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Teaching Abroad

What Do I Need to Teach Abroad?

Each country has its own requirements, but there are two main documents required for most teaching programs.

You will need:

A copy of your FBI Criminal Background Check
A copy of your MFA College Diploma + Transcript

After obtaining these documents, they must then be certified OR notarized* in the originating state.

Here’s where it gets a little tricky… if the country you are heading to is a signatory of the 1961 Hague Convention, then you need to get an Apostille.

If the country you are heading to is NOT a signatory of the 1961 Hague Convention, then your documents will need to go through Embassy Legalization–which is a more complex, lengthier process of certifying the authenticity of your educational documents.

What is an Apostille? What’s Embassy Legalization?

Essentially, both these items are forms of certification from the US government that informs the receiving international government the documents in question are valid and able to be used overseas.

Why do I need to get an Apostille for a criminal background check?

Especially in Asian countries, there has been an unfortunate rise of criminals and sexual predators who have entered the country with the intention of teaching English in their school systems. Because of this, there has been a need for increased security within the education realm, and ESL teaching applicants must now provide certification of their documents.

How do I get an Apostille for my diploma?

Contact your school’s registrar for your school’s policy on notarizing a diploma. Oftentimes, you must request the registrar meet with yourself and a notary to notarize the signature on the diploma.

After you have notarized your diploma, you can mail them into a trusted document authenticating company (WCS…duh!) and let us take care of the rest.

*If your document needs to be notarized, find a notary near you—oftentimes, your banking institution may provide you of this service, or you can find a list of local notaries by state HERE.

*Some countries require that notarized, government-issued document need to be authenticated further through a certification of validity from the Office of the Secretary of State.

REMEMBER: Your diploma MUST be notarized, signed by your Registrar, and Apostilled from the same State the school is located in.

If you’re teaching in Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, prepare to be met with strict requirements on degree authentication. You will need to follow additional steps and provide supplemental documentation.

Teaching abroad is going to be an amazing experience. Don’t get bogged down by the complexities of document authentication, contact us and let us handle the grunt work for you.

This is a map of the world with curtain countries highlighted

The Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Inter-country Adoption (Hague Adoption Convention)

The Hague Adoption Convention is an international treaty that provides important safeguards to protect the best interests of children, birth parents, and adoptive parents, who are involved in inter-country adoptions.

When adopting from a country that has signed the Hague Adoption Convention, there’s a process to follow, according to U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS):

Hague Process for International Adoption:

1. Find a Hague Accredited Adoption Service Provider

2. Obtain a Home Study from someone authorized to complete a Hague adoption home study

3. Apply to USCIS before adopting a child or accepting a placement for a determination that one is suitable for inter-country adoption.

4. Once USCIS approves the application, work with the adoption service provider to obtain a proposed adoption placement.

It is important to note that all adoption organizations will require that you obtain either an Apostille or a Certification on all your relevant documents. If you are adopting from a country that is a part of the Hague Adoption Convention, it is likely that you will only need to obtain an Apostille. For countries not a part of the Hague Adoption Convention, your documents will require Certification through the means of Embassy Legalization.

To avoid any delays in this process, gather all the necessary legal documents.

Examples of Documents:

Criminal FBI Background Checks
Birth Certificates
Marriage Certificates
Divorce Decrees
Home Studies
Deed of the House (certified by the county)
Baptism Certificates
Bank Accounts
Reference Letters

WCS: The Go To People for Document Authentication

WCS is located right next to Washington, D.C.! We have close access to the necessary government entities and embassies needed for authentication. With WCS on your side, we will handle your document authentication, whether you need an Apostille, or Embassy Legalization. As always, We work diligently to ensure your documents are authenticated appropriately with the correct stamps and certifications, and returned back to you, headache-free. Not sure what kind of authentication your document needs? Contact us today!

Why Regulatory Affairs is like Herding Cats….

According to Wikipedia Regulatory Affairs (“RA”) professionals are responsible for “ensuring that their companies comply with all the regulations and laws pertaining to their business.” Considering the stakes involved, there are few functions more important. After all, if you don’t get the regulatory environment right, not only will your company not be doing any business in the country, you might be breaking the law!

