Hi there,

I've been reading your posts a lot these days, thank you all for sharing your experience from an ESL teacher's angle, it helps me to understand what an ESL teacher really need .

I'm native Chinese, have lived in London for 10 years, and I was running a Mandarin School there, providing Chinese courses to individuals and companies such as AIG, UBS, Accenture... Now I am running an English training school called “REA International Language Academy” here in my hometown Changsha, Hunan province, with teachers from US, UK, Canada, we've been providing all levels English courses to local students/companies for over 2 years now, and I would like to share some info that an ESL teacher might need to know with all of you.

1.Degree and TEFL TESOL certificate

Yes, you need both of them; by law these are the requirements for any foreign ESL teachers to obtain the legal Work Permit and Residence Permit (Z visa). Some school may say is okay even if you don't have a TEFL cert, as far as I know, this is required by the State Administration of Foreign Expert Affairs (SAFEA) to issue you a Foreign Expert Certificate, I guess those who got the Foreign Expert Certificate without a TEFL or TESOL certificate must had been provided a fake one to be submitted to the SAFEA, I'm not saying this is totally wrong, but I would like to kindly remind you: beware! this is not totally legal.

2.Work Permit (Z visa)

There are different types of visas, say, L/F/Z... L visa is a tourist visa, allows you to stay in China for maximum 90 days, you could get it renewed afterwards, but then you will need to leave the country once every 30 days, and L visa holders can not work in China LEGALLY; F visa is for foreign business men, you might get a year's visa allowing you to stay in China, but again, you will not be allowed to be employed by any schools to work as an ESL teacher; Z visa is the legal one for you to work as an ESL teacher here.

Not all schools or companies here are able to get you a Z visa; they must be authorized by State Administration of Foreign Expert Affairs (SAFEA) and have the license to employ foreigners, which means the school has been opened for at least one year, and met all the requirements to get the license. I’ve seen some foreign teachers working here with F visa, which is provided by the school they are working for, I can guarantee that those schools are not authorized by SAFEA, in other words, you can’t get any supports or protections from Chinese authorities if you happened to have an issue with your employer, say, late payment from employer, the worst thing could be DEPORTED, if any other competitors report you or your school to the local police or other government authorities. I’ve seen this happened before, due to competition between schools, and I’ve even seen some evil foreign teachers trying to report other foreign teachers…

3. Contract

Normally, You will be required to sign two different contracts, one is provided by your school, lists all the details including working hours/holidays/salary/rules… and the other one is provided by the SAFEA (the government one, very simple, which is more like an agreement or proposal, no details listed) you need this one for your visa application.

Working hours may vary, for example, the maximum teaching hours per week for our foreign teachers in my school is 24 hours, 5 days a week, paid holidays for all public holidays (includes X’mas), other schools may offer 18 hours a week, 6 days a week, etc. There is no SET working hours for all schools, you will need to read the contract carefully.

Probation period might be listed in the contract, especially for those who are new to China, by Chinese law, the maximum probation period is 6 months, don't worry about this, unless you always late for work, being rude or arrogant like a racist during the class… I would say most foreign teachers are treated extremely nice here in China, cos in Chinese culture, we have an idiom saying, “That friends should come to one from afar, is this not after all delightful?”

There are too many issues in regards to contract details that I may not able to list them all here, feel free to ask me any further information, I will try my best to answer your questions based on my experience.

4. Z Visa process

1^st, The school will send your passport copy, degree copy, TEFL copy, Resume/C.V, 2 reference letters, health report, passport size photo to the SAFEA (mostly to the provincial branch) online or in person (different province varies)

2^nd, After all the above documents have been approved by the SAFEA, they will issue an invitation letter and working permit for you, in the invitation letter says which Commissioner’s Office of the Foreign Ministry (COFM) of the P.R.C you will be attending to apply for your visa (your home country or Hong Kong). You will also get an original copy of formal contract of employment printed by the SAFEA

3^rd, Ask the school to provide you a copy of the company Business License, a copy of the company Enterprise Code License, a copy of the Employment of Foreign Expert License, take these documents along with those other documents mentioned above to the COFM.

4^th, It takes 1-5 working days for the visa application process once you submitted it, but this is not the final stage. On your arrival in China, you need to register with the local police station asap for a temporary residence permit, then take a full physical exam at local Provincial Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, you may also need to buy a special life insurance for foreign experts followed by the local Provincial Foreign Expert Bureau’s instruction, then you will get the Foreign Expert Certificate booklet. At last, bring all these documents with you and go to the local Provincial Exit-entry administration of Public Security Bureau, after this you will get the final Z visa and residence permit.

