Job Discussion Forums

simon_porter00 · Joined: 09 Nov 2005 Posts: 505 Location: Warsaw, Poland

I think you're looking at this issue too specifically. That is to say I don't really think the appropriate office will give a damn one way or the other.

Given the reticence of offices to do the bare minimum, let alone conduct their own research as to 'are there other teachers from Poland/the EU who could do the job' I think your question is only theoretical and not one of the worries a school has when it comes to hiring and firing.

The worries the school have presumably are these:
Do they have the qualification?
Do they look respectable/like a hippy?
Do they smell of booze or look like they could smell of booze?
Will they darken our schools name?
and most importantly:
Are they native? If so, I can make more money on them than hiring a Polish teacher irrespective of everything.

Master Shake · Joined: 03 Nov 2006 Posts: 1202 Location: Colorado, USA

ecocks, you're missing the most important part of my post - that the whole work permit process is a sham. The school can hire whoever they want, they just have to look like they're trying to hire someone EU even if they have no intention of doing so.

By the way, I talked to a US citizen living in Warsaw with a Polish sole-trader set up yesterday who said he got his residency card without having to get a work permit. He just had to show immigration a letter of intent from a school saying they intend to employ him on X hours a week.

Others have posted about how it is possible to get residency in PL sans work permit in some cities, but yesterday was the first time I've seen it happen in Warsaw.

sparks · Joined: 20 Feb 2008 Posts: 632

I work for a school which advertises "American English" and they routinely get work permits for Americans. I would venture that others are correct in saying that the whole "Can't find an EU citizen" thing is only for paperwork. Do you really think that an urzednik cares about proving anything. If the paperwork is right, they are happy.

ecocks · Joined: 06 Nov 2007 Posts: 899 Location: Gdansk, Poland

ecocks · Joined: 06 Nov 2007 Posts: 899 Location: Gdansk, Poland

I get that it is theoretical and have been around Eastern Europe long enough to understand the odds on someone actually checking. I was simply curious as to:

1. Whether they [Immigration] consider hiring an American or a Brit to be six of one, half dozen of another OR do they somehow prioritize Pole, EU/Brit then one of the native speaker countries?

2. Assuming it is NOT a level playing field, what do the schools put on an app to justify non-Poles and non-EU citizens available for the job?

Then again, in Azerbaijan I worked with an Aussie who had her passport confiscated and both me and another expat spent a week being "hunted" by the Immigration investigators, working as Elmir on the work schedule and keeping a bag packed by the door, before the school supposedly paid a 25,000 Euro fine for having three of us working illegally based upon the dates of entry and delays in processing the permits. Twice, investigators showed up at our school. Surprised all of the expats to see government flunkies doing due diligence like that.