which the three wise men ride through each town in Spain on floats, followed by their squires, dancers and many other performance artists. From atop their floats they toss treats out to the throngs of children and their families who gather to watch them go by. On día de Reyes, the day of January 6th, one of the most beloved traditions in Spain is celebrated: the roscón de Reyes! The roscón is a big doughnut-shaped pastry with two surprises inside: a figurine and a bean. Whoever finds the figurine gets crowned King or Queen with a cardboard crown, but whoever finds the bean has to pay for the pastry.

Spanish culture is as rich as it is rewarding to partake in, and the Spanish are known for their openness in sharing their culture with others. Many Spanish abroad courses in Spain come with free culture workshops that teach students all about the many charming traditions of Spanish society. The Spanish are always impressed to find a foreigner who takes interest in their language and culture and are themselves eager to learn more about other cultures. This is part of what makes Spain one of the most popular study abroad destinations for students around the world.