Seeking some information on Santa Maria International School...

I would also like information on this school.

Also, how quickly can a Spanish work permit be processed for someone living in the United States? I was under the impression that it is a long, difficult, nearly-impossible process.

If you hear anything, please let me know. I have the same questions.

Yeah. I also have been contacted by SMIS in Miraflores de La Sierra. I have even been offered a contract...seems to good to be true. I am weary of it being a scam. We need to get to the bottom of this...

Please be advised that this school is a SCAM. I looked up the address and this school does not exist. Also looked into The Ministry of Education and found nothing. Do not send them any money.

Please note this school does not exist. I looked the address up. Also tried to find it under the Ministry of Education Spain and again nothing. Do not send them money. This is a SCAM

Guys, they are definitely trying to scam us. They sent me an email with the expenses I needed to pay to process my work visa to work in Spain, totalling 818 euros...and if thats not enough, they said I would need to pay the flight as well and that that money would be returned to me within three days of my arrival in Madrid. I sent them an email telling them I did not have that kind of money right now , and especially with such little information and no pictures of the school...and they have not responded. It happened to someone else too who inquired about the money, they just dont respond anymore. IT IS A SCAM, AVOID IT. Unfortunately I had already faxed my CV, the form they send where you need to give ur passport number etc etc. I am not sure what they could do with that information but I am definitely willing to report this to the Ayuntamiento in Madrid, I have contacts in Madrid so if anyone is serious about reporting this so this mafia can be hunted down, let me know...

Warm regards and be careful!

Guys, they are definitely trying to scam us. They sent me an email with the expenses I needed to pay to process my work visa to work in Spain, totalling 818 euros...and if thats not enough, they said I would need to pay the flight as well and that that money would be returned to me within three days of my arrival in Madrid. I sent them an email telling them I did not have that kind of money right now , and especially with such little information and no pictures of the school...and they have not responded. It happened to someone else too who inquired about the money, they just dont respond anymore. IT IS A SCAM, AVOID IT. Unfortunately I had already faxed my CV, the form they send where you need to give ur passport number etc etc. I am not sure what they could do with that information but I am definitely willing to report this to the Ayuntamiento in Madrid, I have contacts in Madrid so if anyone is serious about reporting this so this mafia can be hunted down, let me know .

Warm regards and be careful!

I am about to wire in money through western union today the amount of 818.24.As I checked with INEM, the statement that any expenses made by (us) be refunded three days after arrival is correct.It seems too good to be true but one thing that made me question was when I first got the letter, it stated there school year was from July-September then when I got their response that I have been considered it shows that the school opening is from October 29,07-Oct 28,08.I thought that they will be calling me like they said in the letter but they didn´t. I tried calling them yesterday, the phone never rings. It´s always busy. For me to finally call this if ever a scam I would have to check with the Spanish Embassy here in the Philippines. And one thing, in Thailand for most schools advertised in the Ajarn.com especially international school, you can really see a picture of the school and some activities. But in Sta Maria International School, only their names and background of the school. I find it weird.If you have any information, please let me know ASAP.

Attention Samuel Jongimar Cordero: Employers pay employees, not the other way around. 270 Euros for a work permit? Free housing for 480 Euros? Do not send them any money!

Email Received from Santa Maria International School Today

From Santa Maria International School
Sent Friday, October 12, 2007 3:21 pm
To Mariajose Gomez
Subject Respond



Mariajose,

Thank you very much for your contribution in
the Teachers forum. We appreciated your effort
to soil the image of our school. And we also
appreciate what ever the contact you have in
Madrid. We shall be very grateful in you send your
case to the Ayuntamiento as suggested by you.

We hereby awaits your quick respond to your
contacts in Madrid and we are going to keep
our hands fold to see any applicant soiling our
name. We have our legal right also.

Lastly, asking you to make a payment is for
our own security also.
We have given a reservation in the past to teachers
and they never show up. Every teachers havae to secure
their appointment. That is a guarantee that he or
she will surely honor the job offer.
And remember we never ask you a flight ticket. If we
did, can you forward the paragraph where it was written to
the school authority here?
If you mentioned about fishing us out with your contact,
we can also bring you to justice by giving us a false
image.

