Work Rules For English Teachers

[funkymonkey]

@pagodden

When I came to Taiwan last year and studied at Shi-Da in Taipei, I was visited by the local representative of the Foreign Affairs Police near where I was living in Yonghe (he came to my flat). To cut a long story short, he confirmed that as a student on a visitor visa I was entitled to work for up to 15 hours per week on that visitor visa without applying for any working visa, and that was how the law stood.

This is completely incorrect. Please remember, many of these government workers know less about the law than you or I. Please see below:

[quote]Foreign students who have studied in school for two semesters or a language course for one year, with an excellent scholastic record, can work in Taiwan when one of the following circumstances applies:

A. Events of a serious nature have affected their financial ability to support themselves or continue their education, and the student can provide evidence of such circumstances.
B. An academic research institution at the student’s school requires a foreign student to provide assistance in its work.
C. The student needs to take part in an off-campus internship related to his or her field of study.
For foreign students with proficiency in a special language, the Ministry of Education may, on a case-by-case basis, give its approval for such students, following their enrollment, to take employment as instructors at language institutes affiliated with universities, colleges, or junior colleges, or at language institutes affiliated with foreign cultural and educational organizations in Taiwan.

Application for a work permit

Foreign students who want to work in Taiwan must hold a valid work permit.

With the exception of summer and winter vacations, students with work permit may work a maximum of 16 hours per week while the work permit is valid. The maximum duration of a work permit for foreign students, overseas Chinese students, and ethnic Chinese students is 6 months. A new work permit shall be applied after expiration. A work permit is good until the 30th of March of following semester if students apply in fall semester, or it is good until the 30th of September of the year if students apply in spring semester.

Students can apply for work permits to the Council of Labor Affairs, or each school

[kevinkewley]

Quote:
Q48: Why is there restriction on minimum salaries for hiring foreign workers in professional and technical positions?

A48: The Government is to protect our nationals’ employment opportunities and prevent against employers from hiring foreign blue collars workers in the name of white collars (specialized, or technical workers) Therefore, according to the law , employers are required to pay foreign white collar workers with minimum salaries at the least. According to paragraph 8 of “Qualifications and Reviewing Criteria for Foreigners Employed to Work under Section 1 to Section 6, Sub-Paragraph 1, Article 46 of Employment Service Act”, foreign workers who are employed in specialized and technical positions are not allowed to be paid below do average salaries. as published in the latest the monthly issue of Average Pays & Salaries for Industry and Service Business Professionals. The salary standard is the monthly average for domestic professionals (which amounts to 47,971 dollars currently), In other words, if employers hire foreign workers, their salaries should be paid according to the above standard.

would i be right in saying that no matter what you earn, as a foreign worker you have to pay a minimum amount of tax equal to 6% OF 48,000 per month, and as long as you pay this minimum amount your work visa will not be affected?

[jessccw]

ML McLean, so it seems like we CAN get multiple work permits on our ARC as you’ve posted above. Is it a really complicated process though? How hard is it? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

[shilobanderas]

Seeking a bit of clarification on the kindergarten teaching. As a manager of a buxhiban alongside an ajoining licensed preschool (same owner) we have been visited by social services many times with no problem. My understanding is this:
Social services regulate preschools where nothing can be taught (not even Chinese), but students are allowed to remain for more hours. You can have a kitchen, school bus etc. Social services have no jurisdiction over buxhibans and have never been allowed in our neighboring door.

The Education Dept. regulates and visits buxhibans. Buxhibans cannot have kitchens or school buses (thus the reason many apply for preschool licenses) but can employ teachers to teach students aged 0-99. The education department will check ARCs of teachers to make sure they are legal to work at that physical address.

Kindergartens are rare. They require huge amounts of space and can only have older kids (i.e. just before 1st grade). These mostly exist at Elementary schools

These are the rules as I understand them. I’d appreciate anyone taking time to verify or shoot down any of this. As I said we’ve been “visited” many times by the social services department regarding or preschool. Our teachers have no problem moving to the buxhiban portion.

Cheers

[cipos]

As I understand the law, foreign teachers cannot teach children under the age of 7. Therefore, whether or not it’s a bushiban or a kindergarten is irrelevant.
This means Happy Marian, Kid’s castle, and the various other schools are illegal.

There is also some proof of this. Recently, a school (Kid’s castle) was raided in Shilin. The teacher was deported for teaching children who were 5 year’s old. He shouldn’t have been teaching preschool children. So, it’s not only a matter of law; it’s also enforceable by the police.

[asiaguy888]

A friend of a friend from the US is asking if the BA Degree she earned ‘on-line’ is enough to qualify her to teach English in Taiwan. Does anyone know? Is there a list of “accredited” schools that are acceptable in Taiwan?

