Some places are easier than others, but I'm afraid that most countries require a great deal of paperwork. Getting qualifications apostilled, medicals, police reports and other stuff is regularly required. No, you cannot use what you have for one country a few years later because many of the documents are time sensitive.
The stuff we needed for our next post was tedious but do-able, mainly because the HR department of our new school are incredibly efficient. Often, the inefficiencies of the office staff of your school can add to the difficulties by supplying conflicting information - sometimes it's their fault and sometimes it is simply the crappiness of the bureaucracies they have to deal with. We sent information sometimes three times to our current school when we joined and they simply lost it. This was the fault of one inefficient person who has long since been replaced by a really super man who totally nails his job.
Our latest round of medicals cost us nearly $3,200, only approximately half of this is reimbursable. This is because of the rip off prices where we live now.

Just write a list and keep chipping away at it. Email the school to clarify. Save all your receipts. Ask to be put in touch with other incoming staff and staff who joined the school this year, and share information about the best way to do things. Watch this forum for country-specific advice, such as lemonlily's, which is very valuable.

This is one of the downsides of working internationally - you have to be ready for the multiple idiocies of this process.

One thing that we always do is keep a folder of good quality colour scans of every document we have: Marriage cert., teaching certs., birth certificates etc etc. Anything that you have to mail, scan first and save (such as medical results,) don't trust the post - stump up for DHL for sensitive or hard to replace stuff and see if the school will reimburse. Do everything as early as you can as sometimes there is a "cascade" of things that rely on one initial document. Pay attention to stuff like police reports that are only valid within a certain time (usually less than 6 months old.) If you are in face to face situations with officials, without being adversarial, take copious notes and clarify everything and write it down.

Grin and bear it, I'm afraid.

But let's not get into airlines, it was just an example ok? :-)

People, people,....it's ALL useful!
Over the years, I have come to loathe where I am whilst many people love it. I get the Muezzin at 4am here too, the traffic is not just heavy but murderously dangerous (locals will literally barge you off the road if you presume to be in their way.) I have seen nasty cities before (trash, pollution, poverty etc) and lived in some of them. I even read the article on the BBC yesterday about roadside tyre repair shops in Jakarta putting nails in the road to drum up business!
It all depends on your attitude. Am I looking forward to my 1.5 hour trip to get to [insert destination of choice here] ? No, not necessarily. Am I looking forward to a fantastic education for my kids? Absolutely!
Will Yantantether put me off going? No, but I do appreciate his chiming in. Forwarned is forearmed.
I think this site is great because we can gossip at one another and put over personal points of view and I think we should post what we feel moved to say. Perception is reality. It's important that we post as much as we can so that people looking for answers can get a rounded impression - not just the glowingly positive or the direly negative.
I do love Indonesia, warts and all. I know that my housing is very good, and where I will be working is very nice too. I'll be paid well, I will have holidays where I can afford to travel, my kids will be in a good school. I will be able to afford a decent, comfortable car in which I can sit in traffic LOL. My feelings regarding Jakarta will essentially be a "luxury problem." It's a bit like complaining you have to travel American Airlines instead of Emirates! A privileged person's conceit!
Best to all. XXXXX

Smurf has nailed it. Read the reviews. It's gone from a putative educational nirvana to a company-run farce. Stay away.

Everything is relative. Check how many days a year you are expected to work for Aramco and see, pro rated, how good the salary is.
I am making a very hefty salary, probably amongst the highest in the world. However, when we move, in terms of disposable income and our savings schedule, not much will change. On paper we'll be taking a $3,500 pay cut between us.
This is because of the cost of living here, transport and sports lesson costs for our kids (not many after school activities), huge cost of flights out of here, etc etc.
Personally, I cannot wait to leave, money or no money! Actually, liking where you live an teach is worth a bundle, too!

Actually, of all the staff here who are moving on, only one couple have had no luck on the job scene and this is mainly because he's in a VERY specialist area where few jobs arose this year. The rest of us are going on to some great posts. Thing is, this is an IB World school with a big budget for PD and lots of subject leaders and examiners at PYP, MYP and IB level. Most folks were recruited fairly early.
So, no, not a lot of recruiting woes here.
Having said that, we scored some absolutely amazing young teachers from the US in the last 2-4 years who had lost their jobs because of cutbacks (and in one case, lost two jobs in a year!)