5. Salary

Different cities have different standards, if you are hunting a teaching job in big cities like Beijing or Shanghai, I would say 8000RMB per month is the minimum wage, considering the high living expenses. Smaller cities, such as my city, Changsha, the capital city of Hunan Province (population of 7 million, yes, a ‘SMALLER’ city), the average monthly salary for ordinary Chinese people is under 2000RMB, and 5000-8000RMB for a foreign ESL teacher.

Money is not the biggest issue for most ESL teachers here in China, you will earn at least 3 times than the local average Chinese, in addition, most schools provide FREE accommodation, your living standard is gonna be like those who earns two or three grand a month in the UK since the living expense is rather cheap here.

6. Travel

China is HUGE, use your imagine:) you may explore all sorts of places and cultures. Maybe we should open up another thread to discuss this topic...

Traveling by train is rather cheap for the salary you can make here, flight tickets are cheap too if you can manage to book it online in advance. Hong Kong is the place for you to connect other countries in Asia, say, Thailand, Malaysia, India, Singapore… There are 3 main holidays within a year: Chinese New Year, May Day and National Day in October, you will have 3-7 days off in a row. The only thing I want to remind you is that you’ll have to inform your employer if you are going aboard for holidays, this is required by Chinese law.

Thanks for reading this post, I hope this can give you a general idea about working in China as an ESL teacher, please do not hesitate to contact me if I can provide any further information, I look forward to hearing from you, and wish you all the very best!

Hi Kiddiee, It's great of you to take the time to spell out so much detail about teaching in China. Its also great to learn of your overseas experience and now set up shop in China. This is particularly interesting to me because I am a Hong Kong born Chinese and have lived in Canada/US for the last 40 some years. I am planning to retire next year and hope to start my second career as a teacher in China. I still retain my Hong Kong/China citizenship so that shouldn't pose any problems for me to reside and teach there. I'v been looking up the i to i courses and would probably take the 140 hr on-line course next year before making a move. By the way, while I was "working"/doing business in Shanghai in the late 90's, I taught Conversational English at Shanghai University School of Foreign Language part-time. I enjoyed that thoroughly and as a way of giving back or helping my fellow countrymen. I travelled extensively while in China but never been to your fair hometown. Should you have any openings by fall 2012, I'd like to explore the oppoetunities.

Hi lingraymond, I am hornored to hear such comment from you, do not hesiitate to reach me on kiddie@rea-edu.com or leier@hotmail.co.uk any time. Btw, I speak Cantonese too, my Cantonese is not as fluent as my Mandarin or Englsih though, Lol

Hello Kiddiee...your information is very in depth and much appreciated. I am however somewhat discouraged however now. You said you must have a BA to teach there?.. I am soon to be a TEFL teacher hopefully. I have been in the US Army for 12 years and am currently in Afghanistan. After this deployment I am hanging up the uniform and calling it quits. As soon as I get home I am going to enroll in a TEFL institution. I really wanted to go to Thailand as my first choice until I found out that you needed a degree. Due to my many military tours of duty in combat zones I never had time for college and as soon as my TEFL certification is complete I will be enrolling into an accredited online campus to start on my degree for later TEFL positions. I was under the impression that China did not require a degree but now you say that I need one. If it is not possible to teach in China without a degree can you possibly tell me of some countries that I can start my TEFL teaching career in please? Once I receive my degree I know that that will open up my possibilities. Also if you can tell me of some very good TEFL certification institutes that are available I would appreciate that as well. I currently have $30,000 saved and Im willing to pay and do whatever it takes to realize my dream...that being a teacher to nations and their people all over the world. Please help me. thank you.

Hi again,

I'm not stalking you I promise but I had to reply to this post.

By telling people how much money you have saved (which would be considered huge in many countries) and offering to pay for help, you are leaving yourself open to scammers, who frequently use this site.

The EFL industry is full of unscrupulous recruiters who will promise you jobs and visas they can't possibly deliver on in exchange for fair sums of money. Word to the wise: NEVER pay anyone to find work for you. Recruiters are paid by employers NOT by employees. Note that regardless of their promises or how much money you pay, a recruiter cannot get you a visa for a country you are not entitled to work in.

That said there are hundreds upon thousands of jobs in China requiring native English speakers. You will definitely find something. I'd advise talking to the people on here who are working in China and who found their own jobs. Go to 'Groups' at the top of the page, join the China group and you search the members for 'Rin' and 'FilterAngel', both of whom should be able to advise you further.

excellent post, thanks kiddiee.

globetrotter....a degree & tefl will get you a job in ANY institution, a lack of degree will only mean you have slightly less choice of where you work. plus your extensive life experience will probably count as a degree anyway (my chinese wife says that they respect dedicated work experience equally to dedicated academic experience. just my thoughts tho....