Thinking of Teaching English in Europe? Read This First.

Look, I Get It. I Did It Too.

I moved to Spain in 2014 with a TEFL certificate and a suitcase. Back then, honestly, the admin side of things was… loose. Nobody was really checking. You could teach online, pick up a few face-to-face students at the local café, and the border people stamped your passport without much interest. A lot of us were operating in a grey area and we knew it.

That world is gone now. And I think that's actually a good thing — but we'll get to that.

I'm writing this because I keep seeing the same pattern: teachers in Facebook groups and Reddit threads asking "can I just go to Spain/Portugal/Greece and teach online?" as if it's 2019. The advice they're getting is often years out of date. So here's the honest version, from someone who's been on the ground for over a decade and had to navigate all of this personally.

So What Actually Changed?

The big one — and I mean the really big one — is the EU Entry/Exit System (EES), which went fully live in April 2026. In plain English: every time you cross a Schengen border now, your face and fingerprints get scanned and logged. A computer tracks exactly how many days you've been inside Europe.

For us as teachers, the practical impact is simple: if you're going to be in Europe for more than 90 days — which, let's be real, is the bare minimum for any meaningful teaching arrangement — you need a proper visa. Not a tourist stamp. An actual residence permit or digital nomad visa.

And that's where it gets interesting. Because while these visas exist, they come with income requirements that a lot of TEFL teachers will find… challenging.

The Money Question: Can You Actually Afford to Do This Legally?

Here's the part nobody on Instagram talks about. Every digital nomad visa in Europe has an income floor. You have to prove — with bank statements, contracts, and tax returns — that you earn a consistent monthly income above a certain threshold. And "consistent" is the key word. Having one great month from a corporate booking doesn't cut it if your normal baseline is €1,800.

Let me walk you through the countries most of us actually consider:

Spain — Where I Am

You need €2,849/month gross income (that's 200% of the minimum wage). You also need a degree or three years of professional experience, three months of work history with your current employer/client, and health insurance with no co-pays. Oh, and they've started rejecting digital bank statements — they want your bank to physically stamp the documents. Welcome to Spanish bureaucracy.

The really important bit for freelance teachers: you'll hear about the "Beckham Law" that gives you a flat 24% tax rate. Sounds brilliant, right? Except freelancers are excluded. If you're self-employed (which in Spain means registering as autónomo), you pay normal progressive rates up to 47%, plus around €300/month in social security. That's a nasty surprise if you weren't expecting it.

Portugal — The Dream That Changed

Portugal used to be THE place because of the Non-Habitual Resident tax scheme — basically a massive tax break for new arrivals. That closed to new applicants in March 2025. The replacement (called IFICI) only covers tech and science roles. Teaching English? Not eligible. You're looking at standard Portuguese tax rates — 12.5% to 48%.

The income threshold is €3,680/month, the visa takes 3–9 months to process, and they've just extended the citizenship residency requirement to 10 years. Still beautiful, still a great place to live — but no longer the tax haven it was.

Greece, Croatia, and Estonia — Quick Summary

Greece wants €3,500/month and you now have to apply from your home country — no more converting tourist visas while you're there. Croatia is actually decent: €2,540/month, no local income tax on foreign earnings, but the permit only lasts a year and you can't renew it. Estonia asks for €4,500/month, which… yeah, that's not happening for most of us.

Why Should a TEFL Teacher Care About Any of This?

Good question. Here's the connection, and it's more direct than you might think.

Most of us got into TEFL because we love teaching and we love the freedom of working abroad. But the industry has a problem: too many teachers are underselling themselves. Charging €15–20/hour for private lessons, scrambling for hours on platforms that take a 30% cut, and never quite building the kind of consistent income that lets them plan ahead.

These visa thresholds are essentially telling you the minimum viable income for a professional life in Europe. Spain says €2,849/month. That's roughly €35,000/year. For a qualified, experienced English teacher, that should be achievable — but only if you're running your teaching practice like a professional business, not a side hustle.

How to Actually Make This Work (From Someone Who Has)

Right, enough doom and gloom. Let me tell you what I'd do if I were starting over today, knowing everything I know now.

Charge What You're Worth

This is the big one. If you have a TEFL qualification, teaching experience, and you deliver CEFR-aligned lessons with proper assessment — you are not a €15/hour teacher. Corporate clients, exam preparation students, and professionals learning Business English will pay €40–60/hour for a teacher who knows what they're doing. The key is being able to demonstrate that expertise clearly.

That means producing professional lesson plans, giving students proper written feedback on their progress, and tracking development against CEFR descriptors. When a student can see they've moved from B1 to B2 with measurable evidence, the price stops being a discussion.

Get Your Paperwork Sorted Before You Go

I cannot stress this enough. Talk to an immigration lawyer (€500–1,000 for a good initial consultation). Get your bank statements in order — three months minimum, physically stamped if you're heading to Spain. Get your criminal record apostilled and translated. Get proper health insurance, not some travel policy from your bank. Do all of this before you book the flight, not after.

Understand Where Your Tax Goes

Here's the bit people really don't want to hear: a digital nomad visa does not make you tax-exempt. If you spend more than 183 days in a country, you're generally tax resident there. That means you owe taxes on your worldwide income at local rates. Spain's Agencia Tributaria has got very good at cross-referencing immigration data with tax records. "Nobody's checked yet" is not a tax strategy.

If you're a UK citizen teaching from Spain without registering as autónomo, you're technically working illegally, evading Spanish tax, and overstaying your visa — all at once. Each one carries separate penalties. You might get hit with retrospective tax assessments going back several years, plus surcharges of 20–150%. It's not worth the risk.

Actually, This Is Good News

I know this reads like a bucket of cold water. But honestly? These changes have been positive for teachers who do things properly. When you have a real visa, you get real rights:

The grey-area nomad life felt free, but it was actually incredibly precarious. One bad encounter with immigration, one tax audit, one medical emergency without proper cover — and the whole thing collapses. A proper visa isn't a burden; it's a foundation.

So Should You Do It?

Absolutely. Living and teaching in Europe is one of the best things I've ever done. The quality of life in Spain is extraordinary — the food, the weather, the pace of things. I can walk to my local cafe in the village, open my laptop, and teach a student in Tokyo while looking at the Mediterranean. That hasn't changed.

What's changed is that you can't bluff your way into it anymore. You need a plan, you need income that clears the threshold, and you need to be honest about the tax situation. That's not a bad thing — it's what turns a temporary adventure into a sustainable career.

If you're serious about it, start by getting your teaching income up to a level where the visa maths works. Invest in the tools and qualifications that let you charge professional rates. Get proper legal advice for your target country. And then go for it — properly, legally, and with your eyes open.

The terrace and the laptop are still waiting. You just need to do the homework first.

References & Further Reading