Dragonized
- 2012-08-30
It is illegal to keep passports in ANY WAY WHATSOEVER, ANY. The passport technically belongs to the country that originally issued it to you, so if you have an American passport for example that is the property of the United States government.
My advice would be to always have a couple of thousand dollars saved up in a bank somewhere so you can leave whatever country you are working in as an ESL teacher at ANY TIME. You also need to keep the information of the consulate of whatever country you are from so you can report any illegal business activities which would violate any laws. In this case the Consulate may consider this to be theft on the part of the crooked business.
Whatever advice I can give you on an anonymous board cannot beat personal research and insistence on proper communication. For example when you are applying to a job you may request to speak with a Native Speaker (fellow expat that is) who is working there and you can get better information out of them than you would from the prospective employer. Use your instincts as they are often better than logic, remember you are dealing with folks from a developing world and a lot of the times what they say may sound good but their behavior once you get there you will find out may be the polar opposite.
englishgibson
- 2012-08-30
Jenna, foreign English teachers' employers usually are not the government, and so I do not see this happening. Passports belong to countries that issue them which means other countries aren't allowed to hold on the them. Chinese government would most likely only compromise itself if the teacher was under a sort of secretive contract with the government itself. Do not believe everything you here.
Cheers and beers
I'm currently applying to teach overseas and have applied to a few schools in Japan, Korea, and China. I have had a few offers but am really interested in a position for the government of Shenzhen in China, to teach english. My brother got wind of this (who is currently teaching in Japan) and was very adamant on me not even stepping foot into China, from horror stories form colleagues of his who have been to China. Mind you he even told me not to come to Japan because he himself isn't even enjoying it there. So I think he was being biased. Anyways back on topic.....
A girl he works with was telling him that when she went to China the Chinese government took her passport and kept it for a year, so she couldn't leave the country until her contract was over. Mind you I did ask my brother if it was the school that took her passport or the government. Now to me it sounds strange that the Chinese government would do that but I emailed the lady who offered me a job and she didn't really give me a straight answer. She said "Shenzhen government would not risk taking your passport, but if anything like that happened they would get it back"
Just wondering if this is true or not. Haven't found any forums where this has happened to people.
Any insight would be great
Also anyone teaching with the government of Shenzhen right now or teaching at schools located in Shenzhen are more than welcome to tell me about their experiences. Anything I can get would be great.
Jenna