Thanks. I'm already in the country with my husband's current job, so we shouldn't even need need to do the health check again. My main fear was rejection from the insurance, or such a high premium for the school that they would consider that means for rejection. You all have helped put my mind at ease!

My husband and I have been sent contracts to sign with a (seemingly) great school in China. One of the statements that we must sign is that we are in good health. I am, but....I've had two different cancers twice in the last three years. My doctors would all agree that I was unlucky, that it was random, and now I'm in great health. I don't feel the need to disclose this information, as I feel great. However, I am worried about how this will affect us getting insurance through the school, as the school says we must be covered under their policy with Aetna International Insurance.

I hold my own private Aetna International Insurance, and I will not be giving this up, as I've had my policy since before cancer, so they cover all of my treatments. But since the school's insurance is also Aetna, it's not like Aetna won't know my history. The school also insists, when I casually brought it up, that they cannot just pay for my own private insurance, but that we must be covered through them.

My fear is that I might have insurance trouble once the school attempts to secure insurance for us, and whether or not that could affect our employment with them.

Any advice?

Thanks for the replies, everyone. Your replies have really solidified in my mind the decision that we should be going through a recruiting agency (I'm leaning towards Search). We will try our best to get an invite to a fair.

And just as a follow up, we are interested in being hired in one of the cities in this area in southern China, not necessarily just this one city.

My wife and I have lived in one city in southern China for seven years. I've taught English and basketball classes for years, but I don't have experience in a K-12 classroom. We are both almost finished with our teaching certificate from New Hampshire. We would love to remain in our current city, as we love the lifestyle here. I am about to transfer out of the city to another city in China for my current job, and my wife and kids will follow a few months later. My goal is to find a job at one of the many schools in our current city and come back as an overseas hire. However, my question is, to be considered an overseas hire instead of local hire, is it necessary to be living in a different country instead of city? I will be in a city in a completely different area of China, and I'm considering signing up with Search and going to a job fair. I just hate to have these expectations and then still be hired as local hire because I'm in country (even though it's a quite large country). Thanks for your opinions!