I live in in Shanghai not too far from WISS. I see many expat kids in my compound wearing WISS uniforms. It is definitely not a school for Chinese passport holders. I think the HS principal has been there for many years and I know they run all three IB programs. The school is far from downtown Shanghai. I have not met any WISS Teachers so I cannot comment on their perception of the package or working conditions.

I'm in India teaching at an international school, and I have two small children. I've taken trains with them, including and overnight sleeper train and the trip to Shimla, only first class. No problems at all. I've booked the tickets using cleartrip.com. Otherwise, we fly. Great prices and I've only had one cancelled flight in two years. Wait until you get here and you can plan all your trips then.

To claim the exemption, you need to either meet the physical presence test or the bona fide residence test. Google these for a start.

If you are going to pay someone to prepare your taxes, make sure you do your research and choose wisely to pick someone who really understands the rules for US expats. I have friends overseas who are using Stateside tax preparers unfamiliar with the expat rules and I know they are being told the wrong information.

However, make sure to file every year, no matter where in the world you are.

I've had a valid MA teaching certificate since 1999. Except for my student teaching, I've never taught in MA. Every time it's up for renewal I have to certify that I'm not teaching in MA, then I send them $100 and it's renewed. However, my teacher training program was in MA and they helped me to get the initial certificate, so I'm not sure how it works if you're already overseas. Best of luck!

Thank you for all of your responses. I've been following this forum for quite awhile now and have come to my own opinion about replies that I find credible and replies that I always ignore. Honestly, I find it amazing how many good threads are hijacked by a reply full of complete and utter nonsense and outright lies. Walter, I find your responses always balanced and well-thought out. Thank you for taking the time to reply to many of the questions people pose here, including mine.

I've been watching this school for some time as it has had such a great reputation. I'm a HS teacher and noticed that in the past three years there have been three different principals. This doesn't seem like a positive thing. Can anyone at the school provide some insight? How is life in the HS?

For me, the value is that we will never have to change our address again as we plan to stay overseas for a long time. Plus, the US postal service only forwards for 6 months. In addition, I can decide where to forward my mail to - each piece can go to a different recipient if I choose. Not to mention that I don't have to rely on relative at home unless I choose to send them something. Even though I'm far from the US, I have a pdf file of each piece of mail that I receive and can choose to open it or not. If I open it, I also have a pdf file of the contents which is very handy for me. I like the flexibility and options that come with this plan.

I posted this to help other teachers who are considering their mail options. It's just that, one option. Maybe it's not for everyone, but for me, $240 a year is well-worth the convenience of not having to worry about my US mail ever again. Then again, I'm at a well-paying school where I can afford these sorts of things if I so desire.

Before we moved overseas, we set up an account with Virtual Post Mail. [url]http://www.virtualpostmail.com/[/url] I highly recommend them.

We had our mail from our last US address forwarded here and then changed all of our credit cards, banks, mortgage, etc to this address. No matter where we live in the world, we'll never have to change our address again (as long as this company is still in business.)

They scan the outside of each piece of mail and then send us an email. We can then decide to forward that mail to any address, trash it, or open the mail and scan the contents. For example, when I received a new credit card, I forwarded it to my sister and then I'll get it from her when I see her this summer. There's a monthly fee for the service, but I've found our plan to be quite reasonable, about $20. Well-worth it, IMHO. Also, it's not a PO Box, which is a plus.