The International Schools Review Forum

Is it a big pain to get teaching jobs in Italy?

From the limited research I have donewithinn Italy, it seems like you are required to get a working visa on your own which looks to be quite tough.....Am I correct or just dumb?!?!?

No real ISs will provide and arrange a work visa if they can. The problem is that a significant number of lower tier schools just cant or wont hire someone without an EU passport. thats true of a lot of WE countries along the med though.

My friend got a job teaching in Italy last year. She's American. The school procured the work visa for her, but she had to go through a LOT of rigmarole before they could begin the visa process, including degree attestation (which is a long process in itself), criminal reports, having various transcripts sent. It took her about six months for the process to be completed.

Some schools are not very supportive at all. You might well find yourself on your own, or almost. The school might just tell you what to do, for example, and leave you to go do it.
Salaries tend to be quite low and packages even lower. Are you sure you want to do this? You might find Italy more fun if you were living elsewhere, making money, and visiting Italy.

Thanks everyone. I am really just looking into all possiblities. I appreciate the guidence. I don't want to loose an opportunity without checking into it first I guess. Enjoy the weekend.

Andy

Italy and several other WE countries are amazing, simply amazing places to live that visiting just doesnt compare. The tourist track is such a superficial and artificial snapshot of a culture and its society. I realize that for Sid banking coin is a strong and factor where to spend time working, but some experiences cant be measured in coin. Haven lived in Italy, Ireland, and France (among others) tourist travel is poor shadow of truly living in those places.

If your considering Italy or anywhere in the EU, I strongly recommend getting all your relevant documents notarized and apostiled as soon as possible. These include at a minimum

Degree
Teaching Certificate
FBI Criminal Background check

This is so that when you finally get an offer and contract you can go through the process of getting your degree and certification officially translated into the host language and then verified by the appropriate embassy. It can be a very long process.

Visiting

For Italy, you will most likely need to get your documents translated to Italian.

I'm a little confused by the apostille process, but my state seems to require the name of the country I'm moving to before they'll complete the request. Can anyone comment on that? I seem to remember other people saying that they keep copies ready for their next move. Is it a state thing?

I probably should know what the heck your talking about getting documents notarized and apostilized.....but I don't! Can any walk me through this process quick if/when we get our opportunity? Thanks, I look forward to one day adding something to this forum other than questions!

Andy

Apostille is a state thing, yes. Any docs you have--this is how it worked for my state anyway--that are issued by a state agency get this seal of authenticity. There are many global countries that participate in this agreement. I took mine to my Sec. of State office. They did it for free. Took 20 minutes. I believe I got my marriage license, my transcripts (state college), and birth certificate done by them. It was definitely required by the Latin American country I am in, as far as them getting the appropriate work visa for me.

justpassports.com has a lot of information about apostille process. They can help you if you need assistance. We used them a few years back and they were really helpful.

You're right, it's the SOS for each state. Our documents are split over three states, and it seems like each one has different rules. Unfortunately, we live pretty far from all three state capitals, so we have to do the whole thing by mail, which they charge for. Boo...

I'd still like to know if anyone had to wait until they had a contract to get the apostille done. Especially in Texas.

Thanks, mathgym.

You are asked where you are going because different countries have different requirements.

Okay, thanks. We interviewed with a director recently who mentioned starting to get our documents certified, but that seems like a silly thing to do if we don't even have an offer yet. I guess we'll wait.