[quote="PsyGuy"] there is no greater affirming and relevant evidence then my own experience.
[/quote]

Wow. Explains a lot.

Just as a general note, it's fairly common that shipping costs twice what your written estimate is, and takes twice as long to get there as they claim.
I wish these things weren't true, but they often are. Deal with a reputable company, get things in writing, and then expect to double the time and cost. Hopefully you won't be disappointed.
And it's not always the shipping company that causes the issue. One time I shipped with a fantastic carrier who charged me exactly what they said they would, and delivered exactly when they said. I was amazed and pleased. But the shipment got caught in customs, who held it against my will until the expected time had doubled, and then charged me storage fees that doubled the cost.

Is there any chance we could merge the two ISR forums into one ISR forum? I've never understood the difference between the two. While it's a small inconvenience to navigate between the two forums, it is an inconvenience, and for no reason that I can figure out.
Or maybe I'm a bit dim. If there is a good reason to have two forums, please tell me.

[quote="PsyGuy"]If your home life is bad, then the only thing you have going for you at best is your work life, and i dont want my world to revolve around work.[/quote]

If your home life is bad, everything else sucks. Fix it.

I spent two years in one country, not really liking it, but then looked around some different corners and down different alleys, and discovered I loved it. Spent three more years there.
I subscribe to a theory that one shouldn't make any decisions about liking or not liking a place until after living there for six months. That's long enough for the frustrations of residence permits and driving licenses to have passed, long enough to feel like you're not completely new and lost.
And it can be very difficult to tease apart any difficulties with your school from any difficulties with the country. If you're struggling every day at work, then returning every afternoon to a crap apartment that your awful school provided, you won't be in a frame of mind to notice all the wonders in the rest of the country.

Psyguy does seem rather uninformed here. There are dozens of schools in Qatar, so how could the top 5 be the bottom 5?
American School of Doha and Qatar Academy are probably the best two schools. Doha College used to round that group out as it was relatively equal, but I think lately that ASD and QA have pulled ahead. DC is still good though.
ASD has a better package for less experienced teachers. QA has a better package for everyone else.
Qatar Foundation runs Qatar Academy, and has several other schools, so at any of them you get the same package as at QA. Schools include Qatar Leadership Academy (boys boarding), Awsaj (special needs), QA Al Wakra and QA Al Khor (different locations outside of Doha, and very different programs than the original QA in Doha). QLA is the best of this bunch; it's been improving steadily in recent years.
And then there's tons of other schools, each different. I've heard Newton is ok though I don't have proof.

Mathman hits some valid points, but visa only covers part of the issue.

Schools' policies usually have some bits in there about teachers needing to be 'qualified'. Different schools can define that differently. Many American schools define it as having active US certification. Other schools, US-based or otherwise, have different requirements, such as having a teaching degree. Rules may be different for different nationalities because some countries don't even issue certification. Sweden for example - you get a teaching degree (which includes doing practice teaching) and that makes you qualified, but there is no certificate in the same way as there is in the US. So any school employing a Swede has to accept that they will not have a certificate. Which is why some schools define 'qualified' as 'legally qualified to teach in their home country'. All of which has nothing to do with visas - this is what the school requires before they can hire you.

The visa thing is separate. Some countries, not all, require that anyone employed as a teacher must prove they are qualified to teach before the country will issue a work permit. Again, the rules are different depending on where the person comes from - they cannot require a Swede to have a teaching certificate, since those don't exist in Sweden. Mathman, as an Australian, had to prove not that he had a certificate (an impossibility), but that he had fulfilled all the requirements except working at home, a technicality that governments don't care about since it doesn't have anything to do with teaching. As an American, these countries would require you to have active US certification, since there is nothing stopping you from having it.

So, both for getting hired (school requirements) and for getting a visa (country requirements), being American means that you should maintain your certification if you want to keep all your options open. Lose the certificate, and many schools/countries cannot even consider you.

