There's a lot of misinformation going on here. I've worked for Yuncheng English Village for two years, so to help set the record straight:
I know Helen, she's friendly, fair, and she and English Village do honour their contracts with teachers.

I'm from England, and I know many other foreign teachers who work at Yuncheng English Village schools: all from native English speaking countries, UK, US, Canada, Australia.

Getting visas for China is complicated and can be a long process, but if you work for English Village you will definitely get a Z Visa (work visa). And not all English teaching companies in China do this, that's for sure.

I'm from north of the border, and I met one of EV's FTs, who happened to work at the same school as me, also on an L for a good few weeks. He was from SA, his forename was Paul, he was white. At that time I worked for River's outfit. Subsequently, said teacher had to do a visa run, along with others employed by his and your agent, to get Z's from HK. I didn't have to do so to remain employed - as I chose to use my "longer-term" so-called spousal L to teach out the semester.

But I can say from memory that the neg stuff re EV was started on Dave's Cafe by one of EV's former teachers who felt lied to and mistreated, who posted on said board, but didn't name and shame EV specifically. So, his complaints could have been wrongfully attributed to River's outfit. One of River's foreign staff working in Yuncheng city did say to me that EV expects some of its Yuncheng FTs to drop everything to teach weekend classes at very short notice, just like training centre bad practice here. So, if I were interested in teaching for EV, I wouldn't do so in Yuncheng city, so as to avoid crap like that, and I'd only do so on an L, and no medical! But I'm happily retired!