Zoombie

Just a note to say huge thanks to everyone replying to this thread, it's all very interesting and useful, please keep it coming.

Zoombie

What's the current state of play with visas etc. ? My wife seems to think that she can get residency by 'investing' (40,000usd?) in a US company that employs at least one citizen. Is she right or is she meringue ?

Manc

meringue

Zoombie

would you care to expand on that ?

Manc

The investor visa has a minimum requirement of in and around $1,000,000.

The E-2 entrepreneur visa has a realistic dollar denomination of $350,000.
However, this doesn't grant residency, and you have to run the business.
If
a - The business goes tits up
b - You sell up and retire
c - your kids turn 21 (and cannot find their own visa)

Then it's an 8 hour plane ride home.

mandpete

My children finished school for the summer on Tuesday and most of the teachers in this area are starting new summer jobs next week because they don't get paid for the 12 weeks that the schools are closed. I don't know if this applies to all of the US but it is something that you may need to take into account.

britnyank

I'm finding this quite interesting.

My husband (USC) came from California to teach here in England.
Despite 20 years of working in elementary schools at high level, he has had no end of difficulties in attempting to achieve Qualified Teacher Status, and his experience counts for nothing in the UK system.

I hope Zoombie finds the transition to teaching in the States MUCH easier!

Bob

Depends on the area, most places will give an option to either get paid full amount, but not over the summer holidays, or the split the pay up over 12 months, but you get slightly less...

Dant3

Like most others have already advised, you really need to narrow down your options to at least a particular state. Then look up the state's Teacher Credentialing Agency website for all the details on various teaching permits (this alone gets confusing), how to get them, pay scales etc. You'll also find links to various standards sites, pretty similar to the National Curriculum.

There are shortage subjects here, just as in the UK. Last time I looked, it was a little easier for foreigners to get the equivalent of QTS if qualified in maths or science. But it is not an easy process. I know in California, they require a class-by-class breakdown of your entire post-high school education with details of lessons, objectives, grades etc. British universities just don't keep this level of recorded evidence and so it's very difficult to satisfy the requirements.

Pay varies wildly, as there is no nationalised pay scale. Conditions vary wildly, just as they do in the UK. I've often thought teaching in the South Pasadena schools would be a piece of cake. The kids, when I run into them at local stores, are a damn site more polite than any of the ones I taught in the UK. But, as would be expected, openings in the good schools are few and far between. Just as in the UK, a new teacher (and despite your foreign experience, you ARE a new teacher) gets their first work in the worst schools - baptism by fire.

The private school option has its benefits. You don't need teaching credentials and the British background may impress. On the downside, they pay less and you're at the mercy of rich parents threatening to sue if Little Johnny doesn't get straight A's.

All of this is irrelevant, however, unless you have permission to actually work in the US...a far more difficult thing to acquire than a teaching job.

dunroving

But are their paychecks spread out over the full 12 months? In higher ed, that's how it works. So, although I only get paid for 9 months (supposedly, i.e., I'm on a 9-month contract), every paycheck has a "holdback" amount taken back. I then get paychecks (i.e., a "refund" of the holdback money) over the summer months. The difference between higher ed and regular schools is that in reality most of us in higher ed end up working over the summer anyway. It's a sick system.

If it's done this way for school teachers also, I don't see that it should be a problem. Even if it's not, with discipline you could set up a standing order every month to a savings account and them pay yourself over the summer.

On the other hand, if the total salary is pants, that's another problem.

snowbunny

Doesn't matter whether you take your pay over nine or twelve months, your salary is per annum. In most states a teacher cannot file for unemployment benefits over the summer months, though indeed, many choose to work in the summer to supplement their income.

dunroving

I'm not sure what this has to do with my post. I was responding to someone who said teachers "only" get paid for 9 months. My point was that, as you said, it's your "yearly" salary that matters. If you get paid 40k, it doesn't really matter too much whether you receive the 40k over 9 months or 12 months, it's whether 40k is enough to live on that's the issue. I was just trying to find out for interest's sake whether the 9 month contract salary is paid over 9 months or 12 months via the holdback system I described that is used in higher education.

If you get a decent salary and officially it's for 9 months' contracted work, it can actually be a good situation (because you can choose to work over the summer if you want to earn even more than your salary).