You really want to have and maintain an active certification. It'll make it easier to get jobs. After all, you won't just be looking for a job now - you'll probably do it several times over the course of your career.
And point two, no matter what a school might tell you at hiring, if something bad happens, you could find that lack of active certification could be used as a pretext for firing you.

In my experience, spouses and minor children are generally covered. There are limits which are different to each school.
Mysharona's report is the first time I've heard of uni-aged children being covered. Schools typically stop covering when kids graduate high school, turn 18, or stop living with you.

Almost every school I know sends out invitations to people they're interested in. All tiers.
Take it as a compliment, do a little research, and figure out how you feel about the school and location.
The few schools I know who don't bother, are a couple with such fantastic locations that they will be inundated with eager candidates. The line at Paris's table is always silly long, and it's not because the school has such a great reputation. Still, I think it's shortsighted of them not to invite. If nothing else, they should be scouring the candidate lists and prioritizing who they find most compelling - it'll save them time sifting through the long line of everyone who ever dreamt of living in Paris.

So many opinions.
There are reasons, and good ones, why a contract may be delayed.
Last week, at our lovely school, a key HR staffer was stricken by a stomach bug and out for 4 days. A whole variety of processes ground to a halt, as he had the soft copies, the key info needed for each individual case, the experience in getting each job done - jobs which, like contracts, had to be written at one level (HR officer) based on info from another level (school director), passed through another level for approval (BOG), returned to the director for signing, then back to the HR officer for scanning and sending on to the hapless recipient who has been wondering about the holdup. In a good week, we can do these things within a few days. If the key person is home vomiting, well, it takes longer. We can muddle through, but if we suspect the HR guy will be back in a day or two, probably we'll just wait. And when we finally realize that he's been out too long, and we pass the job to another ., they're inexperienced and take even longer to get it done.
One may consider teachers cogs in a wheel, but if a teacher is out, someone takes their class and things move forward. If only the teacher can teach the advanced Chemistry concept, than the advanced Chemistry concept will wait until the teacher is well. The day still keeps going and kids go to their lessons. But office staff? They really are interconnected like cogs, and if one goes down, the others often can't move.
So what am I trying to say? Maybe that a week to get a contract is not necessarily the bad sign some would say. It could just be the sign of a stomach bug.
And some schools do have processes that take substantially longer. If they do, they should tell you upfront. I've known schools that could take 6 weeks on average to get a contract signed. They knew, they told candidates about it, and they provided signed letters of intent to soothe nerves. They should tell you, but maybe they didn't. Pick up the phone and ask.

Jan 22? Take a deep breath. It isn't time to panic yet.
Call or e-mail the director and ask when you can expect it.

Sounds like I stand corrected, at least at Search.
Can I still recommend you skip the line humbly? A sprinkling of 'excuse me' and 'I think you wanted to see me' would never go amiss, would probably ease tensions in the line, and I personally would appreciate it. You may not be there to make friends, but as a recruiter if I see you sowing discontent, it would make me wonder...
Or is my credibility shot?

As someone who's stood on both sides of the table, sorry, no line skipping.
What the paper means is they'd almost certainly like to interview you. Get in line, show the paper, and you'll probably be signed up for an interview slot without much further discussion. The people in line without a paper will be discussing the basics of who they are/what they offer before they're allowed an interview slot.
Sometimes, though, they do want to check in with you about something before they interview (to clarify a key point on a CV, ask a question about a trailing spouse, tell you something unique about the position to make sure you'd still be interested, who know), so be prepared. It shouldn't be anything hard, and if you're all still happy, you'll then be signed up for an interview.

I've waited in my fair share of those lines, and I can guarantee you won't make any friends by cutting the line. Nor will you impress the recruiter if you piss off the other candidates.

But if it's a bigger school, with a team of recruiters, you might find that one recruiter stays behind the table to handle the line, while another one works the line/the room looking for the people they've already shortlisted. So make sure your paper is easily visible so the recruiter can spot you and pull you forward.

Good luck.

We're good, PG. No harm, no foul. I didn't find your posts personal. I apologize if my note implied that I did.