Visas & Support

Our program does not have any specific start dates, and you are free to arrive (or leave) as you please. We only ask that you arrive at least 5 days before you plan to begin teaching, and do not leave in the middle of a teaching semester for obvious reasons.

However, the biggest hiring seasons for English teachers in Poland is between September and mid October, and again between January and mid February. We highly recommend that you schedule your arrival for one of these hiring seasons to give yourself the biggest window of opportunity to find work.

We are a teaching community, not a recruitment agency or a language school. As such, it is not possible for us to guarantee a job for any of our Wizards. Schools in Poland do their own hiring, so no matter what you will still have to interview and get hired by a school before you start teaching.

If you would prefer to come to Poland with a guaranteed job, you can apply for our Language Assistant program.

While we try our best to match all approved Wizards with jobs before their arrival, this is not always possible as many schools in Poland will only hire face-to-face. On average, about half of our inbound Wizards are able to secure work through our network before arriving, and another chunk arrive with interviews or trial classes already setup. The overwhelming majority of the remaining Wizards are able to find work within their first month in Poland.

Theoretically yes, but realistically, this is not something to rely on unless you are extremely qualified and/or willing to do a bit of your own job hunting in advance. While we do put forward Wizards to our partner schools before they arrive, for obvious reasons we do prioritize Wizards who are already here, and then Wizards who have already confirmed their arrival date. Furthermore, many schools are reluctant to consider applicants who are not already here or planning to be here by a certain date. If you are not capable of doing your own job hunting before and after arriving in Europe, this is not the program for you. Feel free to apply to our Language Assistant program if you’d feel more comfortable having a guaranteed job before embarking on your travels.

Absolutely. Teaching jobs in Poland, like the rest of Europe, are rarely advertised overseas, and most schools will expect you to already be in the country before making the call to hire you. Our network of schools provides a “back door” to interview in advance to teaching jobs that would not otherwise be advertised or available to you.

Additionally, for non-EU citizens, our program provides a solution to the “chicken and egg” catch common in Poland and other EU countries: You can’t get a job until you’re legal to work, but you can’t be legal to work until you have a job. As an English Wizard, you will have a work visa allowing you to legally teach English in Poland, so you can tell schools that you are already legal to work and they can hire you without any additional procedures.

Finally, being part of the English Wizards community means that you are part of Poland’s largest community of native English teachers In addition to support you’ll receive from our community managers and your fellow Wizards, this translates to the #1 job hunting resource: word of mouth.

Being accepted as a Wizard means that you are part of our community. As a teaching community, we pride ourselves on being made up of 100% top quality English teachers. It also means that we will be sending you forward to our partner schools, arranging a work visa on your behalf, and providing you with an enormous amount of additional job searching support. Similar companies in Europe charge hundreds, or even thousands of dollars for services like ours. We provide these services free of charge to teachers we firmly believe will have no problem finding work as an English Wizard and representing the English Wizards community.

Absolutely! Just specify in your application that you would like to teach in the same city. If you would like to share accommodation, you can let your Community Manager know this once you have been accepted.

Absolutely! We love seeing applications from future Wizards who have already made the jump into life overseas. However, if you are not an EU citizen, you may not be able to get a visa before you arrive, as it is not always possible to obtain a Polish visa in a third country. Instead, you will have to come to Poland without a visa and apply for a Residence Permit at the Immigration Office.

This depends on how fluently and clearly you can speak English. If your level of English is anything below perfectly fluent or if you have a non-native accent, we unfortunately cannot accept you as a Wizard. Poland, like the rest of Europe, has a very high level of English proficiency. There is no shortage of local teachers who can speak C1 English and have advanced degrees and loads of teaching experience. For us to be able to consider you, you must offer something that no Polish teacher can offer: a native understanding of the English language. If you can speak English with a native proficiency and a neutral accent, and can prove it in your interview, we will gladly accept you. However, you must still be prepared for a more competitive job hunt if English is not your first language, and the chances that we will be able to guarantee you a job before your arrival will be slimmer.

