Job Discussion Forums

[jskgil]

Hi guys! New member/first post. This question has been bugging me for a bit now: I'm a US citizen with dual citizenship/ancestry with Great Britain on my mother's side- does this qualify me for the TEFL job market in the EU as an American? If I can get an EU passport, I shouldn't have a problem obtaining any visas- does this make me equally as eligible for the position as someone born in the UK?
Thanks

[Qaaolchoura]

Visa requirements are part of EU law, and a Romanian is eligible to teach English if someone will hire them.

Hiring requirements are a different matter. While some schools have a preference for one variety of English (I remember meeting an Englishman in Mexico who worked at a school that he claimed only hired English and Welshmen; not even Scots or Ulstermen, let alone Yanks or Colonials), my understanding is that this is usually not the case, at least with British vs. American English.

As for getting British citizenship, that's another matter. Are you actually a British citizen, in that you know for a fact you are eligible for a British passport? Or are you trying to figure out whether you are? If it's the latter, as I understand it, the main two cases would be if your mother is a British citizen born in Britain, or if at least one of her parents was a British citizen born in the UK, and you were also born in Britain. (Otherwise, unless you fit in with a handful of obscure cases involving the remains of the British Empire, you'd be SOL.)

~Q

[jskgil]

What I mean to say is that most TEFL jobs require you to be a native speaker and seeing as someone from Romania is not, they wouldn't be hired. However, from what I've heard an EU employer will, in most cases, choose someone from the UK over a US citizen *every time.* What I want to know is if this is true and if my dual citizenship (my mother was born & raised in Wales) will help me overcome this obstacle to employment in the EU? Hope that helps.

[Xie Lin]

[tttompatz]

[sparks]

Xie Lin and ttompatz are right about you being eligible, I would add that it isn't quite as difficult to find work in the Former Soviet part of the E.U. although I believe that schools are getting very hesitant to sponsor visas for Americans even in this part of the world. I would also add that JUST being a British citizen doesn't qualify you for a lot of jobs. Most schools want you to have at least a B.A. and a 100+ hour on-site teaching cert. of some kind, with practice teaching. They also often ask for a year or three of experience. Get your passport, get your certification and you should be alright in Europe.

[artemisia]

[Sashadroogie]

[jskgil]