I understand your pain and the need to find a job. It may be difficult to find a job at a typical international school without proper accreditation, but there are some other avenues you might want to pursue. There are some online ways to make some money in the ELS world that don’t require too much in the area of qualifications. In China you could look into Meten (http://www.meteni.com/english/Jobs.aspx ) Or Wallstreet English.

There are some other school you might find through Dave’s ESL Café http://www.eslcafe.com/joblist/ I am sure they are not the ideal schools but working at a national school does not have to be a bad gig, especially with limited options. You could also look into working at a missionary school, if you are a Christian, and see if they have any options for you. Best of luck in your job search and healing during your time of sadness.

antitravolta, glad it worked out for you. We have been happy with them so far, and their box quality is top notch.

I would recommend sevenseasworldwide.

Getting a visa for a foreign teacher used to be pretty straight forward. Small schools that had permission to hire foreign experts could hire someone who entered on a tourist visa, and it was very common. But because of abuse China started to crack down and tighten the process to obtain a Z visa. In the province that I live in you cannot enter with a tourist visa and change it to a work visa, it must be done out of country. Most people come in on a temporary Z visa and have it changed to a residence visa after arrival. This being said rules are rules in China but with the right guangxi (relationship) rules don’t always apply. An example of this is many high schools have illegal summer programs taught by from people from N. America. These folks come as tourist and run summer language camps. These camps are not legal but the government turns a blind eye because it is incredibly mafan (problematic) to do this legally. This said if a school cannot provide the letter of innovation then as others have already said it may not be worth your time, but that depends on the reasons you want to go to China. I have spent the last eight years sacrificing my resume to aid in the development of rural China, but if you are looking to pad your pocket and expand your professions then stick to schools that do this right. Just my two cents.