Teaching English abroad Westhill Consulting & Employment

There are thousands of Americans teaching English abroad in dozens of countries around the globe like Bangkok in Thailand, Jakarta in Indonesia, KL in Malaysia or Beijing in China. What do 90% of them have in common? In addition to enjoying the international adventure of a lifetime, they are teaching English “under the table.” In other words they are not legally working in those countries with a work visa. This is commonplace, even routine, in dozens of countries around the world, but it is not technically legal.

The first matter is to understand that there are different types of visas that you will use to teach English abroad and that regulations vary from country to country. Please refer to our article, “What is a visa and do I need a visa to teach English abroad?” What does it mean to teach English abroad “under the table,” without a work visa?

Typically the following:  You don’t have official permission to work in that country.  You are officially working illegally.  You probably entered the country where you are teaching on a tourist visa (in many countries a tourist visa will enable you to stay legally in the country for 90 days) and in many cases, you will stay on and teach English on a tourist visa that has expired or lapsed (this will be the case in countries like Italy and Spain where tourist visas cannot typically be renewed). In such cases, you are not only working illegally, but you do not have a valid visa to legally be in that country either.

 In other cases, such as Argentina, you can renew your tourist visa or get a new one before your original visa expires (example day 85 of your 90 day visa), often by leaving and re-entering the country.  You will be paid cash “under the table.” (You and the company do not file taxes.)  You won’t sign a legal, binding contract.  You won’t receive benefits like national medical insurance.

Why don’t schools offer me a work visa in some countries?  The government in each country will maintain different policies regarding issuing work visas to foreign English teachers – some make it difficult or impossible; others make it a routine process. For political or economic reasons, many countries (including the U.S.) make it difficult for foreigners to live and work legally in that country. Many governments simply don’t have a policy of processing work visas for foreign English teachers, or they make it extremely difficult, expensive and/or time-consuming.

In other countries there is a clear process that foreign English teachers can follow to gain a work permit or a work visa. Example: Jakarta an ASEAN country offers work visas to Americans for teaching English, and while it can be time- consuming, the process is pretty straight forward. In Spain (another EU country) the government has not implemented a process by which foreign, non-EU English teachers can get a work visa unless they are employed directly through a government program. Yet, thousands of Americans and other foreigners teach English in Southeast Asia every year with no work visa without incident. Both are ASEAN nations but each maintains different policies and processes when it comes to visas for English teachers.

 Money and Time: In some countries like Argentina it may take 6 to 12 months to get a visa processed and the cost of processing a work visa may equal 3-6 months’ worth of wages. In addition the process may include an incredible amount of paperwork and bureaucracy. Argentinian schools just are not going to pay that type of money nor can they wait that long for a work visa when the teacher may be gone in 6 months anyway.

If a school had an easy and affordable way to help you get a work visa they would. In light of that, it’s common in high demand countries to just work under the table. For more information: