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Q: How many foreign teachers do you guess are working legally in China today?
By legally I mean the following... a Z visa, a real diploma from a real university, and truly have 2 years previous teaching experience. In my circle of friends I'd say less than 60% really have all three qualifications. Many even bought fake TEFL certificates just to compete with other job applicants.
You have a lot of questions, Almost 
ironman510:
He's probably a post illegal worker learning to become an illegal worker, basically learn the in's first before the outs. He/She just uses our feedback as tips I bet.
SAFEA knows the A for sure. Dial their number, and ask them.
I'm sure you have proof for statement 'many even bought fake TEFL certs.....'
There are 300 million English students in China. How many Native English teachers could get employed in China?
What about ''all living 'any subject' teachers in USA'' could get job tomorrow in China.
'Demand&supply'!
I think most people bought TEFL certificates because the CFTU told them to. I remember reading their spokesperson said that a TEFL paper was worth it's weight in gold. Do you think the once-bold CFTU is trying to sell TEFLs to innocent teachers?
http://answers.echinacities.com/question/tefl-certificate-good-gold-china-foreign-teachers-union-cftu
Or is the CFTU just s total fabrication?
Hotwater:
So what's the going rate for a TEFL certificate?
"Worth it's weight in gold" - an A4 piece of paper (80gsm) weights marginally under 5g so at today's prices that's about 1200 kuai. Not much really when compared to a McDonald's teachers salary!
expatlife26:
The CFTU says we should pay more than $8000 in their article. Seems a bit much!
I think I answered this question before... I would say about a good 60-80% of foreign teachers are not "qualified" by the Chinese government standards of today.
Which are:
- Uni Degree
- TEFL/TESL certificate
- 2(or 5 in Beijing) years of relative working experience
They be doing criminal record checks as well. I am glad I am out of that racket. They ask for a lot and in return provide very little.
How do you collect your wumaos, Almost....cash or eft?
expatlife26:
I don't think this guy is a wumao i think he's a criminal. Somebody on another forum traced the CFTU scam methodology back to another scam called the China Trade Commission. Same shit, bunch of shady websites trying to give an organization with no real face credibility.
You can even find forum posts from this guy (complete with the CFTU trademark pinocchio!) defending the honor of the CTC!
iWolf:
It sounds more like a tiger-pit to catch people incriminating themselves or others...along the lines of the 100 Flower Campaign.
expatlife26:
i would think the same thing, but this guy can be traced back to a US fraud operation. At least with enough weight to cause suspicion.
If it was a tiger pit to catch expats wouldn't they be trying to earn trust? This guy doesn't try to engage with anyone on the forum, he just talks at us. If someone asks a question about his legitimacy he just accuses them of being a recruiter, then posts a link to a post where he says anyone who is against the CFTU must be a recruiter as proof. Then floods links to sites in his network. That's for search engine optimization. He doesn't try to fool us, he just wants a google search to look legit to someone that doesn't know any better. Just having a cursory response makes the argument about whether the CFTU is legit look two-sided to someone who doesn't know that it's completely impossible
The way I think the scam works is that he's got all these sites with blacklists and talking shit about certain schools and recruiters. He posts all these links so his sites come up a lot in search results. Then he can charge schools to stay off the blacklist, or to put their competitors ON the blacklist, or maybe he's a recruiter himself and wants to down the competition.
The one thing we know for sure is that he's a liar, so unless he says something rational for once to address these concerns I assume he's a scammer.
But why? I've only seen very few foreigners and my guess is not everyone is a teacher. I'm not a teacher unless you count spankings.
You're asking because you want to become an illegal, right? You must be young, let me guess early 20's maybe, same old story that you couldn't find a job back home, didn't finish school, your parents are terrible to live with or have given up on you, your last real relationship breakup was the 2nd main reason you left to come to China and so you thought becoming an illegal worker in China would save your life and future? Thats why you are asking all these questions? Nobody uses their time to ask junk like this unless they are trying to learn how to do something, and us older folks can read between the lines, you are just asking so you can learn.
So lets translate your question: You are asking how many illegal workers there are in China because you want to know how easy it'll be for you to blend in and join the club of illegal workers. And you have a plan to buy a fake degree & TEFL and by hinting to us and stating the fake degree junk is just another way that you're using to get more information out of us about how easy or difficult it'll be for you to use a fake TEFL or Degree in China and your question also shows how nerves you are about the 2 year law.
So I'll answer your real question: Will you get caught for using something fake? Well who knows, it's a leap of faith. But it sounds like you've got nothing to lose by trying Mr/Ms Almost. So go ahead, and good luck.
laowaigentleman:
It's piss easy unfortunately. I have a real degree and a real TEFL as well as two years' teaching experience, but I've worked with complete sycophants who'll kiss a boss's arse. Needless to say these plonkers have been a lot more successful than me because most Chinese employers either can't tell the difference or are just stoked to have an uneducated laowai at their beck and call who owes them everything. Old Chinese love having a white monkey on a string.
You get a lot of weirdos on echina cities. Unless you re a teacher why would you ask this? This sounds like the other asshole who puts down esl teachers, who as it turns out used to be one. Suspect it is the case with almost.
Don't let the trolls annoy you.
ironman510:
I thought this could have been that last member Grumpy that got kicked off, he/she posted similar stuff.
This can be answered by another question:
How many school in China have a alien employment license?
The answer: Not sure exactly, but it's estimated around 40% of every schools employing foreigners in China.
There you have your answer of what percentage of FT are working legally in China
AEL are expensive, their number is limited and they require a lot of paperwork as well as good relations with local authorities to be granted, most schools don't bother with it and tell teachers that "working on F/L visa is fine, we have good guanxi" and other BS.
icnif77:
My Uni is one of them. Loads of FTs, working here with F. That thing must be going on for years, because it's an old Henan Uni, but they just recently applied for Gov.'s registration.
I came few days ago with valid RP, but I'm most likely looking at new Z application, what depends on guanxi Uni has.
JacobJohn:
Eorthio, you're a German, aren't you? No wonder you bring in this effective comments. Yeah, you can find these illegal people by employers who don't have the right to even employ and there are plenty of illegal employees to take the risk, because they need to make some money.
BTW, I have been asked to come over to China including by American employers, once I had the interview on a video conference on skype, but on a tourist visa, then get legal in China land. I asked "do you offer a legal working Visa?" and I was told that the school will see to it. Like this agency, sooooo many asked me the same. First question would be: where are you now? Then you know why they ask it so I learned to first ask: "Are you entitled to give a working Visa?" I was surprised to see that most of the agents would ask me to first go to China on a tourist Visa. That made me to reject so many offers. Schools and agents alike, too many are not even allowed to employ. However, they make it and they make so much money off illegal workers.
Kaiwen:
I reckon the "Alien Employment License" is the green sheet of paper that is issued by the Labor Supervision Bureau that is taken with the invitation letter to obtain a 'z' visa at the consulate. So my guess is no school has such a thing.