Yours,
Belen Diaz-Angel
Principal.
(SMIS)


My response to them:

From Mariajose Gomez
Sent Friday, October 12, 2007 10:27 pm
To Santa Maria International School
Subject Re: Respond

Dear Belen Diaz,

It clearly states in the Contract, Section on Expenses, that the expenses or the money spent on preparations for the arrival in Spain will be paid by your school within three days of arriving in Madrid. That means that the candidate for the position must pay the flight and then wait to be reimbursed by your school upon arriving there. What guarantee do I have that the money will be reimbursed to me, along with the 818 euros you requested in order to have my work visa processed? On top of that, there was another individual on the forum that inquired about the existance of the school and someone confirmed to her that the school was not registered anywhere. When I sent an email the other day inquiring about the expenses, I received no response and that rises suspicion. It also ocurred with another teacher in the forum. Another discrepancy is that you are offering two positions, but seem to have hired 6 teachers for the same two positions. How is that possible? This is extremely inresponsible and I will do everything possible to uncover any injustices being attempted against United States citizens, especially when I faxed you personal information, as well as my passport information etc. That you would lie to so many people and try to get them all to pay the same amount of money for only two positions available, clearly demonstrates that this is a scam. You do not do that to people. Y si resulta que su oferta es todo una mentira, hare todo lo posible para que no solo el ayuntamiento pero tambien la embajada estadounidense en Madrid se entere de esto, porque no es justo que esten seduciendo a tantas personas con un empleo y burlandose de sus ilusiones de trabajar en su pais.

Sincerely,

Ms. Gomez

a definite scam, they have the passport number of both my girlfriend and I. IS it possible to trace the location of the fax #?

hi there robert. i think it is possible to tract the fax number if you have friends there in madrid otherwise, i don´t know how you would do it.

have you tried google earth to check if the address of the so called SMIS really exist. perhaps, try western union since sending of the money would be through it but no one has ever done it yet though.

Samuel when you send money through Western Union, a person with a valid ID needs to go the office of WU in Madrid and pick up the money which has been sent in their name. However, the money would not be transfered to the school directly so there is no way of verifying an address that way. It is clear this school doesnt exist and I have already reported the situation to the authorities. Do you really think that if this school was legitimate they would take their "post" off the job board so quickly? Look for jobs in Spain, they are no longer listed. Why? Simply because they are very aware that they have been discovered. Hopefully not too many people fell in their little "trap." In spanish we say someone has "delirio de persecusion" when they think others are talking about or looking for them constantly. Well, just so happens the SMIS looks at this forum to see what people are writing, which is why they wrote to me claiming they can also take legal action. Very pathetic.

Unfortunately, I paid them last week - before I checked the Forum. They are no also two hours late to honour the telephone interview scheduled for today at
1:30 P.M. Poor judgment on my part - but I e-mailed them advising that I will take copies of all correspondence to the Spanish Consulate here in Toronto - hopefully this will limit their activity. I kept the original job number and will also forward this to Serious Teachers who I hope keep a record of who posts jobs on their network and will avoid SMIS getting another posting on this board.

To Barbara: Its sad to hear that. Good enough I was prompted to check this forum that day I was anxious to pay that amount they were asking for. Actually there´s more jobposting with almost the same thing for Spain and usually it´s a so called International School. I really don´t think Serious Teachers.com has this line between considering a legit versus a non-legit offer on their site but if you can reach them then it´s a good idea to let them know that these things exist in this site.

To Samuel: So it seems. I did use the "Contact Us" link on the Serious Teachers website and received a response from one of the administrative people giving me the contact information I already had. Incredible that this particular group of educators should be targeted as a source of "free money" for someone. It was a hard lesson to learn, but I´m a fast learner.

I went to the Spanish Consulate here in Toronto yesterday with all the copies of correspondence with SMIS. They will pass on the information to their ministry. Perhaps. In any case, I´ve alerted someone in the Spanish administration and that´s about all I can do.

This is definitely a scam!!!! I was also offered a position and asked to submit 800 euros for the work visa, housing and insurance. I sent a reply stating as an EU passport holder I didn´t require a work visa and would like to speak with current teachers before continuing with the process. Of course, I never received an answer.....another Scam!!!
Teachers beware!!!! Never pay for a position..... as was mentioned earlier....they pay us!!!