Hi,

I totaly understand your concerns and will try to give a little useful advice.

Just because somewhere is blacklisted does not mean those allegations are true. The school I work for had a disgruntled employee who now posts about how bad my school is using different pseudonyms. However, this doesn't mean that the ones about your employer are not true.

Ask for e-mail addresses and 'phone numbers of current employees. You could find that management changes or policy changes have cleared these problems up.

Regarding the Visa situation. Is your passport with the Embassy? If not there is no problem, just look for another job if you are still unsure. If it is and you decide not to go them simply tell the recruiter that you ahve a family reason for not taking the job. They can then cancel the visa. You cannot work for another school legally on thet visa. There are many reasons why but lets just say you can't to make this shorter!!

Basically, all is not lost.

Good luck and I hope you make the right decision.

Amber.

Dear ESL teachers,

I have been offered a teaching job in China and I am almost done with my work visa. The problem is I've recently ran across this website and I've learned that the recruitment agency I will be working with is blacklisted :-( I found out that they don't pay their teachers on time, will give their teachers unpaid extra teaching hours and basically exploit the rights of their foreign teachers. Being a woman, and this will be my first time going out of country, alone and a thousand miles away from my country, I am scared that I will be experiencing these stuffs.

My problem now is, I have signed the contract they sent me through e- mail and have sent it back to the recruiter and now I am having second thoughts about the job. What am I going to do now? Is it OK not to show up in Changchun and work some place else in China using the work visa they provided me?My work visa will come out in a few days, is it safe to use it even though I will be in another school and and in a different province? Also, is that some kind of a breach of contract kinda thing? I am scared that They will ask me to pay for a $2000 breach fee if I don't show up anymore something like that and they will track me here in my country (is that possible?)

I am bound to leave the last week of November... What do you guys think of my case?