[ExpatInfoDesk]

Posted by , 40 replies

So you want to work or teach in China eh? Finding a legitimate and “safe” job in China is not as easy as you may think. In 2014, over 1,500 expats were deported for working illegally but in accordance with what their job recruiters told them.

Why is this? The internet is full over over 120,000 “Teach In China” job ads every. Half of the jobs are real and half are not. If you don’t know how to tell the difference, keep reading expat teachers…

Most all prospective teacher applicants abroad, most do not even think about the reputation or legitimacy of their China employer or recruiter. They simply assume they must be legitimate if they have a beautiful web site and are advertising publicly. This can be a costly mistake. Consider the following: In China today there are now over 19,000 learning institutions, of which only 2,367 are authorized to hire foreigners. Over 1,000 of these are white-listed. While 90% of the schools in China are in fact honorable and legitimate, 90% of the China job agents and recruiters are not. It is important that you know the difference to ensure that your journey to the Middle Kingdom will be full of only good memories and a positive experience.

All of China’s public universities and public schools are all legitimate in that they are all properly licensed, BUT not all of them can hire foreigners for a variety of reasons. Most but not all of them have honorable administrations that treat their teaching staff with dignity, respect, and fairly. They account for 75% of the institutions on our current white list. International schools, or at least the ones that are foreign-owned are 98% legitimate with all the proper licensing. There are a handful in South China that are still not properly licensed to hire foreigners and we have reported them to SAFEA and the Ministry of Education.

First, If any school cannot provide a teacher applicant an invitation letter clearly stating that you will be coming to China to work under contract as a foreign teacher and specifically request a Z visa, they are 99% certain to be an illegal operation and should be avoided.

Secondly, If any school or recruiter cannot tell you their SAIC business license number, they are also an illegal operation not authorized to do business in China. If you are dealing with foreign based recruiters you should ask them for a scan of their local business license and Employer Identification Number (EIN) to check with the tax authorities to see if they are legally registered as a business. Corporate certificates alone do not prove a company is legitimate.

Next you need to help determine legitimacy by looking at their website to find a real street address, names of company officials, and email addresses linked to the domain name of the website. Any recruiters or “schools” using free disposable emails like hotmail, yahoo, sina, 126, yeah, 163, gmail, should be avoided. Now go to whois-dot-com and type in the domain of the website to see how old the operation is and who owns it. If the website is less than two years old be extremely cautious. If the website is less than a year old, be sure to get all the license scans above or else avoid them completely.

Try not to be fooled be fooled by any school telling you, or even showing you that they are on the SAFEA “white list”. There is no SAFEA white list. SAFEA does maintain a registry of all the schools in China that are authorized to hire foreigners, but it does not endorse these schools to be honorable or free of complaints, law suits, or other problems. This is where our blacklist kicks in. If the CFTU receives 3 or more complaints from teachers that go unresolved for more than 90 days, the school is blacklisted until all the complaints are addressed and resolved. Schools that fail to respond at all to our inquiries will remain on the list permanently as a warning to all teachers. Accountability is key.

If this sounds like a lot of work to you it is. and it is. The sly guys are counting on you to be too busy or lazy to check them out. This is why we have volunteers at the CFTU. Three people do this all day long and it is tedious work. So if you do not have the time to do this all yourself, you can just request a copy of our 2015 white and blacklists of China schools and recruiters by email to us. Remember, China is the land of endless fakes and every company needs a second and closer look, no matter how impressive the website and all those glorious testimonials may be

 

40 replies

Matthew Cyrus

Hello,

I enjoyed reading this article as I am a very new ESL teacher. I would also like to request a copy of your 2015 black & white lists please.
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Matthew

Hello,

I would like to request a copy of your white and black listed schools/recruiters please. Thank you.
00

Rose Fallore

Hi,
Pls give me a complete list of registered schools in Jining, Shandong Province.
Thank you very much!

Rose
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Cheryl McLauchlan

Hi

I would like to request a copy of your white and black listed schools/recruiters please.

Many thanks
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Dindi

Hello,

I would like to request copy of 2015 blacklist of schools and recruiters.

