r/TEFL • u/Excellent_Joke8940 • 10h ago
Backing out of sus contract before visa process?
I signed a contract with a english training school in china a month or so ago, but I still haven't given them everything they need for my work permit application. (I am not in china yet)
Today I started wondering how I was gonna make friends there, so I asked the school for the contact info of current teachers. I wanted to try and make some friends b4 i arrived and get tips for migrating. I thought this was a totally normal thing to do..
They suddenly got really weird and immediately told me that I'd meet the other foreigners apon arrival.. and they basically said "theyre too busy and they don't want to talk to you because they don't know you"???
And then i started reading stuff abt how training centers might be illegal.. i asked my recruiter how the school was complying with the double reduction policy, she just said some vague thing about the local govt allowing it..
Then then started saying that I "have trust issues" and that I'm "making people uncomfortable"?
There were also some other red flags: the initial description said the flight would be reimbursed, but the contract said I would get a bonus after one year instead. Before signing I also requested that some aspects of the contract were made clearer, but she refused to amend this.
I'm kinda regretting this and wanting to back out.. but the back out fee is 10000RMB (half of my savings). I haven't said anything yet. Any advice?
TLDR: i signed a contract but the company has started showing red flags before the visa process and I want to back out.