Job Discussion Forums

[bish]

If you have a Z Visa can you work part time/privates without permission from the employer or do you need some kind of written permission?

[The Great Wall of Whiner]

Always an iffy question.

You are not legally allowed to teach privates. But imagine being back at home and someone gives you 10 bucks for teaching them Chinese for an hour, will anyone complain?

Probably not.

[bish]

Would you need permission for a second job?

[Lorean]

Morality subjectivity aside, this is what I think is in your best interest:

Teach whatever privates you want. Yes, it's illegal. But the chance of your school or local police doing anything is close to NIL. I would still avoid telling the school, or otherwise discuss your privates with other foreign teachers while on school premises for fear of being overheard. If your school finds out and confronts you, just politely tell them to *beep* off.

[Tsuris]

Bish, there are two issues here. First, does your principal employer explicitly forbid outside employment in the contract, and, if so, is that stipulation enforced (you need to ask other teachers this question, not the school)? All government universities expressly forbid outside employment but it's never enforced and virtually every professor engages in some outside work.

The second issue pertains to legality. While it is legal to work part-time on top of your regular contract for a school licensed to hire foreign experts, it is not legal to teach privately because that technically means you are running your own school--and that requires all sorts of licenses and what not.

However, as a matter of practice, the PSB is not going to bother a foreign teacher who is tutoring English to a handful of kids, no more than it will a Chinese college kid who is tutoring during the summer for 20 yuan per hour. That is not to say they never care. They can and will get involved especially if someone with good relationships with them feels threatened by your practice (but you would have to be teaching a lot more than one child for that to ever happen and you'd have to really p*ss off the wrong person).

If your primary employer does enforce the moonlighting prohibition, then I wouldn�t risk it regardless of the legalities, because stuff like that always gets back to the employer, sooner or later.

[Moon Over Parma]

Some employers will give you work on the side. Speech contests, token foreigners for TV, etcetera: in some spots they contact the local universities and public schools that have FTs with offers. The FAO or department supervisors often come to the FTs with this work. Those are usually safe bets and can earn favors.

[Teatime of Soul]

Your visa is provided for you to work only for your employer.

If you plan to teach privately, it is something you should negotiate with your employer, preferably prior to signing a contract.

You don't say who the demographic is that you want to teach. If it is the same demographic that your school targets, then you could be in effect, taking business from your employer.

Do you think your employer might be less than pleased with the notion of sponsoring your visa, providing your housing and salary and then you divert his potential paying students?

Some employers will have no problems with you doing side work, as long as it doesn't compete with their targeted demographic.

If you have to hide what you are doing, do you need to be told what side of the ethical fence you are on?

The chance of getting caught is alway nonzero. Chinese whispers is not just a classroom game.

I personally would not agree with the advice, "If your school finds out and confronts you, just politely tell them to *beep* off."

Our local PSB has stated FTs caught teaching illegally are subject to a 20 - 40,000 RMB fine and immediate deportation. I'm not sure how much your school would intervene on your behalf if the PSB drags you in and you politely tell them to "*beep* off". And sometimes, it is the PSB that catches you, due to those who inform on you for reasons you'll never fathom.

That also might make for an awkward situation, should your school fire you for your polite request, and you find you will need a Letter of Recommendation. Also, it might be helpful if you'd like your school to not convert your FRP to an L visa instead of allowing your new employer, if you can find one, to transfer your FRP - thus saving you a trip to Hong Kong.

In the end, it is your decision. There are aboveboard ways to do this and ways that are not. Both have their own potential risks and rewards. I'm not passing judgment, just trying to provide you information to help you make a decision.

I wish you well.

[North China Laowei]

Please read and reread Teatime of Soul's last post very, very carefully.

It is exactly "on the mark" so to speak.

Where I work, I met another foreign teacher who had a really "cushy" job in a very beautiful middle school with a fully-paid new and newly furnished apartment on the outside -- not in the school -- with all utilities paid. 14 hours per week. Decent schedule and salary.

Money being money, and money being tossed at him, he caved in and took a part-time job, something to the order of RMB 200 per hour, guaranteed 6-10 hours per week but with no possibility of visa sponsorship, etc., etc.

He has been at the middle school nigh two years. The headmaster of the middle school, this being China, learned of his part-time through the FOREIGN EXPERTS' BUREAU of the city, of all places, as it seems that one of the students at his part-time job has a relative at the FEB and mentioned his good FT to that person and that person then called her very good friend -- the headmaster of the middle school. The result? His very "cushy" contract at the school will not be renewed this year. Period.

And considering that this foreign teacher is not from one of the "approved" scheduled countries and that this foreign teacher is not a native speaker, and that when he came to the middle school his papers were in great and serious disarray (as the result of a runner on his part) and the middle school at that point staved off his deportation, etc., etc., IMHO this was a really dumb thing on his part.

Now for the sake of extra earnings, he has lost a cushy job; he has lost an easy visa renewal; he will need to return to his home in a non-English speaking country and hope to return here at a later date with the current cards stacked against him so to speak.

[Lorean]

Certainly, the PSB has better things to do than chase down moonlighters. You would have to piss someone off to get them to come after you.

Yes, running your own private school would probably attract their attention. But the OP was referring to teaching privates.

Frankly, I think if you're working for Mr. Sketch running his English mill out of a concrete closet where every week is another struggle to pull in enough dough, well you are probably going to get screwed in more ways than leaving without a stamped reference letter.

The several dozen FTs and students I have met here have all held private jobs and never had any troubles.