The International Schools Review Forum

You send your letter and passport to the embassy in DC. Turn around in house should be a week, add transit time based on sending and receiving methods. I'd plan on 2 weeks.

Many thanks for the replies, I feel somewhat better knowing that it should only take two weeks to get the Visa. I am still waiting for the letter from MFA, but have been told it should be any day.

Has anyone worked in Semey City? To me it looks like it is going to be a wonderful experience in both living in Semey and Kazakhstan.

Turn around at the NYC consulate was always really fast. After I got all the paperwork from my school, I sent it off on a monday and usually had it back by thursday or friday. We were encouraged to send everything overnight, which made it much faster. Make sure you check the visa closely after you get it back. One time, they screwed up and put the wrong passport number on it. I sent it back and they fixed it quickly. You don't want to show up at passport control with a bad visa.

Nearly everything else about Kazakhstan sucked, but their NYC consulate worked pretty quickly.

[quote="Texas"]
Has anyone worked in Semey City? To me it looks like it is going to be a wonderful experience in both living in Semey and Kazakhstan.[/quote]

I hope it will be wonderful ... I am going there too in August.

I have been offered a job in Kokshetau anyone know anything about Kokshetau NIS?

would be interested to know about the experiences people have had at NIS so far this year. The first review posted was not good news. I interviewed and was offered a position but declined to accept in the end.

No replies? Perhaps the internet is down again in Kazakhstan! Ha ha!

Interesting to read about the failure of NIS schools to deliver on their promises. Staff have already been reporting on this review how they arrive in KZ only to be told they would not be getting their two flights home a year and that their accommodation is not up to scratch in addition to their visa fees not being reimbursed. I spotted this phony set-up when I interviewed for these shysters. All laughs and jokes at interview with very little substance. Just plenty of drum beating about how NIS was a new initiative which was targeting the great young minds of Kazakhstan, kids are wonderful, president Nazarbayev is behind the whole experiment, blah, blah, blah. Honestly, if schools are going to trumpet on about how they are pioneers in education, then why not channel those efforts into actually running a quality set of schools instead of looking at ripping teachers off at every opportunity. So glad I never took them up on the offer. My intuition has never failed me!

NIS used to recruit through TIC but not anymore. I think TIC dropped them because they did not honor their agreement to reimburse the US$3000 it takes to get to Khazakstan. Their new policy is to reimburse travel expenses up to $5000 twice a year at $2500 a pop. They offered me a contract in Semy but I insisted they pay my airfare in advance but they refused.

This school is an example of why teachers should look to do over schools first before they do over you. NIS is probably dicking teachers over even as I write this post and looking to recruit new suckers. If I could only figure a way to get some cash out of NIS and do a runner to Thailand or cambootia I would be in Semy in an instant.

The next best thing would be to take a job and do nothing. I did that for almost a year in Taiwan. I would go in with novels, newspapers and crossword puzzles and tell the kids to do a worksheet or something. They were cool with it and I'd give everybody As and Bs, basically just make grades up. It was stress free and I got tons of reading done

PsyGuy Law 14, avoid schools ending in "Stan"...

Here is the latest report on NIS

[quote] I have extensive overseas experience and have never used the ISR site. However, given to the situation I was placed in Uralsk Kz I am using the only tool to advise others planning to venture here. Perhaps, the administration will realize that international teachers are entitled to humanism. I was a TL and during the interview told that the libraries here were not textbook storage areas. I was also told that there was budget to order needed resources. As this was to be my last international duty, I signed contract with optimism that I would create a legacy /program for the youth of a developing country. However, the story unravelled in a most discouraging way. I was expected to sign a power of attorney document in Russian and when asked to have this translated into English went through a situation of ridicule and intimidation. This procedure was one of the hidden processing in fees/situation. Further situations complicated by the lack of communication between staff / myself developed. No settling in allowance came forward and no reimbursement of airflight / visa fees. I grew to glean that the "Library" was deemed to be a textbook collection and that no further budget was forthcoming for English language resources. Obviously, there was no light in the tunnel. Appeals to the Director, was met with an autocratic response. The outcome was a "trial" and a "vote" a resignation and the gleaning of my accommodation from my salary. No further reimbursements were forthcoming and a huge financial loss occured. This experience I will never forget especially the punitive gleaning of a teachers accommodation. [/quote]

Just like David at BIS, I bet this guy wished he could have done NIS over before they did him over. But don't worry, I'll figure out a way to do over NIS if its the last thing I do, even if it is just getting a job and doing nothing. I'll get them yet!!!

Yup, that sounds about right. The folks doing the interviews are totally unscrupulous--they'll tell you anything. The worst I've heard is them telling someone there's twelve weeks of paid vacation--ain't even REMOTELY close to the truth.

Sorry to hear that yet another person has resigned. Not the first, not the last.

[quote="bluesealkz"]Yup, that sounds about right. The folks doing the interviews are totally unscrupulous--they'll tell you anything. The worst I've heard is them telling someone there's twelve weeks of paid vacation--ain't even REMOTELY close to the truth.

Sorry to hear that yet another person has resigned. Not the first, not the last.[/quote]

Yeah, that is what I discovered at interview. The Irish guy, Pat Tierney raised the red flags at interview. He just wanted to streamline through the process like some chickenhawk, refusing to answer any pertinent questions and as soon as salary, accommodation standard and proximity to school, flights home, etc, came up, his smile vanished and a black cloud flashed over his head that just seemed to hang there. You gave up by the end of it and just wanted to get off the phone. As I said, I didn't accept, and thank goodness for that. Never really in any doubt that I would. Start-up school, named after the president, 'really bright intellectual kids' (translation: 'they better get good grades or else'), it just all smacked of some great con-job to convince the rest of the world that Kazakhstan was producing the next crop of brilliant scholars and geniuses. Basically neo-Stalinism

I am surprised to read all the negative comments. I was gutted to have to forgo a post at Kokshetau due to a delay in getting my passport renewed. The pay and conditions certainly were enticing. It was my understanding that everyone already working in the NIS has renewed their contracts too. Seems like I got off lucky.

[quote="Chalkface"]I am surprised to read all the negative comments. I was gutted to have to forgo a post at Kokshetau due to a delay in getting my passport renewed. The pay and conditions certainly were enticing. It was my understanding that everyone already working in the NIS has renewed their contracts too. Seems like I got off lucky.[/quote]

Pay is nothing to write home about. $4000 USD a month is not really worth living somewhere freezing cold and dark for most of the year. and from what I have read, there are all sorts of issues with granting the two flights a year and visa costs. I just feel that if a school starts this penny-pinching as soon as you get there best to give them a wide berth.