Employment for my well-educated Taiwanese fiance who wants to work with kids?

[rmaguir 0]

Hope this is the right forum for this sort of question. If it's not, sorry.

My fiance and I will be getting married this Thursday in Taiwan. We'll be starting the DCF filing of her I-130 petition/CR-1 visa ASAP. Assuming we make it back to the US, I'm wondering how we should go about finding her a job.

Here's some background on her:

- She's 30. She's worked as a teacher, a French-Chinese translator, a museum docent, a magazine journalist and editor. She's got a BA in French from a Taiwanese university as well as a Masters in Cultural Mediation from IESA in Paris. She speaks French, English, Mandarin, and Taiwanese, and she loves children (they love her). She lived in France for almost three years and spent for months with me in the US. She is also a writer and a painter. At present, she is working as a teacher and studying art therapy.

Here's our plan:

I'll be starting grad school in one of three cities (D.C., NYC, or Boston) in the Fall of 2009, so that's where we'll be. We'll need to find her a job there as soon as we know that's where we'll be.

Any advice about how to go about this? Is there a visa journey job board?

[Aubrey 10]

If your SO wants to teach, each state has their own standards for teacher certification. Most states allow a person who is certified elsewhere to just take a test to be employable, and then later take whatever coursework they're missing within some time period. But you should check with the state board of teaching in your state. But keep in mind you won't see people hiring again until next summer.

[redglasses 1]

I am assuming she doesn't have the US license to teach K-12 children.

It might take a while to obtain one, so I suggest teaching in a preschool.

To be a preschool teacher, you need to be a high school graduate and get a childcare work permit from a sheriff's office.

[NickD 202]

In Wisconsin with a very strong teachers union, very good pay, full prepaid medical benefits, a very long vacation period plus the winter season off, they don't call that Christmas anymore, the list of applications is very long. When one teacher retired last year, over 1,500 applicants for that job. Pay raises are based on continuing education rather than performance in the classroom, don't be surprised if a 3rd grade teacher has a Ph.D. Oh, and if you want your kids to succeed, plan on spending two hours each night helping them to their homework with more time on weekends. Had to do that with my Spanish speaking daughter for three years to keep her on the high honor roll. They sure offered all kinds of help at first, but when the 3:00 PM bell rings, the teachers parking lot is empty at 3:01 PM.

Even better to be a university professor with an average pay check of over $130K per year with many in the $150K range, would be a nice job if you can get one.

[NYPeach 13]

Aubrey is correct - each state grants their own teaching licenses and the requirements vary with each. I'd start by contacting the State Education Dept. in NY, Massachussetts, and D.C. (or surrounding states).