Teaching English In Taiwan – The Complete Guide On All You Need To Know

What documents do you need to teach English in Taiwan?

The first thing you need to figure out is if you meet the criteria to teach English in Taiwan. This will differ dependent on where you want to teach, for example if you want to teach in the Government’s Foreign English Teacher Program, you will need to meet stricter eligibility criteria than a smaller private school. There will always be a minimum, however, which is mandated by the government for anyone teaching in Taiwan.

Be wary of any recruiter who try to hire you without the minimum paperwork!

In order to obtain a work permit to teach English in Taiwan, you will need to:

• Be a college/university graduate with a degree
• Be at least 20 years of age
• Come from an English speaking country listed on the government site
• Hold a government-issued teaching license
• Provide a clear criminal background check from your country of residence
• Obtain a medical certificate

Additional things you will need to consider if you’re planning on applying for the state-sponsored recruitment program, you will also need to hold a teaching qualification. This could be a PGCE, Degree in Education or similar.

If you’re planning on teaching in a private English Learning school, known colloquially as a buxiban, you won’t need a teaching qualification. A TEFL certificate is usually more than sufficient.

What needs to happen to your documents for the application?

You will need to legalise your documents to be recognised in Taiwan. You may hear this referred to as “authentication” or “attestation”, but it’s essentially the same thing.

Legalisation for Taiwan can be pretty complicated. So much so, that we’ve created a blog post which covers this whole topic specifically. You can read it here, but make sure you’ve got all the information you need from this post before you go!

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Teaching in Taiwan: The Paperwork

If you’re planning on teaching English in Taiwan you’ll need to know how to handle the paperwork and legalisation for your work visa. Check out our post here to find out just what you need to do.

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Teaching English in Taiwan: why it’s a great destination!

Capital	Taipei City
Country size	36,000 km2
Population	23.6 million
Languages	Mandarin, Taiwanese (Hokkien), Hakka, aboriginal languages
Religions	Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, Islam, folk religions
Currency	New Taiwan Dollar (NT$ or NTD
Timezone	GMT+8

The aim for the Taiwanese Government is to recruit 531 English teachers for the academic year 2022-2023, which is a huge increase on the current numbers. They have an ambitious goal to ensure the entire country is bilingual by 2030; it’s a perfect time to consider this alternative to the popular choices!

The expat community is starting to build in the country, which will create a whole community of English teachers. This is across the state, too, so whatever kind of experience and setting you’re looking for you’ll find it. Taiwan has a beautiful range of diverse landscapes. Big cities, quiet traditional villages and unspoilt beaches are all train rides away.

Other benefits include a great wage, amazing and affordable food (the street food culture is amazing!), and contract perks are pretty much standard practice in Taiwan. You won’t need to look too hard to find an employer offering quality housing, health insurance, round-trip flights and paid vacation.

If you decide that Taiwan is the right place for you and you want to take up one of the teaching opportunities currently on offer, remember to be mindful of the document processes. Making sure you have enough time to process them before you leave is extremely important.

You’ll also need to make sure you don’t apply for some documents too early, such as your criminal background check; these must have been issued within a few months of your departure, otherwise they won’t be valid anymore.

Getting help with your documents for Taiwan

As legalisation specialists, we’re here to take the complex and stressful processes off your hands. There are many pitfalls when it comes to legalising documents for use in Taiwan, all of which could result in your documents being delayed or even rejected, which could be the difference between you making it in time for your first day and not.

Still got questions?

If you still need help, just get in touch. You can give us a call directly on +44 (0) 330 088 1142, send us a message via WhatsApp on mobile, use our live chat system, or e-mail us at sales@vitalconsular.com.