The International Schools Review Forum

Like all job changes or moving experiences it seems that there are a lot of costs that one does not think about until they actually confront them. As a teacher who is looking for a 09-10 int job placement I am trying to figure out how much it is actually going to cost me just to get to my final destination (a teaching job in a foreign country)

So I will put the question out there to all you experienced intl teachers who have gone through this already.

About (very subjective i know) how much does it cost to finalize a intl teaching job?

These are the expenses I foresee already:
- ISS profile fee
- ISS fair fee
- Travel to fair
- moving expenses from current living place
- storage fee while gone.
- .....

What else? I know there are a lot of expenses that one is confronted with when they choose to teach intly?

Everybody's input is greatly appreciated.

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There are also things to consider, such as whether you are going to have to purchase a car, furniture, etc. Clarify with your movers about how accurate they are with their moving estimates and what responsibility they bear, if any, if they are way off on their estimate. In our case, we had one mover whose estimate was less than half what our actual weight was, so we had an unpleasant "surprise" on the other end when we were way over our moving allowance. Some schools give you a storage allowance and some don't. If you will be paying for storage, you might want to think carefully about whether what you put into storage is worth paying over $1000/year to store it. Through the years, it adds up to quite a chunk.

There are also a lot of things that you probably won't move with you, but need to have to set up a household, such as garbage cans, toilet bowl brushes, etc. We're always surprised each time at how much all the "little things" add up to!

I agree with all the above and would add that starting up a new household overseas always costs more than anything you could imagine. I am always in sticker shock for the first 3 or 4 months when we aren't saving anything.

Sorry this reply comes late...but we just moved from South America to Saudi Arabia. Our experience is that the costs are not prohibitive. We are a couple with two children and yearly home travel is a deal-breaker for us. We have also received settling-in allowances, which help a lot with toilet brushes and all those millions of other little expenses. We have things in storage in the US - that's maybe $1200 - 1500 a year. Our shipping from our former school covered about half the cost of shipping to Saudi Arabia and we covered the rest- but it was worth it. We had not planned on buying a car here but have started rethinking that - so that would be an expense. Overall, though, I have been at four international schools (my wife at two), and while there are expenses I have never lost sleep over any of them. Good luck.