Is My Inscrita Number Too High to Receive a Placement?

If you have applied to be an auxiliar de conversación, also known as North American Language and Culture Assistant, then you were given an inscrita number. Every applicant who completes an application receives an inscrita number. Your inscrita number will come in an email from the Spanish Ministerio that will look like this:

The 14_1AXC0000013 is the inscrita number. The digits at the end of this long alphanumeric code are what people call your inscrita number.

In other words, when people refer to their inscrita number on places such as the auxiliares de conversación Facebook group or the SpainAuxiliares Reddit page, they are simply referring to the last few digits. This means that my inscrita number here is “13.”

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s get down to the question many prospective auxiliares are asking, “Is my inscrita number too high to receive a placement?”

Well, if you’re asking this, you are not alone. Many, many, many prospective auxiliares are asking if they will get a teaching placement based on their inscrita number, so don’t feel embarrassed about asking. Here’s how the placement process works, as of the 2020-2021 school year.

First, 2nd year applicants (first time renewals) are placed, followed by all other applicants. (All applicants are assigned inscrita numbers, which means a 2nd year (first renewal) with an inscrita number higher than your’s will be placed before you. Don’t fret. Your time will soon come.) 

So, you will begin noticing first time renewals being placed on the Facebook groups around the end of April or early May. Following that, 1st year applicants will be placed, and this is where your inscrita number comes into play. 

Placements are just the autonomous community, or region, first, and then a couple weeks later your city and school placement will come. All you really need is the region placement to ensure your job as an auxiliar de conversación, even though the city/school placement is more exciting.

For the 2012-2013 school year there were around 5400 applicants to the North American Language and Culture Assistants program. Of those, there were 4374 received a placement, and 1823 accepted a placement.

The link to this data no longer works (Mike found it while researching for his old blog). The program is also bigger now, so there may be more placements and applicants. However, it is subject to change.

In short, we would say that if you add 1,000 to your inscrita number and you are below 4,000, you are very likely to receive a placement to teach in Spain with the auxiliares de conversación program.

However, if you are up in the 3,000 to 4,000 range, with adding on the 1,000 to your original inscrita, you will probably be wait listed and may not receive a teaching placement until October when someone who originally accepted their placement drops out. Everyone has 3 days to accept or decline their placement, but many will accept it and later decline it due to varying circumstances.

It’s not a bad thing to be wait listed. Trevor Huxham was wait listed his first year and ended up spending 3 years in Spain as an auxiliar! He’ started in Jaén, Andalucía and then went to Santiago de Compostela, and Galicia for his last 2 years. 

Being wait listed simply means that you could be placed in June through October. It really depends on when they get to you and when others decline their positions. If you are placed later, you just have to apply for your visa and arrive in Spain later. A lot of auxiliares do this, so if it happens to you, you won’t be the only one.

Mike has applied for the program a few times. His inscrita was 780 the first year he applied and was given his region placement sometime in mid-May. Although, he later declined his position. The next year, he flew through the Profex application process and received the crazy, low inscrita of 13.

The lower the inscrita number, the sooner you’ll find out your placement. Follow along in the Auxiliares de Conversación Facebook group to see which inscrita numbers have been placed. 

Here’s a look at the Auxiliares de Conversación Application Timeline.

Don’t want to worry about having too high of an inscrita number? Follow this guide on How to Apply to the Auxiliares de Conversación Program in Spain.

While you’re preparing to move to Spain to teach English, you can start packing with our What to Bring to Spain as an Auxiliar de Conversación Guide.