Despite having been at five international schools in five different countries over my career, I thankfully could not personally contribute any real examples of abuse, which is not to say that they don't occur. What is obvious to anyone who has been teaching overseas for a while is that there are different (perhaps unspoken) tiers of international schools.
The not for profit schools which have mostly been around awhile, which have connections with various embassies, operate for the same honorable purposes as the majority of schools in our home countries, where ever they might be. If a person sticks with these schools (far more competitive, admittedly), while happiness is not guaranteed, one will not be treated like the horror stories that come out of mostly proprietary schools. While Search and ISS initially set out to serve schools like the nonprofit, honorable institutions, what has become very clear - especially through sites such as this one - is that as new schools crop up, these recruiting agencies are not doing enough to make sure that the TEACHERS they help place there are treated justly. (Note: obviously just because a school is new does not make it automatically bad - it seems to me that the clearest red flag is whether the school is a for profit concern.)
An article that addresses this difference, that clarifies what many experienced people know and assume others know, would serve the novices and newcomers well. Name and list the schools that are NOT complained about at sites such as this - the reason is most likely that they function well. Name and list the schools that have repeated problems - it's up to teachers to speak up and help each other out and to insist that recruiting agencies do their jobs in investigating charges and dropping schools that have records of abuse. I hope you get lots of honest input and start something that could save teachers from the problems that others have unfortunately had.

Terrific for you, Missy, if you are happy and feel well compensated - the point of a forum is to get different opinions. No need to denigrate others' input, however. In fact, statistics DO prove the cost of living to be going up rapidly in the Middle East. Stories of people ousted from their homes so landlords can boost rent aren't fairy tales - they happen, to real people. Ask the staff workers - the maintenance workers, food service people, security and support staff - how the cost of living increases have affected them. Cost of food is high - our family of four easily and regularly spends over $200 per week on food, not on going out to eat. I don't know how the third country workers make it, much less send money home, which is why they came in the first place. The cost of our villa to the school has gone up by almost one third in one year - and they were expensive to begin with. So if people aren't given housing, they need to be warned not to come - plain and simple.

The cost of living in Dubai and Emirates seems to be based on what locals and high paid executives of foreign countries are willing to pay - a bit out of reach for teachers. You can live on salary stated, esp. with housing included (actual housing - not an allowance), but joining clubs would be pricey. Still, we know many couples who do belong to hotels with beach and pool access (most did previously at lower costs and are grandfathered in - too bad for newcomers). In terms of travel opportunities, while Dubai has flights just about everywhere, they aren't cheap either. Check them out online - you might be shocked.
Most schools in the area simply haven't kept up with the cost of living in terms of teacher pay- they may raise their salaries annually, but perhaps haven'e changed items like settling in allowance or COLA benefits for years. While most foreign professionals from the US or Europe go to the ME for double or triple what they got paid at home, in addition to tax and housing benefits, teachers often get the same or less pay than they would in their home countries.

You don't say what kind of specialist, anlily, but you might be able to get an offer without going to a fair - at this time of year, if schools are still in need of a specialist, they will need to get someone hired - perhaps via phone call or video conference. (Most would rather NOT go to a fair during their limited time off in the summer.) You can check openings out through tieonline or joyjobs and contact schools directly. If you are looking for some rather limited openings, don't sit back and wait for a fair - although it is a good fallback option, and by summer fair time- if a school has an opening and you match it - chances are great. You do mention medical difficulties - that will limit your options to openings in countries which both have openings AND which can meet your needs.

If you were truly deceived by the school, then perhaps you won't feel too guilty about deceiving them back. In short, it would make your future with Search and overseas schools far easier if you had a family emergency that prevented you from honoring the contract. I've been at schools in dicey places where people never showed up due to "emergencies." The suspicion was it was really a form of buyer's remorse, and our head - knowing the place was not for the meek or indecisive - let them go without prejudice. Can you live with that?
The other thing you might want to examine is your own motives - are you second guessing your decision more than anything? You might be cheating yourself out of some wonderful experiences. When my husband flew into Jeddah, Saudi Arabia years ago if he could've stayed on the plane and gone back to New York, he would've. He hated the lack of greenery (at that time) and the monotone colors of all the buildings - couldn't imagine he'd EVER like it. We spent four wonderful years there and would've stayed longer if the school went beyond gr. 9.