[brian]

@kevinkewley

would i be right in saying that no matter what you earn, as a foreign worker you have to pay a minimum amount of tax equal to 6% OF 48,000 per month, and as long as you pay this minimum amount your work visa will not be affected?

Pretty much yes. Should the tax office believe that you were under-declaring your income or not declaring any income at all then they would come up with an income figure that they feel was appropriate and tax you according to this. The minimum requirement of salaries for foreigners in other professions here would likely act as a guide for them in this regard such that even if you were really earning less than this you would still be taxed on this amount or more unless you could prove another source of untaxable income.

@jessccw

ML McLean, so it seems like we CAN get multiple work permits on our ARC as you’ve posted above. Is it a really complicated process though? How hard is it? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

Theoretically it is very easy. Your second employer merely needs to apply for a new work permit for you and once obtained you take this to the FAP and have that second employer added to your ARC.

[quote=“shilobanderas”] Social services regulate preschools where nothing can be taught (not even Chinese), but students are allowed to remain for more hours. You can have a kitchen, school bus etc. Social services have no jurisdiction over buxhibans and have never been allowed in our neighboring door.

The Education Dept. regulates and visits buxhibans. Buxhibans cannot have kitchens or school buses (thus the reason many apply for preschool licenses) but can employ teachers to teach students aged 0-99. The education department will check ARCs of teachers to make sure they are legal to work at that physical address.

Kindergartens are rare. They require huge amounts of space and can only have older kids (i.e. just before 1st grade). These mostly exist at Elementary schools [/quote]

My understanding of the situation is that preschools, nursery schools and kindergartens are controlled by different legislation than cram schools (buxibans). As such they are administered by a different department and have to play by different rules.

In your case however I think that you will find that you are operating outside of the law if:

a) you are offering classes in an English immersion environment to children who are not yet school aged;
b) you employ foreign teachers to teach these classes;
c) you offer more than the minimum amount of English classes per week;
d) you teach any subject other than English, in English

[quote=“cipos”] As I understand the law, foreign teachers cannot teach children under the age of 7. Therefore, whether or not it’s a buxiban or a kindergarten is irrelevant.
This means Happy Marian, Kid’s castle, and the various other schools are illegal. [/quote]

Pretty much but not exactly.

Whether a school is registered as a buxiban or a kindergarten is relevant as each is administered differently and has to follow different regulations. Most of the pre-schools that we see operating so openly are actually registered as buxibans which is illegal and something the authorities regularly crack down on.

The schools that you mention are not illegal per se, it is just that they often register themselves dishonestly and then run programs outside of the bounds of their registration.

@asiaguy888

A friend of a friend from the US is asking if the BA Degree she earned ‘on-line’ is enough to qualify her to teach English in Taiwan. Does anyone know? Is there a list of “accredited” schools that are acceptable in Taiwan?

Generally speaking the government does not prefer online degrees and therefore your friend may find that she cannot get a work permit based upon that qualification.

There is a list of accredited institutions that the government refers to. You can petition for a school to be added if you find that your legitimate school is not currently listed, but you will need your school to help you in this endeavor as paperwork from them is required.

[fenlander]

you shouldn’t think about working illegally at all BUT ESPECIALLY AROUND ELECTION TIME !

[Bu_Lai_En]

As I understand the law, foreign teachers cannot teach children under the age of 7. Therefore, whether or not it’s a buxiban or a kindergarten is irrelevant.

I’d be interested to hear if you or someone else have a source for this. Although the MOE claim this, I have yet to see any law which states it.

Brian

[Dottie]

@Bu Lai En

[quote]As I understand the law, foreign teachers cannot teach children under the age of 7. Therefore, whether or not it’s a buxiban or a kindergarten is irrelevant.

I’d be interested to hear if you or someone else have a source for this. Although the MOE claim this, I have yet to see any law which states it.

Brian[/quote]It’s still being discussed AFAIK. Currently, it seems to be OK for foreign teachers to teach English to kids of 5 or 6 years old as long as it’s in a correctly licensed buxiban (not all licensed buxibans qualify for this, but if they don’t have the correct license they can apply to upgrade their existing license), and for not more than ten hours a week.

When and if the new regulations come into force, it may be on a county by county basis. Taipei City seems to be particularly keen on “cracking down” on this, but other counties and cities may well follow suit.

If anyone wants to get a definite answer on this as regards their own personal situation, they should contact their local department of education.

[ludahai]

Question:
I don’t need a work permit due to my visa and I am familiar with some of the new rules regarding teaching young children. Does that also include home tutoring? There are a couple of neighbors who want me to tutor their children (they are 4 and 5 years old.) Is this legal?

Thanks.

