PsyGuy, every American embassy has the resources to do the prints. You are adding the "to the public" qualification, which means you are no longer responding to my original assertion. All American embassies have the resources to do the prints because the prints are required for essential processes the embassies conduct, and I doubt you know much or anything about what these processes are. The embassies may choose to offer the service to the public or not, but the fact is that every US embassy has the resources to do the prints, and they DO make exceptions for individual citizens at times, even when their blanket policy at that particular embassy is to refuse the prints.

PsyGuy, US embassies do have the resources to do the prints. Every US embassy, everywhere. I stand by my advice to the teacher in Europe: her embassy CAN do the prints. There is no American embassy that does not have the resources to do this.

Actually, PsyGuy, every embassy DOES have the resources to do the prints. Many of them won't do prints routinely for anyone who asks, but they CAN do them, and they DO make exceptions. This is how I had my prints done, and this was all aided and explained to me by a friend who works at the embassy; my friend has been in a dozen embassy posts, so he does know what he is talking about. You don't work at an embassy, do you?

Email is better because they are required to answer each email, and you can calmly ensure that all of your circumstances and the steps you took are laid out. If you don't know anyone working at the embassy, then calling and speaking to a lower-level person who is inclined to just cut you off by saying they won't do the prints won't get you anywhere.

You should contact your embassy again. Send an email detailing the reason you need the prints, and the steps you've taken to obtain them, as well as the answers you've been given. Ask them if they can make an exception and do the prints. They can do this.

Also, nail varnish remover will take off the ink :)

I don't think you can do them yourself!

Can you go to a local police station and request that they do these?

I interviewed with a director at a tier 1 European school at Search London. He asked me a specific question about how I would teach a particular element, then kept talking himself until he was on a completely different topic. He asked me another question and did the same. He was excited about the school, but he talked for most of the interview and didn't notice that he didn't give me a chance to answer any of his questions. I don't know why he made me an offer because he didn't let me complete a sentence at the interview. I turned that one down even though people are still telling me I was crazy to pass up that school. I don't want to work for someone who can't listen to his teachers. If this was his best behavior at an interview, it must be very frustrating to work with him.

Do the Option 2 Electronic Submission. You fill out the application online, then mail your prints from whichever country you are living in now. When you complete the online application, it asks you to tick a box if you want a paper copy of the report mailed anywhere, and then you put in the address of your new school.

I did this and my new school had the paper copy of the report about 13 days after my prints arrived at the FBI. It was much easier and much, much faster than the old way.

They also email you an electronic copy of the report the day they receive your prints. It is the same as the paper copy they mail, but your school probably needs the paper copy.

I know someone who was banned from Search for backing out.

Not the same thing, but I take a prescription medication for hypothyroidism. My doctor in the US ensures that I have a year's worth each summer, and I take it into my (non-UAE) country each school year. Is it possible for your doctor in your home country to provide you with a prescription for six months or a year to take with you?

@chiliverde, I had the prints done at my local Embassy.

Oh, also, you now CAN check the status of your request. I was emailed a pin and a link when I completed my electronic application and payment of $18. When I followed the link and put in the pin today, I saw that my status is "Insufficient" due to "Missing fingerprint card. Please send your completed fingerprint card along with a copy of your confirmation e-mail to..."

As I said, I've recently mailed the card, so it should arrive there early next week. I'm really hoping the person I spoke to on the phone was correct and the new process means the paper report arrives much sooner.

I'm confused about this as well. I recently spoke on the phone with them about this and was told that if you apply electronically, the mailed copy goes out within two days after they receive your fingerprint card, which you have to mail to them along with the printed confirmation email of the electronic request and proof of payment. They also email you unofficial electronic results/report as soon as they get the fingerprint card, so you should get it much sooner (she said).

The person who told me this (mid-February) said the expected times on the website hadn't been updated. She said they had literally changed the policy the day before I called them.

But they still haven't changed the expected time frame on the website, so who knows. I've gotten incorrect information via phone from them in past years. I recently submitted the electronic request and payment and mailed my completed fingerprint card, so I should find out soon if the policy did indeed change.

Fine Dude is right. I know two couples whose marriages in Thailand imploded for this reason. You could argue that these men would have strayed if they had stayed at home though, so it is hard to say if the location contributed. Though I do think that Western male teachers enjoy a much higher social status in places like Thailand, so the pool of options may have been larger.

But I also know international teachers who met and married in Thailand/SE Asia. And many marriages that remained solid.

I don't know if the divorce rates are higher or lower than you would see in Canada, the US, or the UK, but in my school there are and continue to be marriages ending when one spouse chooses to pursue a relationship with a local person. This might be because, as my host country friends explained, a Western spouse or boyfriend is a status symbol here. This seems to be the case at a few other schools where my friends work, but not in other places.

But I have no idea if these are higher rates than at home. There are also many happy marriages that remain solid.

I don't think the workload is an issue if both spouses are teachers