If English is still your first language and you speak with a clear, standard accent, we will usually still be able to accept you as long as you meet our full requirements. For example, if you were born in Guatemala, hold Guatemalan citizenship, but moved to the U.S. at a very young age and speak English perfectly with an American accent, we will treat your will will view your application with the same merits as an American-born native speaker.

If you are a Native Speaker and a qualified teacher, you are welcome to apply, and if we think you have what it takes to make a great Wizard, we can accept you into the program. However, if you have no teaching experience, the chances that we’ll be able to match you with potential jobs before you arrive is very slim, so you should be prepared for a more competitive job hunt upon arrival.

We highly recommend that less experienced teachers first start with our Language Assistant program. You are free to begin hunting for full-time teaching work during your time as a Language Assistant.

Yes, assuming you meet the rest of our eligibility requirements. A Bachelor’s degree is not required to teach in Poland, although it is a plus. Wizards without a Bachelor’s degree who possess a TEFL and prior teaching experience usually have no issue finding jobs in Poland.

Absolutely. We work with a TEFL certification program to provide our Wizards with a discounted TEFL course which you can take as you hunt for jobs. If you are new to teaching, we highly recommend you instead apply for our Language Assistant program, which will guarantee you part time work and accommodation as you complete your TEFL.

English Wizards is a community of Native English Teachers that provide teaching services to schools, businesses, and other clients all over Poland. We also offer the schools that we work with a huge variety of other services in addition to top-quality teachers like yourself, such as outsourced payroll and tax compliance. Just like how the schools pay teachers for their teaching, schools pay us for our services.

If you are a citizen of an EU or EEA country, the answer is no. You can work freely in Poland without a visa. But if you are not an EU or EEA national, you must have a work visa to work in Poland. Our team is very experienced with this process and will help you obtain one.

It’s a bit complicated, that’s why our legal team does the dirty work! But in a nutshell: There are two steps to obtaining a Polish work visa. First, the company you’ll be working for (us) applies for a work permit through the local labor office. Next, you take the work permit, your passport, and a few other documents to the nearest Polish consulate or embassy and receive a work visa. Alternatively, you can travel to Poland and submit the documents at a local Immigration Office and obtain a Residence Permit.

The cost of obtaining a Polish work permit is 500PLN (about €115). This must be paid to us, as we will be taking care of the entire work permit process, including fee payments. If you are applying outside of Poland, you must also pay the consulate fee, which varies from country to country. For example, in the U.S. it is 72 USD and in New Zealand it is 102 NZD. If you are applying within Poland, you must instead pay the Residence Permit fee of 490PLN.

In a nutshell, yes. If you meet our eligibility requirements of our Teach in Poland program and you are accepted, yes you qualify for a Polish work visa. The only possible situation where there may be complications is if you have a criminal record or any mental or physical health issues. If this applies to you, please indicate so in your application.

As of now, you can still freely live and work in Poland without a visa, but unfortunately nobody can say for sure about the future. However, the Polish government has vowed to allow UK citizens to remain in Poland without any additional red tape in the event of a “no deal” Brexit. Essentially, you should be fine unless something goes horribly wrong. And even if it does, we’re ready to make sure you’ll find a way to stay here!

Polish work visas are always tied to the employer that arranged the work permit. Traditionally, non-EU English teachers are caught in a trap since it isn’t legal to work at more than one school. Being part of the English Wizards community means that you’ll have a work-around to this frustrating limitation, as your work permit will be with English Wizards, and not any particular school. You are free to teach English anywhere you’d like, and we provide outsourced payroll services to schools which allow them to pay you legally under your work visa.

For private tutoring, we offer a simple (and 100% legal) system of invoicing your private students and including the pay in your monthly pay check.

Keep in mind that your work permit only allows you to work as an English teacher, so getting paid for any work that isn’t English teaching is not legal. If you would like to “branch out” and find other work, let us know as we may be able to modify your work permit accordingly.

Just like the locals, of course! Navigating Polish cities is very easy, as all have well developed and reliable public transportation systems, with buses, trams, and in the case of Warsaw, a metro. Cities offer transit passes for around €20-30 per month depending on the city. Your Program Director can show you how to obtain one of these. Some Wizards who choose to live near the city center are lucky enough to live within walking distance of their jobs.

