This experience did not happen to me. Thank goodness! Because honestly, I would not know what do. This happened to my best friend, and her experience is something that can happen to anyone that travels or moves abroad. Her experience started like a dream, but by that end, it had turned almost into a nightmare (yep, this sounds like a complete cliché).
When my friend Juliette was finishing her undergraduate studies in Culinary Arts, she was offered the chance, along with another friend, to do a three-month internship at a restaurant somewhere in Galicia, Spain. So, obviously, she wanted to do it. So, obviously, she wanted to do it. The only thing stopping them from booking their tickets was that invitation letter from the Chef that was receiving them in Spain hadn’t arrived yet. The letter was needed to avoid any possible issues when arriving because she was not applying for a visa, as, according to the embassy’s website, she didn’t need one because she was staying less than 90 days. The letter finally arrived, and the tickets were bought. She was leaving in 3 weeks. It sounded hasty, but it was Spain, and the plan sounded doable. She was catching a direct flight to Madrid and then another one to Santiago de Compostela. It sounded definitely like a plan.
The date arrived, and she was on the plane. Everything was happiness and excitement. They landed, and Juliette needed to make a small detour to the washroom, so her friend continued without her to immigration. Juliette joined her friend in the line (she told me that this had been a mistake). Before going to an immigration agent, they agreed to go individually. So, her friend went first and almost immediately Juliette was called to go to another agent. Everything was going smoothly, but before Juliette handed her passport, she was called to join her friend. Juliette doesn’t know what happened between her friend and the agent, but as soon as she joined, the agent started making a lot of questions— the type of questions one can expect like where they were staying, how much money they had and so on, but Juliette could feel that something wasn’t right. The agent got quiet for a second, and then he told them to go to another room. They needed to verify their information. Things went wrong pretty fast after that.
The agent called a woman that was in charge of issues regarding immigration. She told Juliette she believed that the internship was a lie, and they were here to work. Juliette said “no, the internship is real. It is a deal between my school and the restaurant. The invitation letter did not say anything about receiving a wage”. The woman replied by saying that the problem was that even though they were not receiving money, they were receiving free accommodation and meals and that was getting paid.
She told them that they were calling a lawyer, who was going to arrive around 4 pm (this was happening around 2 pm), to see if this could be solved. If it was, then they were going to be able to stay in the country, but if not, they were going to be sent home in the first available flight of the same airline in which they had arrived.
After this, other agents explained that they needed to stay in immigration until the problem was solved and that they were going to provide food and a bed if necessary. They were, also, being sent to another room, so, they needed to leave their things behind, including phones. Juliette was able to keep a book and some cash. Finally, they were let in into a medium size room filled with other people with similar migratory status. The room had vending machines, shared washrooms, a TV that worked weirdly, a telephone booth (3 euros per minute!) and was connected to some rooms that had beds. This doesn’t sound so bad compared to you know… prison, but for Juliette, this was the closest thing to jail she had ever seen. Anyways, someone told them that the best way to use the phone was to make a quick phone call to whoever might help and give the phone numbers that were written in the wall so that they could call back. Juliette managed to call her mom after getting some coins from the vending machines, and she was able to explain everything to her, who ended up calling the school, the restaurant and the embassy to see if they could do something…
After that, it was waiting. The lawyer did not arrive at 4 pm. More waiting. The lawyer arrived at 7 pm. They talked with him to the point where not even he knew why they were not let in. The lawyer told them to contact him in case anything happened. After this, Juliette overheard the lawyer saying to the immigration woman that Juliette and her friend had everything in order, and why she wasn’t letting them in, but the woman said that the internship was a cover-up. The lawyer could not do much, as shortly, Julie was let known that they were, in fact, going to be sent home. The flight was the next day at 2 pm. So, they were without a doubt spending the night there.
The next day before taking them to their flight, the immigration personnel told them that they needed to sign a contract where it was explained why they were not let it. The contract had several things that were not true, like they did not have enough money nor a return flight. They declined to sign. Then, they were taken to the plane directly, no time spent in the waiting room, and they were escorted by the police. They got on the plane and left Spain behind. By the way, Juliette only got her passport back until it was announced that they were getting ready to land. And that was that. This was Juliette’s experience in Spain, more specifically the airport.
Juliette told me that one of the things she learned from her experience was to simple be more prepared, by having more printed documents and getting more informed by calling the embassies instead of only believing the online information. Also, what I learned from her experience was to double-check every contract or document before signing, especially in this type of situation when your immigration status might get affected. One small stain in your passport or record can affect your possibility of traveling to certain countries or your chances of obtaining permits or visas.