Job Discussion Forums

312 · Joined: 23 May 2007 Posts: 19

I'm applying to ESL jobs in China. Many of them say to include a copy of your passport with your e-mailed resume. Is this legit/safe/standard? Should I e-mail the page with my photo and name, or is some other page good enough to show I'm a citizen of the US? Smile

eslstudies · Joined: 17 Dec 2006 Posts: 1061 Location: East of Aden

This is standard in China. They want to check age, gender and colour!!! If you appear to be non-white, they may not want you. Looking like a hippie or skinhead won't help either!
If you don't send the page [there's no risk involved, btw] you won't hear from them again.

312 · Joined: 23 May 2007 Posts: 19

Ah, I see their rationale now.

[there's no risk involved, btw] - Are you fairly sure? They can't 'steal' your passport with a photocopy of it?

I'm just asking b/c I'm not sure myself.

Thanks!

eslstudies · Joined: 17 Dec 2006 Posts: 1061 Location: East of Aden

312 · Joined: 23 May 2007 Posts: 19

!Gracias!

jpvanderwerf2001 · Joined: 02 Oct 2003 Posts: 1117 Location: New York

It's really standard practice. I wouldn't hesitate to send it at all...
Good luck!

cubs05 · Joined: 21 Apr 2005 Posts: 11 Location: Barcelona, Espa�a

I've never applied for work in China, but I would be a little more careful about sending my passport copy by email. A common misconception about email is that it is secure--most of the time the servers are not. The general public can access your emails frequently by search engines of various types.

The problem is not the school "stealing" your passport, it is someone taking your passport # and creating a false identity from it. Easy to do--pickpocket takes a passport from some tourist, put a new photo in. Go to a bank and open an account using the passport number. Remember, bank staff are normally NOT trained on recognizing a false passport! When the account is opened, write checks on it....then when the investigation starts, they trace the number back to....you.
How do I know this can happen? My former occupation was criminal defense attorney for 12 years and I defended many identity theft cases and other cases with false identification....

Admittedly, it would be remote to have that single email found by a search engine. But why take a risk? I would contact the school and ask them for a fax number you can fax a copy directly. Yes, this costs a little bit of $ �
�; but hey, you don't have to worry. You also won't have any issues about whether they can open your pdf or jpeg file.

tedkarma · Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 12:56 am Post subject:

This is a standard practice in a good part of the world. The paranoia about "identity theft" is a little bit over done IME/IMO.

How can someone take a scan or your passport and make a new one? Possible I am sure, but there is a lot info embedded in that magnetic strip these days - that isn't in the scan.

Others will pooh pooh the idea, but really there not a problem. If you want a job, you need to send them what they ask for or you have made an incomplete application. And - your stuff will end up in the waste bin.

Serious_Fun · Joined: 28 Jun 2005 Posts: 1171 Location: terra incognita

Stephen Jones · Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Posts: 4124

guty · Joined: 10 Apr 2003 Posts: 365 Location: on holiday

I too am curious how search engines can be used to find e-mails.

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

guty, just be thankful people can't do searches and discover you are a Cov. city fan....... oops.