Thank you in advance,
Dindi
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Stephanie

Hello,

This article was very helpful! I would like to request a copy of your blacklist, please.

Thank you so much!
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Miky Viscardi

Hi can I request a copy of your black/white lists of schools and recruiters please?

Thanks
00

Nadine

PLease send me a copy of your verified lists. Thank you in advance
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Shya

I’d like the list please. Thank you!
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Ely

Hello! Very Informative! I am a recruiter and would like to take a look at the list, to avoid working with schools that are blacklisted. Thanks!
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Alex

Hello, i would like to request a copy of your black/white lists of schools and recruiters. Especially i am interested in Guangdong province and Haikou,Sanya cities. Thank you.
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Olga

Hi thank you for such an informative article. I was just thinking to apply for English teacher job in China, and I know it is hard to get official working visa these days. Would it be possible to obtain working visa for non Native speaker with experience of teaching English? Please can you send the black and white lists of schools on my email address, too
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Tee

Thank you for this article. I plan on apply to schools in China. Can you please send me the white and black list for 2017. Kind Regards Tesh
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Shawn

Can I please get a copy of these lists as well? Thank You.
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Suzanne

Thank you for this article. I’m in the process of looking for a teaching job in China and all I have come across are scams. Can I please get a copy of the lists (is there an updated one for 2017)? Really appreciate it!
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Andrew Jones

Please email me white list for baoding / hebai area
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Luke Parker

Hello,
Would it be possible to access the list? I am currently looking for jobs for 2018-2019.
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Karine

Hi, could you send me the list as well? Thanks you!
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Sydney
Hi, Could I also get a copy of this list? Thank you so much.
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Help me

hi I’m going off to teach for a school in china and I don’t feel confident that its a safe school
can one of the expats here help me look into it?
00

Help me
hi I’m going off to teach for a school in china and I don’t feel confident that its a safe school
can one of the expats here help me look into it?
00

Help me
hi I’m going off to teach for a school in china and I don’t feel confident that its a safe school
can one of the expats here help me look into it?
00

Help me

hi I’m going off to teach for a school in china and I don’t feel confident that its a safe school
can one of the expats here help me look into it?
00

Help me

hi I’m going off to teach for a school in china and I don’t feel confident that its a safe school
can one of the expats here help me look into it?
00

Monica B

I would like to request a copy of the most recent blacklist please. Thank you for your information!

 

Kurtis michael Gibbs

I know it’s a lot but… Me as well please?
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Ashley

Hi, can I get a SAFEA white list and black listed schools please! Planning to work in china next year!
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Marcos Ghaly González

Please I would like to have a copy of the black and white list schools in Shandong Province. Would be very appreciated!
Thanks
00

Kubeshnie

Hello,

I would like to request a copy of your white and black listed schools/recruiters please. Also please give me a list of registered schools in Wenling, Taizhou (Zhejiang Province).

Thank you very much!
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Bridge

How do i search the black list. It is very hard to go through all the pages each time i try to look up a school and it is not letting me download it.
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Lenna

Hello I know this post is old but I would like a copy of your 2015 black and white listed schools in China please. Thanks if not it’s okay thanks for reading
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Raine

I could I get a copy of the list as well. Thank you!!
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Denise Leja

Hello, i would like to request a copy of your black/white lists of schools and recruiters. I’m particularly interested in Beijing.
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Milandre
good day

please forward the current list to me.
my daughter got a job in China and now the school cancelled the contract with the agency and they are now arranging a new contract with a learning centre…..is this legal?

regards
Mali
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Nikki Shanell

Please send me a copy of your black/white list. Thank you
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Trovon Ankiah

hi I’m going off to teach for a school in china and I don’t feel confident that its a safe school
can one of the expats here help me look into it?
00

Trovon Ankiah

hi I’m going off to teach for a school in china and I don’t feel confident that its a safe school
can one of the expats here help me look into it?
00

Amanda

My daughter is being interviewed for a dance teacher post in Ningbo, China. Please can you tell me how to get hold of an updated blacklist?
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Zakia

In South China, Guiyang, Guizhou province international schools white list.I need it badly…
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Loukie

I would like a copy of the white and black lists please. Thank you so much.

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