Not at all! You will quickly get to meet the other Wizards working in your city through our Facebook group and regular social events. All cities in Poland where we have Wizards working in are very cosmopolitan and have vibrant expat scenes. These communities of fellow foreigners are usually very friendly, with Facebook groups and regular meetups to welcome newcomers to the city. The Polish people are also very friendly and welcoming to foreigners, just make a few trips to a social bar or cafe and you’ll see for yourself! The level of English spoken by Poles is very high, so the language barrier is rarely a problem when meeting locals. In many cities, Community Managers also organize language exchanges, which are a perfect opportunity to mingle with locals, expats, and fellow Wizards.

You will get paid by the hour, and will be paid monthly via bank transfer. The rate of pay will depend on whaat job you are able to land, and you are completely free to negotiate your own pay rate with your employer. English Wizards does not mediate such negotiations, however can offer you advice on what rate(s) can be expected from which schools.

 

The exact nature of the hours is between you and the school or business. Typically, teachers at public and private schools will work regular school hours, teachers at language centers will work weekday afternoons and evenings and occasional Saturday mornings, and business English teachers will work weekday mornings and early afternoons.

Teaching “full time” for an English teacher in Europe generally means teaching 20-30 hours a week, and very few teachers work more than that. It is very common for schools to offer new teachers only part time hours, often between 5 and 15 hours per week, until they have proven themselves as a good fit for their classroom. As such, you should be ready to only work part-time (or juggle multiple part-time jobs) during their first few months before filling up your schedule.

In Poland, personal income taxes are paid by the employer and not the individual. That is, the school will pay income taxes and social security payments on your behalf as part of your “brutto” salary. The salary the school offers will almost always be the “netto” rate – that is, what you get in your hand. There are no further taxes on this income, and you can see and spend every last penny of your “netto” salary. You will never have to file taxes.

We offer all of our Wizards a handy cheat sheet explaining the difference between “netto” and “brutto” rates in Poland in order to make negociating your salary a breeze.

Our program does not have any specific start dates, and you are free to arrive (or leave) as you please. We only ask that you arrive at least 5 days before you plan to begin teaching, and do not leave in the middle of a teaching semester for obvious reasons.

However, the biggest hiring seasons for English teachers in Poland is between September and mid October, and again between January and mid February. We highly recommend that you schedule your arrival for one of these hiring seasons to give yourself the biggest window of opportunity to find work.

We are a teaching community, not a recruitment agency or a language school. As such, it is not possible for us to guarantee a job for any of our Wizards. Schools in Poland do their own hiring, so no matter what you will still have to interview and get hired by a school before you start teaching.

If you would prefer to come to Poland with a guaranteed job, you can apply for our Language Assistant program.

While we try our best to match all approved Wizards with jobs before their arrival, this is not always possible as many schools in Poland will only hire face-to-face. On average, about half of our inbound Wizards are able to secure work through our network before arriving, and another chunk arrive with interviews or trial classes already setup. The overwhelming majority of the remaining Wizards are able to find work within their first month in Poland.

Theoretically yes, but realistically, this is not something to rely on unless you are extremely qualified and/or willing to do a bit of your own job hunting in advance. While we do put forward Wizards to our partner schools before they arrive, for obvious reasons we do prioritize Wizards who are already here, and then Wizards who have already confirmed their arrival date. Furthermore, many schools are reluctant to consider applicants who are not already here or planning to be here by a certain date. If you are not capable of doing your own job hunting before and after arriving in Europe, this is not the program for you. Feel free to apply to our Language Assistant program if you’d feel more comfortable having a guaranteed job before embarking on your travels.

Absolutely. Teaching jobs in Poland, like the rest of Europe, are rarely advertised overseas, and most schools will expect you to already be in the country before making the call to hire you. Our network of schools provides a “back door” to interview in advance to teaching jobs that would not otherwise be advertised or available to you.

