Ronin

I want to get a temporay residency permit just to join the Spanish army, ie the Spanish legion. I'm wondering if they'll make it easier on me, if I state that that is my intention. I am not extremely poor, but I have maybe 2 grand to my name, I have some education (college level, lots of computah skills), speak English and Spanish fluently.

How do you guys think I should go about this path? Contacting a recruiter might ease my process or make it more difficult? What do you all think?

Val

Good morning and welcome to the Absolute Spain Forum, I had no idea folks still joined the foreign legion, I must be way out touch with this kind of thing. So, sorry I cannot help with your query, maybe somebidy else can.

El Gordo

I believe you have to apply for Spanish citizenship, not residency, and for that I think you have to live here for a minimum of 5 years. It is the same to join the Guardia Civil.

CDThader

Ronin...Where are you living at the moment..If you are in Spain {legally} you can apply.They do take latin Americans in the armed forces, but it depends on your circumstances.
CD

You say you have computah skills...maybe spelling skills would be better.

CD

Ronin

Ya I got dem computah skilzzz. I live in the USA, the word I've heard from the Spanish website is they will only take you if you have temp residency permit. That's what they say officially tho, some part of me thinks, I can go, apply for army and if I pass the test , they will just let me in.

MarinaR

Hi Ronin,
I asked one of our staff to do a research on this subject. She is Spanish and does all the residence related paperwork for our clients. This is her response. Hope it helps you to avoid taking wrong decisions. Good luck.

"I am afraid to say that there is not an easy process to obtain the residence through the army; the law does not stipulate anything regarding this type of application.

I have been also checking the websites of the Spanish army and the principal requirement to join them, in the case of foreigners, is to have the residence permit Spanish previously to the application; if you don’t have the permit, then you can not apply a position with them. Also, these are the websites of the Spanish army just in case this client would like to check…the websites are:

Fuerzas Armadas Españolas - soldados.com this is the website of the Spanish army
La Legión Española this is the website of the Legión Española (they have reputation to be a bit crazy!!!!)

However, if you can get an employer in Spain that offers you a job, then you can apply for the work and residence permit, the process is slow and like in all the cases, you can’t be sure that the permit is going to be approved (it is normally approved, but there are exceptions…). You can apply for a work and residence permit also if you can set up a company in Spain, but the economic requirement will be higher...

The logic says that this is the only process, imagine if all the non European foreigners could obtain the residence joining the army…then Spain could have the biggest army in the world!!

I hope this information helps you. "

defrank

there is the "Legión", which you may need some kind of residency, and there is the foreign legion, which is french, ..and you don´t need anything..

dunmovin

Actually Cd did raise a valid point. Living in the USA is no excuse for that type of error. Someone with COMPUTER skills knows how to use a keyboard. The letters e & r are quite a distance away from a & h. Which raises another point, if you have such skills and would make such an error then your skills need some honing. Me, I've done a lot of programing, using vba, vb6 and c++ and I know that typographical errors can cause major headaches, therefore I don't think that your use of the the word "computah" was a typo.

If you want us to take you seriously and you actually do want to join the Spanish armed forces ( You are a US citizen and could apply to the US forces) you should have reviewed and corrected your post.

This is the second post I have seen from a US citizen wanting to join the Spanish armed forces, both seem to have the same "feel" to them. As in "not quite honest". Both have the typing skill and command of english language of Mike Tyson (with his boxing gloves on). However, that is just my opinion.