Teaching ESL is a profession requiring special skills. Hiring a foreign teacher is a situation requiring special approval in China. Chinese government has various policies and regulations on this matter. The requirements on Chinese employers are more complicated and are addressed separately for potential ESL teacher employers. The focus here is the requirements on foreign English teachers.
For a non-Chinese person to get work visa in China, the person must be qualified to be a "Foreign Expert". Don't get scared by the title - it is fairly easy to be a foreign expert as far as ESL teaching is concerned. According to Chinese Foreign Expert Bureau, the Chinese authority that controls the issue of Foreign Expert Certificate, the criteria to issue a Foreign Expert Certificate for education purpose is:
- Minimum University education (Bachelor degree)
- Minimum two years of working experience
The above is the minimum requirement to get Chinese government permission to work in China as an English teacher. As to individual employers (e.g. schools), there might be additional requirements, for example:
- Certain years of teaching experience
- Born in certain countries
- Possessing certain professional certificates
However, one shall not be discouraged by the additional requirements, because there are many schools looking for native English speaker teachers, you most likely can find employers who need you.
