What you need to do before you can even think about renting an apartment (date anytime)

Before we came to Spain, I knew the thing that I wanted to get done first was find a place to live. However, I knew that it would be difficult because I didn't have a Spanish bank account or a paycheck to prove that I could pay for the rent, and I knew that I needed to be able to prove that. And I needed a NIE card (sort of like a social security card) to get a bank account, and it takes about 1-2 months to get your NIE card. And I didn't want to wait two months to get an apartment. Our first few days were hard because I didn't want to go look at an apartment and fall in love with it just to have the person tell me that I needed a paycheck or a bank guarantee so I couldn't have it. Happily, a family in the local ward let us live with them for a lot less than we were paying at the hotel we were staying, so that gave us some more time.

A few days after we arrived I was informed of a meeting in Madrid. Hollis and I went to Madrid with all of the other first-year teachers and filled out a bunch of paperwork that started the process of getting our NIE cards. Yay! We were given our NIE number so we could go get a bank account. We were told to get a bank account and then go sign our work contracts so that our paychecks could be deposited straight into our bank account. Here is where a funny catch-22 started.

In most banks, to get a bank account, you need your NIE card. The number isn't good enough. But we had heard that Santander lets you get an account with just your NIE number, so we tried there. Turns out you need your NIE number, your passport, and a copy of your signed work contract to get a bank account. Great. We needed the account before we signed the contract, but we needed the contract to get the account. Awesome.

At the particular branch where we went in, the new customer employee was fantastic! He helped us through the entire process of setting up an account, but didn't finalize the process. We got bank account numbers that would be made permanent upon our return to the bank with our work contract. Hooray! There were four of us opening accounts, and it took us more than an hour just to give him our information (as he spoke only Spanish and my Spanish was the best in our group). Then we teachers took our bank account numbers to the DAT (equivalent of the district office) and after asking a few people for directions, ended up in the right room. We filled out and signed our work contracts (which took us about an hour or more because we also had to print out copies of our diplomas and teaching certificates). Once we got that done, we got a copy of our work contract that wasn't technically complete because the head boss had not yet signed it. That would take a couple of days. I hoped that the contract we had would be good enough.

So we trooped back to the bank. We had first arrived at the bank at 9 AM. It was now about 1 PM. The guy who had originally helped us was busy with another customer, so he asked his supervisor to help us. All that was left to do was sign our account, so I thought it would be quick. Wrong. The printer that they use is really old and specialized (it prints on paper and also makes a carbon copy). It took about a minute to print each page (okay, maybe only 30 seconds). And then we signed each page. The first four pages were just a law we needed to sign. The next seven pages were the bank contract. And then we had to answer some questions that meant something like "I will not use this account to launder money or commit fraud." And then we went and made a deposit and had an official account! Yay! It only took about 30 minutes. And then I wanted to get a debit card. That was another 4 pages to sign. But finally I was done! Only three more people to go.

The bank was super nice and actually stayed open 30 minutes past closing time (until 2:30 PM) to get us all finished. To celebrate our feat of getting bank accounts, we went out to lunch. After lunch I called the school to see if I should go in (it was the first day of school, even though we missed the whole day trying to get everything set up). I was told to come in "right now" and so Joey and I went to the school. All we did was hand this paper to our principle that says that we were supposed to be there (I think that's what it said, I'm not really sure). And then we went home. Now I could finally start really looking at apartments because I had the necessary documentation.