Given the fast growth of English Centers all over Vietnam, you can hear different information about the requirements of working here legally from different centers. Unfortunately, a lot of centers does not meet the legal requirements for employing Foreign Teachers, mainly to avoid paying the required taxes involved.

Fisher’s SuperKids is an established reputable center in Danang who meets all the legal requirements of employing Foreign Teachers. We highly respect our moral duty towards our community and Vietnam as a whole by consistently having an open and honest channel of communication with the Immigration office, the Labor Agency and the Department of Education. All our Teachers meets the legal requirements regarding their documentation, qualifications, visas, residential paperwork, medical checks and Criminal Background Checks.

According to the Vietnamese Immigration Law, the requirements for a Foreign Teacher to be employed at any English center for longer are:

–       An internationally recognized TEFL/ TESOL/ CELTA certificate (original document)

–       A health check from an approved hospital (this is very easy and cheap to have done in Vietnam)

–       A University degree (original document)

–       An academic transcript (original document)

The center should not keep your original documentation with them.

If you have all these documentation, it’s the responsibility of the English Center/ School to get you a Work Permit.

A good English center/ School can help you in getting the following documentation (however the teacher are required to pay for these) :

-A Medical Check,

-A form from your landlord, stamped by the police, giving you permission to reside in Vietnam,

-a Vietnamese Criminal Background Check

After you have all the valid documentation the nexts steps would be to get Affidavits & Legalization for your University Degree & TEFL/ TESOL/ CELTA Certificate.

-Affidavit Stamp: This is a stamp given by your country’s Embassy on your documentation which means that your country acknowledges that your documentation is legal in your own country.

-Legalization Stamp: This is a stamp given by the Vietnamese Local Authorities on your documentation which means that your documentation is acknowledged legally for use in Vietnam.

Usually, the school will help you with this process. Usually this means signing a minimum contract of one year. The more reputable schools and language centers will often cover the cost of your work permit.

Many schools/ centers might promise you a Work Permit, but after months of waiting you may be surprised that they didn’t come through. There are well known schools/ centers who employs Foreign Teachers although they don’t meet all the requirements of the law. They either pay money under the table or don’t report their Foreign Teachers to the Labor Agency. This is dangerous, because if the police finds out about this the school and the Teachers will get fined.

AVOID SCHOOLS/ CENTERS WHO:

-Asks you to start working for them without signing a contract first.

-Seems hesitant/ unsure when you ask for a Work Permit.

-Asks you to pay extra money for you documentation which was not agreed upon in the contract.

-Promise you a Work Permit but don’t ask for all the necessary documentation from you.

-Tell you things like “The process is delayed from the Vietnamese office”, “It’s not necessary for you to have a Work Permit”, “You can only have a Business Visa, no Work Permit is required.”

-Keeps your passport for longer than 2 weeks.

-Asks to keep your passport & original documentation in their office.

-Tells you that because you only work there part-time (less than 40 hours a week) you don’t need a Work Permit - any Foreigner who works constantly for a company for more than 3 months needs a Work Permit issued by their company.