Passport Requests and Serious Teachers

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MidTMike
Posts: 19
Joined: Thu Jan 23, 2014 10:42 pm

Passport Requests and Serious Teachers

Post by MidTMike »

I signed up for Seriousteachers.com and have gotten several responses. That is great news. But, each one of them asks for a passport upfront. Is this a standard request? Would this not be something they used down the road after getting hired?

Also, I see that several of the agencies that contacted me are from India. As I have worked with many teams of Indian programmers over the years and know how they love to expand their business into anything they can make money, it throws up a red flag for me. Am I being over cautious?
Dawson
Posts: 75
Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2013 5:26 am
Location: Bahrain

Re: Passport Requests and Serious Teachers

Post by Dawson »

They have their checklist of things you need and that is on their checklist. If you don't have one yet apply and get it soon. The sooner, the better.
josephine
Posts: 27
Joined: Thu Dec 26, 2013 1:11 am

Re: Passport Requests and Serious Teachers

Post by josephine »

Check first and make sure the company/school is legit, and not a fake website for ID theft. Send an email, is there a response, if so are there significant typos or grammatical errors? That's a red flag. Is there a phone number to speak with someone live? If not, another red flag. I've read on this site about companies that were scammers, so tread carefully
shadowjack
Posts: 2138
Joined: Sat Oct 06, 2012 9:49 am

Re: Passport Requests and Serious Teachers

Post by shadowjack »

No offense, but in the era of cybercrime, any website that asked me for my passport up front would not be on high on my list of agencies or organizations.

A few years back I reported an ad that TIEonline had posted because I felt it was a scam - asking for passport and drivers licence copies - had an email back saying, "Oh no, we don't deal with scammers." Then I dug deeper - the school had a shell website and the address of the school was obviously not a school (checked with Google Earth). Back with new evidence and they pulled it.

These days it is hard to tell - caveat emptor!
layla12
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Apr 05, 2014 2:23 pm

Re: Passport Requests and Serious Teachers

Post by layla12 »

This is normal for schools to ask for it. It is not being requested from Serious Teachers as they are a job board, not a school or a recruiter but it is being asked from the company that is hiring. All jobs on there are completely vetted and that is well known because there is a community of over 80,000 teachers. Also all jobs are paid ads. You have to worry more about jobs from schools or recruiters that advertise on free sites. Personally I love the service www.seriousteachers.com provides. By far it is the best in the industry.
wntriscoming
Posts: 114
Joined: Mon Oct 01, 2012 3:44 am

Re: Passport Requests and Serious Teachers

Post by wntriscoming »

I would never send my passport information upfront. You are right to be wary.

Also, I looked at the site, which I've never heard of or had any colleagues talk about in my 9 years overseas. It is an ESL teacher site, which doesn't fall under the same umbrella as the schools here on ISR. You might have more luck asking around on Dave's ESL Cafe or on the forum the website itself has.
Micky
Posts: 62
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2013 9:03 am

Re: Passport Requests and Serious Teachers

Post by Micky »

There are also quite a number of "third tier" for profit international schools on this site, besides ESL schools. I got my first job in an international school on this site. They also wanted a copy of my passport right at the beginning. I am guessing that this is because they want to ensure that they are getting a white face. Similar to what many of the ESL schools do. I have no proof of this, only speculation, but I don't see how identity thieves could benefit from obtaining only a copy of a passport. If this is your first gig this site may be OK, however TIE online or some of the others like Search, ISS etc are more likely to have better schools listed.
WonderingWhat
Posts: 34
Joined: Sat Oct 05, 2013 1:37 am

Re: Passport Requests and Serious Teachers

Post by WonderingWhat »

For sure you have to be careful about identity theft. I hate when hotels want to photocopy my passport. If some school wants your passport and driver's license up front that is scary. If they have two pieces of ID from you there are lots of things they can do with that.
interteach
Posts: 210
Joined: Wed Nov 29, 2006 2:25 pm

Re: Passport Requests and Serious Teachers

Post by interteach »

Their website looks seriously sketchy, and made only worse with no contact information at all. The schools listed on the home page in the small ads are ones that I would advise almost anyone to avoid.

On top of that, my guess is that the one poster who has positive things to say about them is a shill for them given the diction and the fact it's the author's first post.

All alarm bells are going off. You might be able to find a job at a rock-bottom school, and it won't cost you much to do so - but I can't see much else that's good coming out of this outfit.
wrldtrvlr123
Posts: 1173
Joined: Sat Feb 06, 2010 10:59 am
Location: Japan

Re: Passport Requests and Serious Teachers

Post by wrldtrvlr123 »

layla12 wrote:
> This is normal for schools to ask for it. It is not being requested from
> Serious Teachers as they are a job board, not a school or a recruiter but
> it is being asked from the company that is hiring. All jobs on there are
> completely vetted and that is well known because there is a community of
> over 80,000 teachers. Also all jobs are paid ads. You have to worry more
> about jobs from schools or recruiters that advertise on free sites.
> Personally I love the service http://www.seriousteachers.com provides. By
> far it is the best in the industry.
------------------------------------------------
Sorry. Totally disagree with you and quite frankly I am very skeptical of your post. I have nothing against the service but have never heard of them in many years of international teaching.

Yes, schools that you have interviewed with and have actually hired you may ask for a copy of your passport. A school that has an opening that I have had no contact with should have zero expectation/use for my passport. It should be enough that I say I have one and that having a valid passport is a condition of the position.
layla12
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Apr 05, 2014 2:23 pm

Re: Passport Requests and Serious Teachers

Post by layla12 »

What my point is to make sure it is understood that the Passport request is coming directly from the school on the job board. It is not coming from Serious Teachers themselves. They are the medium for schools or recruiters to advertise on. Just like Monster, or what have you. I just wanted to make that clear and not sure why that makes you skeptical? Also, just because you have never heard of them, does not mean they have not been around. They have been online since 2007. I recommend you try it for yourself as it is free for teachers to join. Excellent service, speedy website, amazing features to keep track of jobs you have applied to, no Google ads etc.
wrldtrvlr123
Posts: 1173
Joined: Sat Feb 06, 2010 10:59 am
Location: Japan

Re: Passport Requests and Serious Teachers

Post by wrldtrvlr123 »

layla12 wrote:
> What my point is to make sure it is understood that the Passport request is
> coming directly from the school on the job board. It is not coming from
> Serious Teachers themselves. They are the medium for schools or recruiters
> to advertise on. Just like Monster, or what have you. I just wanted to
> make that clear and not sure why that makes you skeptical? Also, just
> because you have never heard of them, does not mean they have not been
> around. They have been online since 2007. I recommend you try it for
> yourself as it is free for teachers to join. Excellent service, speedy
> website, amazing features to keep track of jobs you have applied to, no
> Google ads etc.

Simply because you are much to eager to have us accept and comply with a request that is unreasonable. It doesn't matter who the request is coming from. Unless it is from a school that I have interviewed with and accepted a job from, then it should be treated with suspicion. As should any website making that request and any fellow teacher/poster telling us it is perfectly normal. Others may disagree and have no problem with it. If the site has served you well, then I'm happy for you. Thankfully, I am not be looking for a this year.
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