I signed a contract with a school, can I back out?

[tweet]

Hi,

 

4 weeks ago i signed a contract with a Chinese school for teach english one year.

 

They are in the process to help me obtain a Z visa in HK.; they also said they paid 10.000 rmb to sponsor my Z visa: is that a correct

information? the Z visa cost that money?

 

Now i read the contract i signed and it says " if the teacher leave early his contract, he must reimburse the school for the visa fee"

 

What happens if i back off to this contract? Will the chinese school go after me for the visa fees? /suing me in my own country?

Pls note i have not yet applied for any Z visa in HK. I have not yet even received the sponsoring documents from the school via mail.

 

I am having double thoughts if I can trust this school and I want to back off;

 

if someone can  pls advise

 

thanks

[ChTTay]

The visa fee is what you'd pay in Hong Kong when you get the visa. Assuming you will go yourself to the visa office, you'll see the fee quite clearly. It's likely you'll pay it yourself and get reimbursed by the school at a later date (so keep the receipt). It's no where near the figure you suggest. I can't remember exactly but around 500rmb? Perhaps?!

Maybe you've got your wires crossed with the school or lost in translation.

The contract clause to pay the visa fee back is pretty common. It's a tiny fee relatively.

[tweet]

Hi

 

thank you for your reply.

 

The HR agent that I signed the contract with said the school spent 10.000 RMB to " process my visa." what??

 

So I Guess this guy is lying. Now the question remain: with a signed contract what happens if I never show up to get the Z visa?

and never talk to the school again? will they go after me in my home country?

 

the contract say "if teacher leaves the contract early ,he should reimburse the school the visa related fees"

[roddy]

It's conceivable they've incurred 10,000Y of costs if, for example, they used an agent to help obtain documents, or they've never employed a foreigner before and had to handle lots of formalities there. But I doubt it very much, and it'd be amusing to see what they come up with if you ask to see the receipts. More likely the HR agency trying to scare you into coming, or hoping to get some money out of you.

 

Do you still want to go to China? If not, just ignore them. No chance of them suing you in your home country. If you do still want to go to China - again, just ignore them, and start a new application somewhere else.

[Flickserve]

The visa fee and the process of the visa fee are two different things.

If only the visa fee, then you can pay that. Not the process, right?

[tweet]

Hi,

 

the school hires hundreds of foreign teachers every year. I doubt they spend 10.000 rmb as they said for each teacher;

 

I was at first excited to go and work in China but s I read the contract, I see that they require 25 hrs a week of teaching + 4 hrs

a week for pre class preparation, + 4 hrs a week for meeting with parents;

it looks like a lot of work and I will live the race in a big Chinese city....I am not sure if I want that now...

 

they didn't use ny agent to hire me; so the 10 rmb claim is something really shady....

I guess I will just ignore his emails; the point is I have signed a contract and I m not sure how legally bounding it is...

[ChTTay]

25 teaching hours is fairly standard at a private training school, however, often they don't give you that many hours. This is just the max. they can give you.

 

The additional hours also aren't necessarily used. My school has 'office hours' built in but actually there aren't any real office hours. These just apply to doing promotional things at the start of the semester and attending the occasional meeting. New teachers also get 1.5 hours a week of training.

 

From what you've said about this school so far, I'd probably forget them and move on.