Of course, no one (and I mean no one) can possibly keep up with all of the unique and ever-changing regulatory requirements in international business. Memorizing the regulatory requirements for each country is a herculean task. And, that’s before you consider that these regulations can shift on a moment’s notice. Being in RA is a bit like herding cats. Just when you think you have every cat in place, one of them scurries in a different direction.

Which leads us to document authentication and legalization.

Here are some examples of special rules that can trip up even the most experienced regulatory professional (always subject to change):

Want to sell your product in Iraq? Then make sure you get the document notarized and certified by the Secretary of State where the document originated. Not where the company’s headquarters is located.
Want to sell your product in China? If your documents were “created” by the state (e.g., Articles of Incorporation), then they have to be notarized and certified by the Secretary of State where the document was created. But, if the document is not created by the state (e.g., Power of Attorney), then it can be notarized and certified in any state. Oh, and an individual working for the submitting company must submit their individual identification (i.e., copy of driver’s license, passport, etc.) along with the document to be processed (Also true for Taiwan (below) and Lebanon)).
Want to sell your product in Taiwan? Good news. Your document can be certified by any Secretary of State in any state of origin. But…if you’re going to use a service to handle the processing, you have to provide a Permission letter for that company to the Embassy of Taiwan. And, see the above note on China regarding individual identification requirements when submitting corporate documents.
Want to do business in Qatar? You will need an authorized stamp from the National U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce in addition to the state certification, U.S. State Department certification, and a certification from either the Qatar Embassy in Washington, D.C., or the Qatar consulates in New York, Texas, or California (depending where the document originated).

This is just a small sampling of the unusual (and sometimes unknowable) aspects of regulatory compliance for international document authentication…for now!

So, faced with this type of uncertainty, what should you do? The best approach is to get as close to the decision makers as possible. Of course, that’s not easy. Just keeping tabs on internal needs is more than enough for most RA professionals, much less keeping tabs on every bureaucrat in every embassy.

Instead, do what our clients do: Let WCS be your connection to the decision makers. We are working with these people every day. We’ll take care of “herding the cats” and you can focus on the other challenging aspects of your job!

Watch Out for Fake Stamps!

Recently we received a call from a major corporate customer asking about our document legalization services for United Arab Emirates (UAE). He was comparing our prices and processes with his current service provider. As we went into the details, he explained that our National U.S. Arab Chamber of Commerce (NUSACC) stamp was more expensive than the US Arab Chamber of Commerce stamp that his current service provider used.

This was an odd statement because there is only ONE authorized Chamber of Commerce stamp for legalizing documents in UAE: the NUSACC stamp with the green outline (pictured). We contacted the UAE Embassy and were told that the only recognized “Chamber” stamp is the NUSACC stamp and that any other stamp is fraudulent. More importantly, the completed documents could not be legally used in the UAE.

Unfortunately, some providers in this industry are engaged in unethical business practices. They “invent” their own Chamber stamp (see the stamp outlined in yellow) and then convince their customers that the stamp is legitimate.

The service providers using fraudulent stamps are engaging in unethical and possibly illegal practices. More importantly for regulatory professionals, by accepting such a stamp, you may be exposing your company to substantial risks, including the non-recognition of your documents in a foreign country, claims of violating the law in a foreign country, and millions of dollars of lost revenue.

Fake stamps are no laughing matter. If you are concerned about documents that may not have been properly and legally authenticated, contact WCS. We will be sure to give you accurate, trustworthy guidance.

Preventing Document Legalization Rejection at the Embassy

In its simplest form, document legalization is “the process of authenticating or certifying a legal document so a foreign country’s legal system will recognize it as with full legal effect,” at least, so says Wikipedia. However, the process can be far from simple.

And for those within a company who are lucky enough to be tasked with handling this process internally, the tangential feat of memorizing each country’s specific requirements can be about as simple as memorizing every bone in the human body for a high-school biology exam.

So I have decided to “throw a bone” to anyone who has experienced the “Unfortunately, we were unable to process your document because..” letter that accompanies a rejected document from an Embassy. This article will reveal some, I repeat, some, unique requirements of some frequently called upon Embassies that can assuage one’s fear of rejection.

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