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I am interested in coming to ChengDu to teach English. However I have not yet completed my BA of Education. I wanted to come for a year with a job.
Is it still possible to get a work visa without a BA? I am hearing many conflicting reports on this topic. If not is there another city/area/province that’s more lenient on this guideline?
Thanks for your help.
You can get a job, and you can get a visa, but my understanding is that you cannot get the type of visa that will allow you to teach legally. This doesn’t stop thousands of English teachers across China from teaching, though.
There’s no consistency with this stuff, so you have to be ready for anything. The general idea is the in-demand destinations have plenty of visa applications and can afford to be more strict with paperwork. If you’re having trouble due to your qualifications, rural/remote/etc. areas are typically more lenient as demand for foreign teachers is higher.
Chengdu requires two years of experience from what I’ve faced personally. I work at a public uni. I’m sure it’s still possible to find a language mill job that can pull the right strings, maybe someone here can give some recommendations. If not, be wary of places that ask you to come over on a tourist visa…it’s a big risk in my opinion (again, anything is possible).
Chengdu requires two years of experience from what I’ve faced personally. I work at a public uni. I’m sure it’s still possible to find a language mill job that can pull the right strings, maybe someone here can give some recommendations. If not, be wary of places that ask you to come over on a tourist visa…it’s a big risk in my opinion (again, anything is possible).
Right, this is all accurate. A lot of employers will have no problem employing you illegally. Those type of laws are broken all the time in China. I’ve heard it estimated somewhere that 80% of all expats in China are on visas which are technically illegal. I believe it.
I know of several people are enrolled in language programs at universities, and use that for their visa and then teach on the side. Is it strictly legal? nope, but no one seems to care.
Work visa – forget it, i’ve been banging my head on that wall for years now. Only best schools can arrange those but as you arent even BA yet, its way out of your reach.
Business visa is your best bet, unless you come here as student. Just agree beforehand how you will renew it, as it requires re enter every 3 months.
The last time I checked about 5 years ago with the Ministry of Education (or whatever they call themselves) there was a list of 16 educational establishments in Chengdu who are registered to employ foreigners to teach. If they are not on that list then they are acting illegally to employ you and inspectors do visit the teaching establishments to check visas.
However, a friend of mine used to be given advance notice of the inspection and told to take the day off. Another friend suggested that the way round the problem is to work for an agency rather than directly for the school but I don’t have advice as to how that loophole could make it legal. Either way you would still need a work visa even if you didn’t have a foreign expert certificate.
One thing to bear in mind is that if you fall foul of a parent by giving their princeling a bad school report or whatever then you might well find yourself in the spotlight. The penalties at the time were up to 100,000 rmb plus claw back of all earnings and no doubt, a revoked visa. Another aspect is that if you break the law then it offers the opportunity for your employer to treat you badly since you aren’t in a position to do much about it. So with that in mind, I would suggest getting references from three of their previous foreign employees.
That sounds like a nightmare. I did not know that there were only 16 schools that can legally employ expats though, that certainly narrows is down. I think every week a different expat in Chengdu is burned by some shady English school.
You can try working for a agency, they have their ways of getting you a residence permit or working visa, they do however take a huge cut off your salary. But then again you will be able to work here in which case they provide accommodation and every thing else. No one can work without a visa or foreign expert certificate.
As for the 100 000 rmb fine, never heard of that before. I have personally spoken to a view teachers where grading and scores are concerned, if they get failed by a expat teacher with a valid reason then all is well. Not all schools allow expats to do the grading, if they do it gets looked over by the Chinese teachers in any case.
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