In applying for foreign ESL jobs, there is a chicken & egg problem.

When an ESL teacher looks for an area where there are jobs, he sends out applications.

But the schools will say they only consider an application if the applicant is already in the country.

But the applicant wants to know if there is a job BEFORE he spends the money to go to the new country.

Ideally he would be hired from abroad and have a job waiting or at least he could get a good idea of his chances and of the market

So which comes first the chicken or the egg: he will only go to the country if there is a job, or he can only apply for a job if he is in the country.

There must be some way to find out if it looks like a good bet the school will hire the applicant before he has to go to the time and expense going to the country

Does anybody know a way to work this problem out so both the school hiring manager and the applicant are satisfied -- a win-win situation?

Has anybody faced this problem and solved it?