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[Snailbear]

I found an excellent job through the recruiting company Teach Taiwan, however; I would be wary of working with them unless you already live in Taiwan.

This is addressed to people new to teaching ESL and/or people who haven't lived in Taiwan.

David and Emily are both very pleasant, but when I email with questions that might be unpleasant for them to answer, I get no reply.

I was offered a ride from the airport with one of my fellow teachers for $7,000 NT or $3500.00 NT each. That is a huge amount of money to pay for transportation in Taiwan. You would be better off taking a taxi from the airport to the train and taking a taxi from the train station nearest your destination. My friend later got the same ride and was charged $5200. So either my colleague and I who paid $7,000 were cheated, or she got cheated.

My rent in the small town where I live is 2xs higher than the market rate in the area. According to David, it was the only place available. He only looked for one day, so that's probably true. Other colleagues arrived to find they had no apartment at all.

We were told the apartment would be furnished. They sort of are. I have a bed platform (no mattress, no bedding, you have to get your own), a desk, a refrigerator, and an armoire. It's pretty normal not to have a kitchen and a lot of people eat out, but having no mattress was a big problem. I slept my first night on they plywood platform until a colleague took pity on me and took me to get a mattress.

I had no idea how much cash I needed to bring. It wasn't mentioned that I wouldn't be paid for 6 weeks, would need rent money and a deposit, and money to live on for 6 weeks.

The VISA/ARC card situation has been confusing. Teach Taiwan wrote to two of my colleagues that the fees for that would be taken care of. That has not been the case. So far I have paid $7,000 NT for the fees, but they want an additional $2200 for a different visa than the one they had me apply for a week before, plus the $1000 for the ARC. Check with the American Institute in Taiwan on this process as the Taiwanese government's website hasn't been updated in a year. Now bear in mind, $10,000 NT is about $300 US, so it's not such an exorbitant fee, but it was a surprise, and it caught me at a time when getting hands on cash in the US has been difficult (do not leave home without a bank card with cirrus or plus; you may not be able to use ATMs). Also, if you have bills back home, or live fairly close from pay check to pay check, this will be a strain.

In order to get to the permits/ARC card, you need to go to the hospital. Teach Taiwan did not arrange for transportation and assistance in this. My group was lucky enough to have a teacher with a car and a Taiwanese wife to come and help us. Getting the physical for the visa/permit/ACR is not so simple that you could do it without speaking pretty good Chinese.

We had orientation in a city 40 minutes from here-- again there was no transportation arranged, and we lucked out in having a colleague with a car.

Taiwan is full of nice people, and I can't say my experience has been bad. If Teach Taiwan offers you an extraordinarily good job, I would do the following.

1) Get in touch with your future colleagues ASAP-- they will be your real support system; Teach Taiwan is spotty at best.

2) Bring/have plenty of "seed money." Find out when you will get paid. Don't assume it will be every two weeks, or even within a month.

3) You can get a resident visa from the U.S.; if you do it here, it will cost more. If you don't have health insurance, the savings from using Taiwan's excellent NHS will probably more than make up the difference, but do know that the resident visa is $4600 NT, and here it comes in at closer to $6800 because you have to get the $5600 NT visitor's visa first.

4) If you can, try to get help from your actual employer in dealing with Teach Taiwan. It's in their interest that your papers get processed and everything goes more or less smoothly.

I've been fortunate to be part of a program that has a lot of teachers involved; we've been able to "gang up" on Teach Taiwan and compare notes. If I was alone and at their mercy, I would be a very sad person. If Teach Taiwan offers you a run-of-the-mill job, there might be better recruiters to work with.

[hanlier]

I also got a job through them, but want to say the following:
I don't want defend Teach Taiwan, but want to state a few things. If you have done your homework, you would have found out that it would be better to come in on a resident visa or visitors visa, thus bringing your visa costs way down. I don't have the privileges Americans have with regard to visa status, and had to get a visitor's visa before I came over. It sucks that the schools where we work don't pay for the visa(my previous schools in Taiwan did), or at least subsidize part of it, but there's nothing to be done for it.

Second - you could have googled or looked on other forums or even asked here about the amount of cash that you needed to bring with you. It is common knowledge that you need at least 3 month's rent upfront, but you could have negotiated with them to split this in 2. I did that, as I was straight forward with them and told them I simply don't have that amount of money on me to bring along. As to the not being paid for 6 weeks - did you read your contract? In your contract your pay date is stated. You could have worked out your date for your first paycheck by yourself.It is logical that you would need money to survive off until you got your first paycheck.

I agree that the amount of money asked for the ride from the airport is quite high, and would advise people to do the same that you suggested. I could have gotten where I needed to be on my own, as I know Taiwan pretty well and could travel to my destination on my own, but was glad I used their service in the end as the guy helped me a lot with my rental contract, as my landlady only speaks Chinese and I have very limited Chinese.

As to them not answering difficult questions : I asked a lot of questions from them, and every time I've received an answer. They have also helped me lot in small things, but maybe it's because I'm at pretty decent school and the director doesn't take the usual run around. She jumps on the phone when there is a problem. Case in point - when I had to change my visitor's visa to a resident visa and was planning to go there on my own, she jumped on the phone and told them to sort it out. They came to pick me up and took me there, and helped me sort it out.

It is true that your people at your school will help you more than they probably would, but they haven't been unhelpful to me at least.Before I came I had a lot of questions to the teacher that was leaving. It has helped a lot that I already know how Taiwan worked - I am/was no newbie, and I do my homework and I read up or ask questions on forums. That's what they're for.

