Hi just wondering if the reimbursement is different for each school/county or if it’s the same for every school?
I got offered a contract for a public school but the contract says it reimburses up to 20,000 ntd each way. I checked online but tickets don’t sell for that cheap. Is this normal?
The national government has their FET program and I believe that is 40,000 each way and includes a spouse or kid.
Counties/cities can have their own programs which can offer different things. New Taipei City is 40,000 each way and only for yourself.
Got it so 20,000 is definitely below the normal.
I wonder why they would offer such a low figure?
Is he eligible for the FET program?
I was under the impression that this was a fet program since it’s at public school in Taichung. Do you think it was an error in the contract?
Do teachers get paid to travel here to work?
They’ll claim it’s an error. The FET program pays 40,000NT each way for the FET and one lineal relative or spouse each year. If your contract says otherwise, it’s because someone is lining their pockets with your flight money.
While I’m at it: the starting salary for a licensed teacher with no teaching experience while licensed is ~62k/mo and goes up ~1,400/mo for each subsequent year. If you’re being offered less than that, it’s because someone is lining their pockets with the difference. I say this because I’ve seen FET contracts for some public schools offering ~52k/mo and asked the local government, who insisted that was not the case
For state or country certified teachers from native English speaking countries, there is a flight reimbursement incentive offered by the government. At cram schools, they rarely offer this (I’ve actually never heard of a cram school offering it)
You may find a sample contract in this site.
Luckily I have a masters with 1 semester of teaching experience and am being offered the standard rate. Well they said there will be second final contract later once I approve the contract and instead attached the chart. I don’t exactly understand the chart. For 1 semester of experience, would I be at the level 1 or level 2 rate? 69965 or 71495?
I think they base it on one full year of teaching in a state/public school or private day school. Internships, tutoring and student teaching do not count. I’m not sure where your situation falls. It’s possible you can get a raise half way through the year, but that would be something I’d ask them for clarification on.
Yeah it’s confusing. I worked for a title 1 company but i was a full time teacher at a private school (inner city and part of the school district) in Wisconsin. I’ll just ask the recruiter when I get a chance.
Thanks for all the help everyone! I really appreciate it.
I work for a public school and I have NTD 80000 round trip.
It is based on one full year, half a semester does not count. You will get pay rise NTD 1500 after one year of teaching.
Will they factor my semester into that? Like raise my salary after 6 months in taiwan?
It’s definitely an issue with the contract then I’m glad I read it so closely
I doubt they will take it into account. I had similar story and they said no.
Wow that is unfortunate
I complained about it and got sent a new contract for a high school in Taipei which is much better. Id prefer being in Taipei since my girlfriend lives there anyway. This contract is loads better. 80,000 round trip and they even included an attendance bonus. Im pretty happy about it, but not sure when I’ll actually be able to get back into the country 
Based on TFETP’s guidelines. It’s not intended as a free ticket home for the summer (for longer term residents, who often feel “screwed” out of a free flight) but as reimbursement for coming to Taiwan to teach. I’ve seen no different or better offers:
The program offers reimbursements every school year of one’s economy class airfare of coming and leaving Taiwan (one time for each). The reimbursements are on an actual expense basis and are capped at NT$40,000/one-way. Only flights departing from or arriving at the nearest airport to the place of residence indicated on one’s passport can be reimbursed. One accompanying lineal blood relative is provided with reimbursements every school year of economy class airfare, on an actual expense basis and capped at NT$80,000 for round-trip and NT$40,000 for one-way.