Day 6 Monday Job Seeking

---

Before leaving the UK I signed on for Job Seekers allowance and it turned out that because I was receiving contributory allowance (i.e. from taxes I’d paid in) I could transfer this to Gran Canaria for up to three months. The only stipulation being that I had to register at the local job centre within a week of arriving. So today we set off on a quest to find the job centre. I had an address I’d gotten from the web before we arrived, but despite consulting the map the exact location remained elusive and it could have been in the centre of Play del Ingles or in the provincial capital 20 miles to the North. Luckily before setting off we checked with the receptionist and he kindly pointed us to an entirely different location in the centre of San Fernando. We set off on our 7km hike and managed to find the Job Centre without much trouble. As you would expect it was very busy and rather daunting since of course all the signs were in Spanish. We figured out that we were supposed to take a ticket and then wait until our number appeared on the electronic board which would direct us to a position. Worrying there were a number of notices posted around the walls in English advising that the working language of the Centre was Spanish and that if you did not speak fluent Spanish you should leave and return with a translator. In addition I had read on various forums before arriving that if you did not speak Spanish the job centre would not help you. However we decided to persevere and try our luck and after waiting for about an hour and a half we were finally seen. We tried as best we could to explain our case I showed the forms I had from the UK transferring my claim and whilst the lady behind the desk didn’t speak any English we managed to determine that we had to go back and wait for our number to be called again to a different desk. Once again our time came and we pleaded our case to a different lady who although she also did not speak any English was very helpful and did try to assist us. We managed to muddle through and although we almost came to sticking point over the lack of an NIE (Spanish Tax/Residency number) it finally transpired that she could issue me with a temporary NIE as long as I went to the Police Station the next day and registered for a full NIE. She gave me some more forms to complete and asked me to return the next day. First hurdle over with.

On the way home we called into the Headquarters of the Local Police in Maspalomas and attempted to register for an NIE only to find that we actually needed to go to National Police Station back in San Fernando where we had just come from. Not feeling up to walking the 7km back again we decided we would postpone the registration until the next day and retired once again to our bungalow to rest our weary feet.

---