Additionally, for non-EU citizens, our program provides a solution to the “chicken and egg” catch common in Poland and other EU countries: You can’t get a job until you’re legal to work, but you can’t be legal to work until you have a job. As an English Wizard, you will have a work visa allowing you to legally teach English in Poland, so you can tell schools that you are already legal to work and they can hire you without any additional procedures.

Finally, being part of the English Wizards community means that you are part of Poland’s largest community of native English teachers In addition to support you’ll receive from our community managers and your fellow Wizards, this translates to the #1 job hunting resource: word of mouth.

Being accepted as a Wizard means that you are part of our community. As a teaching community, we pride ourselves on being made up of 100% top quality English teachers. It also means that we will be sending you forward to our partner schools, arranging a work visa on your behalf, and providing you with an enormous amount of additional job searching support. Similar companies in Europe charge hundreds, or even thousands of dollars for services like ours. We provide these services free of charge to teachers we firmly believe will have no problem finding work as an English Wizard and representing the English Wizards community.

Absolutely! Just specify in your application that you would like to teach in the same city. If you would like to share accommodation, you can let your Community Manager know this once you have been accepted.

Absolutely! We love seeing applications from future Wizards who have already made the jump into life overseas. However, if you are not an EU citizen, you may not be able to get a visa before you arrive, as it is not always possible to obtain a Polish visa in a third country. Instead, you will have to come to Poland without a visa and apply for a Residence Permit at the Immigration Office.

This depends on how fluently and clearly you can speak English. If your level of English is anything below perfectly fluent or if you have a non-native accent, we unfortunately cannot accept you as a Wizard. Poland, like the rest of Europe, has a very high level of English proficiency. There is no shortage of local teachers who can speak C1 English and have advanced degrees and loads of teaching experience. For us to be able to consider you, you must offer something that no Polish teacher can offer: a native understanding of the English language. If you can speak English with a native proficiency and a neutral accent, and can prove it in your interview, we will gladly accept you. However, you must still be prepared for a more competitive job hunt if English is not your first language, and the chances that we will be able to guarantee you a job before your arrival will be slimmer.

If English is still your first language and you speak with a clear, standard accent, we will usually still be able to accept you as long as you meet our full requirements. For example, if you were born in Guatemala, hold Guatemalan citizenship, but moved to the U.S. at a very young age and speak English perfectly with an American accent, we will treat your will will view your application with the same merits as an American-born native speaker.

If you are a Native Speaker and a qualified teacher, you are welcome to apply, and if we think you have what it takes to make a great Wizard, we can accept you into the program. However, if you have no teaching experience, the chances that we’ll be able to match you with potential jobs before you arrive is very slim, so you should be prepared for a more competitive job hunt upon arrival.

We highly recommend that less experienced teachers first start with our Language Assistant program. You are free to begin hunting for full-time teaching work during your time as a Language Assistant.

Yes, assuming you meet the rest of our eligibility requirements. A Bachelor’s degree is not required to teach in Poland, although it is a plus. Wizards without a Bachelor’s degree who possess a TEFL and prior teaching experience usually have no issue finding jobs in Poland.

Absolutely. We work with a TEFL certification program to provide our Wizards with a discounted TEFL course which you can take as you hunt for jobs. If you are new to teaching, we highly recommend you instead apply for our Language Assistant program, which will guarantee you part time work and accommodation as you complete your TEFL.

English Wizards is a community of Native English Teachers that provide teaching services to schools, businesses, and other clients all over Poland. We also offer the schools that we work with a huge variety of other services in addition to top-quality teachers like yourself, such as outsourced payroll and tax compliance. Just like how the schools pay teachers for their teaching, schools pay us for our services.

If you are a citizen of an EU or EEA country, the answer is no. You can work freely in Poland without a visa. But if you are not an EU or EEA national, you must have a work visa to work in Poland. Our team is very experienced with this process and will help you obtain one.

It’s a bit complicated, that’s why our legal team does the dirty work! But in a nutshell: There are two steps to obtaining a Polish work visa. First, the company you’ll be working for (us) applies for a work permit through the local labor office. Next, you take the work permit, your passport, and a few other documents to the nearest Polish consulate or embassy and receive a work visa. Alternatively, you can travel to Poland and submit the documents at a local Immigration Office and obtain a Residence Permit.