Dear Matts1w
OK, let me level with you. I am a veteran of 4 pretty darn good international schools in an incredibly varied series of locations...............and I am absurdly excited to be going to Jakarta!
I am just trying to be cool on this forum by sounding all circumspect and reasonable, but the truth is I want to jump up and down with excitement every time I think of our next post - both the city and the school.
I think Jakarta will be totally great. We're going to brave that awful traffic and get out of town whenever we can, we're going to try hard to make local friends, we'll throw ourselves into everything JIS has to offer. We hope to graduate our kids from there. We want to dive, see the orang-utans over there in Borneo, go back to Flores and Rinca and Komodo, eat noodles on the street, work hard, save hard and embrace it all.
Folks, I am nearly 50 and I feel like a child about this move. I have put up with some pretty serious shit in several of our posts and we've come out smiling. I LOVE Indonesia and whilst I am sure there will be frustrations, I say "bring it on!"
As far as I can see, JIS is completely where we want to be and I am grateful and bubbling over with enthusiasm to be part of it.
XX

I agree, Mr C4ke, I am not expecting to particularly like Jakarta. I've been to a few places in Indonesia (as well as the inevitable Bali!) but I have never seen Jakarta. I envisage it as a sort of cross between Mumbai and Bangkok - with added nasty traffic!
I am just ready to get back to a truly "international" school, and to live in a bigger house! (I am so shallow!) Hah.
Plus I'm a diver so living in such a huge archipelago has some obvious attractions.
As far as I know, you can buy beer in the shops (instead of a rip-off government-run establishment), IKEA is due to open soon, and it has lots of greenery. Therefore, my pathetic little needs are met. :-)

I agree with Briz. The interviews were a riot - lots of the usual stuff obviously, but tons of laugh-out-loud humour. We got the strong impression that these were serious educators who also took seriously the need for balance. We can't wait to go. What a team!

My guess would be to use a fairly big and reliable company, like Allied Pickfords or similar. Although I have packed my own stuff a few times, some destination countries are easier to ship into if you've had a "full service" pack. i.e someone else who is a specialist has seen every bit of your stuff and is unlikely to have allowed anything dodgy into the shipment!
I do not think China is that picky.
The other reason for using a big company is that they will have partners, or even their own offices in both departure and destination cities, therefore timing and communication might work out better.
The third reason I can think of is just general security and reliability. Having had our shipment broken into at the departure end once, as I have aged (and got more stuff and more money in the bank!) I have tended to stump up a little extra for a big name.
One other consideration is hidden costs. Sometimes, you just get hit up for stuff that may or may not be "official" but big name companies with good reputations are more likely to forewarn you about various taxes and other expenses. In my experience of visiting both countries quite a bit (although not living there), bribes are definitely a fact of life.
Finally, you may end up paying for storage, and storage with a third company can be very expensive - surprisingly. Big names tend to have their own facilities.
If you only have 1 or 2Cbm, you might benefit from getting your shippers to quote you air AND freight. Depending on your summer travel plans and the benefits of your old and new schools, excess baggage might even work well.
Happy travels!

We were very lucky to get interviews with 2 "Tier 1" schools which happened to be two out of the three schools we most wanted to work in. As we are both experienced IS teachers, we know ourselves better than we could possibly hope to know the schools we applied to - and this is important, I think.
With one, we had huge "red flags." Many questions about conflict resolution and what we would do if the school went in a certain direction and we didn't like it etc etc.
We took the jobs at the other, and the more we discover the happier we are.
I agree that there are so many different aspects to this: building a career, opportunities to be innovative, concerns about money, liking your location, tolerance of stress etc etc. The ethos of the school and your fit into it are very important, but I do think that Nikkors check list pretty much nails some of the ideal circumstances for a good education, and therefore gives a good picture of a Tier 1. As to the others, 2 and 3, I think that good leadership is probably the distinguishing characteristic, with the implicit suggestion being that the 2's want to be 1's!

I believe there is some sort of "Education City" and that they are co-located. :-)

I'm with flyingpig. I would just disclose it on the relevant forms.
I think there are two issues here. The opinion of the school and the circumstances of their insurance. I doubt the school will bat an eyelid. After all, they interviewed you and gave you the job. However, you will have to accept the health insurance which may or may not cover the meds.

Alecsmario - sorry, mate, can't find out another damn thing about this place. Have asked around, no-one has a clue.
Email the school and ask, failing that, email Qatar Foundation.
Sorry. :-(

The quoted paragraph pretty much covers it. It is a standardised conveyor belt process that has become faster over the years. There are occasionally glitches, especially if someone decides they don't like the look of your chest X-rays. Everyone gets the same medical no matter where you are from or who you are. Remember, the vast, vast majority of medicals are for the ex-pats from South Asia who go to Qatar to basically do all the work (see recent press concerning the world cup infrastructure) so what they most want to avoid is TB.
Frankly, it's about a thousand times quicker than the stuff we are having to get done for Indonesia!