How long does a school can take to wait for a foreign teacher?

Recently, there have been several foreign teachers breaking the contracts with the school after they have signed. One of the reasons the teachers have given is that they haven’t anticipated the process of preparing documents took that long, which is much longer than they thought. Actually, experiencing the government shut-off from the United States, severe weather and government inefficiency, the process of making documents is getting longer, which made the process from two weeks to two months. I have to say two months makes person exhausted, however, most of schools can take it and understand no one can control the process. Then, let’s talk about it how lone does a school can take to wait for a foreign teacher.

First, when a school is looking for an ESL teacher, they have known the start date that they expected the teachers to come. Therefore, they will look for teachers who will possibly come on time. So when ESL teachers get offers from schools, basically, the schools can accept the date that they can arrive.

Second, most of schools will give at least two months to the teachers who haven’t started to prepare their documents. Sometimes, it may get longer. Since it may take one or two weeks to apply for a background check in most countries, and then takes one or two weeks to get background check and degree notarized and authenticated. After getting all the documents ready, the school will use one week or two weeks to apply for the working permit, then the teacher can take the working permit with him/her to China Embassy to apply for the work visa. It may takes one week to get the work visa.

Third, Don’t give up until you talk with the school. Many foreign teachers said they didn’t want the schools wait for them so long, which is not fair for them. However, have they thought about it, if they broke the contracts, then the schools need to restart to recruit. How long it takes to recruit and wait for the new teachers to come? Therefore, schools thought it was just an excuse and the teachers were not responsible for their contracts. Although every school hopes that their teachers can come as the date on the contract, they can still understand there are many things that can’t be controlled as we want. Therefore, don’t make a decision so quickly, when it’s related to others.

Fourth, giving a call to China Embassy, when you start to prepare documents. Sometimes, the process takes so long because there are something wrong with the documents. Therefore, giving a call to China Embassy can make the process efficient and avoid wasting time on it.

Fifth, communication, communication! Communication is very important between the teacher and the school. Having a good communication can make things go smooth. No matter what happened during the process, we can always figure out a way to solve. However, there are many teachers who will disappear during the process and don’t response to our messages and calls. Sometimes, I don’t even know which status the documents are. When we got messages, it will miss the best time to solve it.

Sixth, preparing documents when you have the idea to teach in China. The two necessary documents of applying for work visa are degree and background check. There is no expired date of the authenticated degree, but there is a six months valid time for background, which started to account the date of background check. So it will be good if you can apply for a background check first, when you have the idea to teach in China.

In a conclusion, when foreign teachers sign a contract, please try to arrive in China before or on the date of the contract. If there is something happened during the process, please communicate with the school timely. Don’t assume that the school will find other teachers to replace the position before talking to the schools. The schools are more patient if the foreign teachers have a good attitude to communicate. No matter what happened, the schools will always try to find a way to solve the problem and make things go well.