We would be very grateful if any non-EU passport holders who have done the course with us, posted information here about their experience.
In particular, the following information would be appreciated:
- How long did the process of obtaining a work permit take you?
- What information and/or documentation were you required to provide?
- What kind of teaching work have you obtained?
- Did you receive any negative responses from schools you contacted because you were not an EU passport holder?
Thanks a lot
Dominic
4 comments:
Hi,
This is how to leave a comment. I just clicked on "comment" at the bottom of the post and completed the pop-up window which then appeared (if you have pop-up blocking activated in your browser, you'll have to allow it this once :-)
Thank you all in advance for helping us with this - it'll be really useful for many people!
I've been in Berlin for 15 months now and have mostly been teaching Business English and kids classes. I went in person to around 20 schools and emailed another couple dozen. Once I got my 2 letters of intent to employ it took me around 3 months to get my one year visa(some friends took up to 5 months), and it sounds like it wont be that hard to get a 3 year extention on that.
A really fantastic resource site for everything about moving to or living in Germany and/or Berlin is www.toytowngermany.com . Every question you could have is probably already asked and answered there several times throughout the message boards.
Hi everyone,
I`m from the US and came to Berlin in October of 2005. I started looking for jobs in November and applied for my residence/working permit in January. I got it two months later, in March, which is very, very fast compared to other people that I know. At the time I didn`t have a CELTA and so all my job offers were from programs that teach English in kindergartens, and one of my future bosses went and complained to the immigration office on behalf of the Americans she wanted to hire and that really sped things up. But, regardless if you`ve got someone willing to do that for you, you still need some documents:
1. copy of your high school or (preferably) university diploma and transcript
2. application, which you can get online at www.berlin.de under the Ausländeramt section
3. passport-size photos (I recommend having at least 4, as the Auslanderämt has a habit of losing documents)
4. copies of job offers from schools, the more the better
5. the schools should also guarantee that they will pay you so much per month, if possible
6. proof of health insurance in Germany
7. proof of a German bank account, and in order to do this you have to be registered at your local Bürgerämt
8. proof of financial support - either have someone from your home country (parents, etc) sign and send a notarized paper of financial support (1000 euro per month is a good basis for them to guarantee)
OR you have to show the immigration office a bank statement that proves you have a certain amount of money in your German bank account. In my case, it was 7500 for a one-year permit.
Make sure you have copies of all documents before you go because the people at the Ausländeramt often won`t tell you if you`re missing something and also sometimes lose documents.
I already had a work permit when I took the CELTA course, so I had no difficulty finding work with different language schools and also through the Arbeitsamt in Berlin after the course. However, from what I have seen, many language schools are more concerned that you have a CELTA than that you have a work permit. Of the three schools I have done work for, only one has asked to see my work permit. That doesn´t mean it`s not a risk to work while waiting for one, but some teachers still do it.
Finally (I know this is long, but it`s a complicated topic!), I have had only one negative response from a school because I was not an EU passport holder. They had a definite preference not only for EU passports but also for British English, which happens sometimes. As for general prospects for teachers, it`s easy to find some work in Berlin, but many have trouble finding enough to support themselves long-term. You have to teach a lot of hours to have a decent income, and when you`re starting, it´s hard to get enough hours. It gets better over time though,especially if your students give positive feedback to the schools, and a work permit and a CELTA are both a big help.
When I went to the work permit office the first time they thought I wanted a general work permit which they told me would take up to 8 weeks to get and may not be possible to get at all. When I told this to one of the schools interested in hiring me they got me in contact with another non-EU teacher and she gave me a copy of her work permit. I took this copy to the work office and it was smooth sailing from there. So I advise you to get a copy of the work permit of another non-EU teacher to make sure there is no confusion. After they knew what I wanted they asked me for:
-University Diploma
-Burgeramt address registration
-1 passport photo
-Any letters I had from schools offering me work
-Passport
-60 euros
...and then I had a work permit that day.
From what I can tell this process differs from state to state (I am in Niedersachsen) and sometimes it seems from government worker to government worker. Also, if your Deutsch ist sehr schlecht like mine is then get a friend who speaks German to go with you just in case.
As far as work goes, I got plenty of schools that said they want to work with me but some have a lot of work for their teachers and some offer almost none. My advice is to try to get work with at least 3 schools and you should have more than enough hours.
The kind of work I have gotten is exclusively Business English and 50% of what I have been doing so far is one on one teaching.
No schools turned me away because was non-EU and all were willing to give me a written offer of work for purposes of getting a permit. Thats about as much help as you can hope for, they aren't going to get the permit for you so you have to do all the legwork.
Good luck. --Tyler
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