When applying for visas in another country, one has to submit to their requirements. The medical tests required in Qatar are a blood test and an xray - to make sure you don't have AIDS or TB - it's done at a medical center expressly for that purpose and costs the equivalent of about $30. It has to be done in country so that they trust the test - many workers come from countries where corruption is rampant, so this precaution is reasonable. The exam you get prior to arrival is most likely for insurance coverage for your employer - again, standard fare. Similar tests have been required of us in other countries as well. So, far less intrusive than it sounds.

You do have a right to expect promised services, mexteacher. We have gone through Search twice and never met the representative assigned us, never even had correspondence from her the second time. In fact, the second time we registered with Search - they insisted we had not been with them previously. We couldn't remember the name of our representative as she had so little to do with us, and when Sally Gordon put our name out to the representatives, none could remember us. At that point she was sure we were confusing ISS with Search, until I gave specific details about the fair we had attended and the job we had taken. Ultimately I located the name of our rep., who we were promptly reassigned to - even though she had no memory of us and was once again not attending the fair we wished to go to.
We used Search simply to access the recruiting fair we wanted and gave up on expecting anything other than that and their database. Hardly the personal service they boast of. The second time we used them, our hotel room which was not only booked but paid for had been given away and we were sent to another hotel - this at midnight after sitting on a plane frozen shut on the tarmac for over an hour as they struggled to let us out. Hmmm; Boston weather in February, lack of service, poorly organized - shame on us for going back. Never again.

The ISS fair in Bangkok has a distinct advantage of being early; however, it no longer has the advantage of being small and intimate. Our school head went last year when there were 250 applicants - I believe he said this year there were over 400. (Number of schools recruiting increasing also.) Several singles at our school who are moving on got attractive offers there and our head hired singles as well, so it wasn't all couples being hired. It's a good fair if you already live in Asia and want to stay there.
I cannot help but note the irony in the ISS and Search groups hosting fairs for people looking for jobs and holding them at such expensive hotels, but of course the school heads' rooms are paid. Obviously these services primarily serve the heads, not the teachers. At Iowa you can stay at any area hotel and the fair takes place at a convention center - it seems much more teacher focused while still keeping administrators happy.
For newcomers, registration at ISS and a fair is at least $600, then there is the five star hotel fee (you can try to stay elsewhere - but it's not worth it - you need to be on site to make all your appointments and have conversations with people during the off time). The Shangri-la is about $150 per night. Eating there is super expensive, but you can walk out onto the street and be adventurous and get good, cheap street food. Airfare to Bangkok depends upon where you're coming from.
Iowa charges around $100-150 for photocopying and mailing services, that's it. You can find rooms for anywhere from $40-$140, depending upon how close you want to be. Airfare to Waterloo probably isn't cheap - we go into Minneapolis as we're from there and can bum a car and visit people at same time.
Search operates more like an employment agency, with a fee once the job is obtained - at least that's the way it was when we went there a long time ago. It ends up being similar in cost to ISS.

The UNI fair was my introduction to international recruiting fairs 25 yrs. ago and, after sampling them all, a recent being Iowa again - it's my favorite. The staff is terrific - as helpful or unobtrusive as you'd like them - the cost is reasonable, they've improved the timing so it's no longer the latest fair - if only they could do something about that climate!
There must be a certain amoung of vetting that takes place on the candidates' behalfs, as we have always had plenty of interviews and offers at this fair even from schools we had never previously considered. A niece attended this year as a brand new teacher and had three offers - what excitement!
To anyone new to the process, this is a terrific fair to attend as it is organized so well, building time into the schedule for candidates to gather themselves and reflect. To anyone a bit jaded from the meat market atmosphere at the large ISS or Search fairs - go back to Iowa and remember what it's all about.