I guess what I am saying in the end- most if not all recruiters have only one thing in mind - getting money. Most recruiters are not not great,and if possible should be avoided, BUT most of your problems you stated that you have with them could have been avoided or resolved if you had just done a bit of your own homework by visiting forums and asking questions on said forums if you don't know.

[Snailbear]

Hello,

I did do research before I came, but I was too trusting that my recruiters would know the best way to take care of matters.

It's common knowledge that you won't get paid for quite a while for people who have taught in Taiwan-- if you haven't, this is a heads up.

When I got here, the experienced people looked at me like I was an idiot, but the other newbies were equally surprised. So now we know.

[hanlier]

Snailbear,

It may be common knowledge for old timers about the pay date, but I get back to my question - did you read your contract? Your date of pay is in your contract. If you had read your contract, you would have realized that you may not get paid for a while. Even when I was still a newbie, I read my contract. I knew when I came over when my first pay date would be,and had to budget accordingly.

I am sorry that you seem to have this bit of bad luck.
Rule number one - never, ever trust recruiters completely.
Rule number two - always, but always read your contract with a fine tooth comb and if anything makes you uneasy - ask questions, if the recruiter won't answer, ask the current teachers at the school.

You have to educate yourself with as much knowledge before hand, and know your p's from your q's, so to speak. As far as I can gather, this recruiter is still fairly new in the market and still learning the ropes - with that I am not excusing them. But, always, but always check and double check anything a recruiter says. What I gathered from them when they took me to change my visa to resident visa, is that they think people from the US don't have the same kind of hassles because they get 90 days free entry, but the reality of the visa process is that you should actually come in on a visitor's visa, change over to resident when you have your work permit, and then do the ARC, once you have your residence visa.

What has been the kicker for me though , is that I also had to get the medical done(upon request from them), but up to this stage no one has asked for it, even though I already have my resident visa and will get my ARC this Friday.

Anyhow, hope you enjoy your stay in Taiwan.

[Snailbear]

Hello--

Yes, I read my contract. It said I would be paid on the 15th of each month, but it didn't say what month it would start on. Since my contract is effective as of Aug. 30, I assumed the first pay would be on Sept. 15. Not the case.

I think my biggest gripe with Teach Taiwan are the surprises. Now that I know what the process is (I think), it's ok. But I'm aggravated that they never laid out the process step by step with fees announced at the beginning. Knowing this would have impacted my actions-- I would have reacted with that knowledge in place. Instead of informing us up front, they just reveal it piece by piece shortly before they want to move ahead to the next step.

For example, I got my visitor's visa last week in Chiayi. I asked on Thursday if we would need a Resident visa before we could get our ARC; they ignored my email. I thought I only needed $1000 NT more, but now it turns out I need $3200 NT. I don't understand why they didn't tell us about the process all in one go. I bought a used bicycle and went by bus to see some friends in Huwei (I spent like $2000 NT on all of this). Now I don't have the cash for my visas, and if they had merely told me last week when I asked what the next step would be, I would have held off on the bike and the trip to Huwei.

This is a lot of silly detail; my observation, my personal experience has been that they have not explained the process well, but spring a lot of surprises on us.

I did go to the websites of the Taiwanese Bureau of Consular Affairs and the Immigration Department. Immigration said that Americans could apply for ARC with a 180 day visitor's visa (which I now have for $5600 NT). Apparently a law was passed, but the Taiwanese government didn't update their website in English, so the additional $2200 is an unpleasant surprise as my pay day isn't for another week.

Some colleagues back at home base (we travel to different schools throughout the county) called the foreigner hotline to get the info straight. The foreigner hotline is awesome, but I don't have a phone because I don't have an ARC. Someone finally called from the school phone, but this information has been surprisingly difficult to get.

The process is almost at an end-- once I have my ARC there will be peace in the valley (as long as the county gives the schools money for our salaries; that's a whole other issue).

[keeperofpythons]

[Snailbear]

I did state upfront that my experience was based on that of a person unfamiliar with Taiwan. The people who have lived here and know the ropes haven't been too perturbed.

I did do my research, but as I said, the government websites aren't up-to-date.

Some of the problems of being new is that you don't even know what questions to ask. I taught for 7 years in the States, so it wouldn't have occurred to me to ask what month I would be paid in. I asked about facilities and got mostly accurate answers, I asked about the time frame for obtaining the paper work-- that's been all over the place. But asking "will I be paid in September or October?" when you have no clue that skipping a month is common would have been like asking "is there a desk?" "Are there restrooms in the facility?"

I combed forums, but I must have missed the "late payday + lots of fees for permits."

I guess if you don't have a nest egg to tide you over, you're better off going to Korea.

[hanlier]

@snailbear - you don't miss a month. You only get paid on the 15th for the month worked before. It sucks to wait for such a long time. Again, not defending the recruiters - they have done a few things with me that I've also found strange, but I've generally had a positive experience with them. When
I've had a question, they have always replied. Btw, Forumosa is a pretty good forum with up to date information about most things.

@keeperofpythons : If you have all your paperwork needed for a visitor visa, there will be no need to explain anything. If someone asks why, make up something on the go.

And last but not least - I was in Korea last year, and also needed money to bide me over until I received my first paycheck. So, it's the same all over, but start up costs are far less there, as you don't need to put down money for rent in general.