High School English teacher thinking of emigrating
 

Hi everyone,

I've had a look through the Wiki threads and I'll be honest, I'm lost!
My fiancée and I are considering emigrating to the USA and I was wondering what my chances were and how I would go about it.

I'm a high school English teacher with 5 years experience and upcoming responsibility in charge of a year group's curriculum.
Qualifications wise: I have a BA (Hons) in English Literature with English Language, PGCE in Secondary English (teaching qualification) and recently achieved a Masters (MA) in Teaching and Learning.
I would be looking to teach English in an American high school (as they has a similar age range to British high school).

My fiancée currently works as a customer service advisor/Sales assistant with a major (American) television provider, but is a trained and qualified Primary School teacher (BA (Hons) in Primary Education). She isn't working in a school as there just aren't any jobs for her. We were going to look into a possible job transfer for her, as the she will be able to gain outstanding references from the managing director of Customer Service and her working for an American company.

Admittedly, we aren't thinking of moving for a few years but I wanted to gain some idea of our chances of acceptance and the application process.

Any information/insight into our chances and the application process would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks! :D

Re: High School English teacher thinking of emigrating
 

Honestly, based on your qualifications and experience as teachers, your chances are as close to zero as makes no difference. The best shot you likely have is for your wife to get a transfer with her employer, but then be aware that you getting hired as a teacher is going to be tough as there are many teachers here who have been layed off, and who are already familiar with US teaching practices, so why hire an immigrant?

There is a company that runs six "British American Schools", and all their teachers are British, but I hear competition for teaching positions is fierce and the standards of applicants extremely high.

Re: High School English teacher thinking of emigrating
 

My husband was a teacher for over ten years in the UK. He came over on a fiance visa to marry me (so no worry or hassle for employer sponsorship). At the time, WES was charging over $600 for their "degree translation" service. Even so, the schools still wanted retraining (basically getting a US bachelor's degree in education). He applied to over 100 schools, never got an offer. He basically had to do a career change in order to get employment in our state. As Pulaski stated your chance would probably hinge on your wife getting a transfer.

Re: High School English teacher thinking of emigrating
 

Getting a transfer with your employer is much the better route, just do not expect to be able to stay in education.

Re: High School English teacher thinking of emigrating
 

It would really hinge on how far in the boonies and a shit hole it was for there to be a chance on the teaching front....then you'd still face the issue of not being state certified and the rest of it.

Anyway, as mentioned, once married, company transfer for the OH, but realistically would need niche company knowledge/skills or be in a management position.

Re: High School English teacher thinking of emigrating
 

Have you considered Canada, it might be a lot easier visa wise?

Re: High School English teacher thinking of emigrating
 

How about the Cayman Islands? They recruit British teachers every year. The pay isn't great but the lifestyle is.
Same procedure - get a job, they apply for a work permit for you but it is far easier than the US and they are loosing people all the time due to the 7 year rollover. Worth looking at.

Re: High School English teacher thinking of emigrating
 

I hope I am correct in stating (and don't think anyone mentioned it) that you would need to marry your fiancee before coming in order to piggyback off her employment visa. I don't think you can get a visa as her fiance.

Re: High School English teacher thinking of emigrating
 

Good catch/ point. I erroneously referred to the OP's "wife" in my earlier post. He could come as a co-habiting nonworking domestic partner of his fianceé on a B1/B2 visa, but I am sure that is not what he had in mind.

Re: High School English teacher thinking of emigrating
 

Well I did say, "once married"...

Re: High School English teacher thinking of emigrating
 

Once married is enough! :rofl:

Re: High School English teacher thinking of emigrating
 

Just making it clear for the OP :regular_smile:

Re: High School English teacher thinking of emigrating
 

Hi,

As you are probably gathering from the responses, it's going to be very difficult to come over as a teacher (in fact, impossible in about 99.9% of the cases).

The primary reason is your profession--teacher. The vast overwhelming majority of institutions that hire teachers are public, government funded entities, many of whom are going through significant austerity efforts at the moment. These school districts have been making teachers redundant for a number of years now, so there is a large pool of US citizens looking for the same jobs as you. In addition, for you to get sponsored for a work visa, the employer (the government school) is going to have to pay about $5,000-$10,000 in fees to get a visa for you, and then tell the US government "we have to hire a foreigner because we just can't find any unemployed US teachers". Turn the tables in the UK and imagine if the local schools were paying thousands of pounds to bring in teachers from the US to fill the jobs instead of hiring UK citizens. Yeah, same uproar.

And even if you could convince someone, you'd need to go through the local certification to get qualified (50 states, 50 different certifications, more or less).

Your spouse may have a better option as a "manager" coming over to the US if she can get her company to step up for a visa. You would need to be married to follow her though. Take a look at the L1 visa.

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/L1_Visa

Re: High School English teacher thinking of emigrating
 

Some might say "more than".........;)

Re: High School English teacher thinking of emigrating
 

I generally doesn't really work that way.