[ychlin]

My suggestion shows as follow
Please call at 0800 024111. This is a 24-7 toll-free hotline which helps foreigners in Taiwan to solve all kinds of problems that might be happened here.
Even they can’t help you or answer the questions immediately, they will ask you to leave your number and call u back within 3 days. Because they have unlimited resources to solve the problems for foreigners in Taiwan.They also provide the information about VISA renew, residence permit, work, education, healthcare, tax and others involved with the life of foreigners in Taiwan.

Instructions for information search
The information is classified into two categories: the specific information for different groups of foreigners and the information for the public. Click on the icon for the information you are searching for.
Go into the FAQ section and search for the particular information.
Send an e-mail to the relevant government agencies to request for other information.
Call the Service Hotline (0800-024-111) to get direct service.

[Dragonbones]

@Dottie

Currently, it seems to be OK for foreign teachers to teach English to kids of 5 or 6 years old as long as it’s in a correctly licensed buxiban (not all licensed buxibans qualify for this, but if they don’t have the correct license they can apply to upgrade their existing license), and for not more than ten hours a week.

For a bit more on this read here.

[Nibble]

I’m a little confused about the fact that the terms “Bachelor’s degree” and “four-year degree” seem to be used interchangeably when listing the requirements to obtain a work permit. At my university, at least, it is possible to get a three-year BA, a four-year BA, or a four-year honours BA (requires high grades and a thesis). All say BA on the diploma, but the requirements are different. I was told by someone representing a local university’s IMBA program that he’s “pretty sure” I could take the IMBA with any legitimate diploma that says “BA” on it, regardless of how many credit hours I completed.

Does that apply for work permits as well? I’m just finishing the last term of my third year, and I need to make a decision.

[NickinTaiwan]

Wait, so Hess, which says right on their website that it is legal to teach for them, is lying? Because they hire foreigners to work with Children in Kindy schools age 3-6. Am I really taking a risk? I remember hearing that foreign teachers couldn’t teach in kindergartens, and that’s all good an well, but what about Happymarian and Hess who hire foreigners to do this and are in fact famous for it?

I’m going to need a little clarification.

Furthermore, if you’re married to a Taiwanese and have the RFPV or RPFV or RFBP or whatever that thing is… does that change anything?

[steelersman]

Furthermore, if you’re married to a Taiwanese and have the RFPV or RPFV or RFBP or whatever that thing is… does that change anything?

As far as I know a kindergarten teaching three or four year olds would still get fined even if a foreigner has a visa from marriage.

At my previous school even the married teacher hid when there was a police raid.

I am not sure if it is true but I heard that it is also illegal for Taiwanese to work in a kindergarten if they don’t have the proper certificate.

[Buttercup]

[quote=“steelersman”]

I am not sure if it is true but I heard that it is also illegal for Taiwanese to work in a kindergarten if they don’t have the proper certificate.[/quote]

Yup, you’re supposed to be qualified, and not teaching preschoolers in a foreign language all day.

Hess are illegal, but they presumably have a deal going, because they advertise that they have foreign teachers on the side of buses. You are very unlikely to get busted at Hess.

[Bu_Lai_En]

@steelersman

[quote]Furthermore, if you’re married to a Taiwanese and have the RFPV or RPFV or RFBP or whatever that thing is… does that change anything?

As far as I know a kindergarten teaching three or four year olds would still get fined even if a foreigner has a visa from marriage.

At my previous school even the married teacher hid when there was a police raid.

I am not sure if it is true but I heard that it is also illegal for Taiwanese to work in a kindergarten if they don’t have the proper certificate.[/quote]

Be careful about hearsay. That’s quite incorrect.

It is NOT illegal for foreigners to teach English to children under 6. The MOE forbids kindergartens to have fulltime English instruction, and they won’t give work permits to foreigners to teach kindergarten, but that doesn’t make it illegal.

A foreign spouse will certainly not be fined for teaching kindergarten. At the very worst, the school might be fined (for hiring an unregistered/unqualified teacher), but not the teacher. In fact I’ve had a kindergarten principal contact the labour affairs council and be informed quite clearly that there’s nothing illegal about hiring a JFRV foreigner. The MOE still mightn’t like it, but what they’d do is when making their school inspection, they add that to their report of things that need to be ‘fixed’. Also I’ve had police come into kindergarten when I was teaching. When I showed them my JFRV ARC, they told me ‘that’s OK’.

It’s a bit of a grey area, but it’s not illegal. You won’t get fined at least.

On theother hand for a non-JFRV garden-variety foreigner, getting a work permit to teach buxiban, and then being put to work int he kindergarten IS illegal.

Brian

[Buttercup]

‘Garden variety’?

[jimipresley]

@Nibble

I’m a little confused about the fact that the terms “Bachelor’s degree” and “four-year degree” seem to be used interchangeably when listing the requirements to obtain a work permit.

I spent 4 years getting my three-year degree. Does that qualify it as a four-year degree?