Job Discussion Forums

[davelister]

What are the legal requirements for getting a work visa with a foreign experts certificate?

Native English Speaker?
Degree?
2+ years experience?
TEFL certificate?
a no criminal record check?

I, personally, do check all these boxes. Just wondering what the law / rules there are on this, and if they have changed or are changing.

[dean_a_jones]

[Bud Powell]

Best bet if you can't use the search engine: Apply for a job with a PUBLIC school to find out if your credentials pass muster. Then apply to a private school. See what happens.

You don't have to take the job. Just see if you're acceptable to either or both.

[johntpartee]

[davelister]

just to say, I appreciate the responses, especially dean_a_jones.

[MisterButtkins]

Yeah, I told my coworkers that I was going to get a CELTA this winter and they all asked me what a CELTA was. TBH I think some people think "These all apply at my job so they must apply everywhere" but I think this isn't the case so much. The TEFL certificate and the 2-year requirement aren't enforced in a lot of places, in my experience.

[GeminiTiger]

please view this thread for more details.
http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?p=1034661

[davelister]

Individual schools have their rules / requirements, of course, when hiring. I'm writing below about work visa requirements for English teachers:

1) Native English Speakers;
Does anyone know if non-native English speakers are now beginning to be refused work visas (or have been in the past) due to their nationality? I've worked with non-native English speakers in China, some of which had very good English (especially a Filipino and a French), and some without such good English (I can think of a couple of eastern Europeans).

2) Degree;
It appears that non-degree holders have been refused work visas (someone on this forum mentioned this; their first-hand experience). With BS online degrees and copied degrees, I assume degree certificates will in time also (like the pre-China medical and CRC (criminal record check)) require legalisation.

3) 2+ years experience;
Has anyone been refused a work visa on these grounds? Anyone had to show reference letters from previous ESL employment for their visa (not the school)? Would these too (now or in the future) require some official authentication unless there's a Chinese red stamp on it?

4) TEFL certificate;
Has anyone been refused a work visa on these grounds? Again like with degrees, a dodgy online cert without teaching practise can be got I'm assuming. Also, of course, they could be created or copied. So, would these too, in time, require authentication of some kind, do you think?

5) Criminal record check (CRC);
It would seem it's increasingly more of an in-practise requirement (and fair enough in my opinion). The document requires legalisation (as mentioned on Dave's).

6) Pre-China health check (followed by a health check in China);
Like the CRC, this seems to be increasingly more of an in-practise requirement. The document requires legalisation (as mentioned on Dave's).

In the UK the medical (at cost), CRC (10 or 25 quid) and degree (a future requirement for legalisation I speculate) can be legalised (confirmed legit) from the Legalisation Office (at present 30 quid per doc plus postage). The docs are then required to be taken to (not posted) the Chinese Embassy for their authentication approval and stamp (another 30 quid per doc).

Is there a similar amount of required hoop-jumping to teach in other countries? If not, I can see qualified (degree & TEFL), native English speaking, non-criminal and healthy teachers teaching elsewhere, and for more money.

[dean_a_jones]

[davelister]

Good points above, with the geographical variability of the regulations. Also time is a factor, it seems, as new regulations possibly take time to filter through the provinces.

[daikaiju]

For my school I didn't have to apply for a health check or a criminal check. Although, as I understand I will need to have a health check once I'm in China.

[davelister]

[daikaiju]

I'll be in the Shandong province.

[Toast]

[daikaiju]

I haven't seen it as a requirement on the UK site for the visa, so I'm assuming I don't need to. I'll give them a call tomorrow just to double check.