The cost of obtaining a Polish work permit is 500PLN (about €115). This must be paid to us, as we will be taking care of the entire work permit process, including fee payments. If you are applying outside of Poland, you must also pay the consulate fee, which varies from country to country. For example, in the U.S. it is 72 USD and in New Zealand it is 102 NZD. If you are applying within Poland, you must instead pay the Residence Permit fee of 490PLN.

In a nutshell, yes. If you meet our eligibility requirements of our Teach in Poland program and you are accepted, yes you qualify for a Polish work visa. The only possible situation where there may be complications is if you have a criminal record or any mental or physical health issues. If this applies to you, please indicate so in your application.

As of now, you can still freely live and work in Poland without a visa, but unfortunately nobody can say for sure about the future. However, the Polish government has vowed to allow UK citizens to remain in Poland without any additional red tape in the event of a “no deal” Brexit. Essentially, you should be fine unless something goes horribly wrong. And even if it does, we’re ready to make sure you’ll find a way to stay here!

Polish work visas are always tied to the employer that arranged the work permit. Traditionally, non-EU English teachers are caught in a trap since it isn’t legal to work at more than one school. Being part of the English Wizards community means that you’ll have a work-around to this frustrating limitation, as your work permit will be with English Wizards, and not any particular school. You are free to teach English anywhere you’d like, and we provide outsourced payroll services to schools which allow them to pay you legally under your work visa.

For private tutoring, we offer a simple (and 100% legal) system of invoicing your private students and including the pay in your monthly pay check.

Keep in mind that your work permit only allows you to work as an English teacher, so getting paid for any work that isn’t English teaching is not legal. If you would like to “branch out” and find other work, let us know as we may be able to modify your work permit accordingly.

Just like the locals, of course! Navigating Polish cities is very easy, as all have well developed and reliable public transportation systems, with buses, trams, and in the case of Warsaw, a metro. Cities offer transit passes for around €20-30 per month depending on the city. Your Program Director can show you how to obtain one of these. Some Wizards who choose to live near the city center are lucky enough to live within walking distance of their jobs.

Not at all! You will quickly get to meet the other Wizards working in your city through our Facebook group and regular social events. All cities in Poland where we have Wizards working in are very cosmopolitan and have vibrant expat scenes. These communities of fellow foreigners are usually very friendly, with Facebook groups and regular meetups to welcome newcomers to the city. The Polish people are also very friendly and welcoming to foreigners, just make a few trips to a social bar or cafe and you’ll see for yourself! The level of English spoken by Poles is very high, so the language barrier is rarely a problem when meeting locals. In many cities, Community Managers also organize language exchanges, which are a perfect opportunity to mingle with locals, expats, and fellow Wizards.

You will get paid by the hour, and will be paid monthly via bank transfer. The rate of pay will depend on whaat job you are able to land, and you are completely free to negotiate your own pay rate with your employer. English Wizards does not mediate such negotiations, however can offer you advice on what rate(s) can be expected from which schools.

 

The exact nature of the hours is between you and the school or business. Typically, teachers at public and private schools will work regular school hours, teachers at language centers will work weekday afternoons and evenings and occasional Saturday mornings, and business English teachers will work weekday mornings and early afternoons.

Teaching “full time” for an English teacher in Europe generally means teaching 20-30 hours a week, and very few teachers work more than that. It is very common for schools to offer new teachers only part time hours, often between 5 and 15 hours per week, until they have proven themselves as a good fit for their classroom. As such, you should be ready to only work part-time (or juggle multiple part-time jobs) during their first few months before filling up your schedule.

In Poland, personal income taxes are paid by the employer and not the individual. That is, the school will pay income taxes and social security payments on your behalf as part of your “brutto” salary. The salary the school offers will almost always be the “netto” rate – that is, what you get in your hand. There are no further taxes on this income, and you can see and spend every last penny of your “netto” salary. You will never have to file taxes.

We offer all of our Wizards a handy cheat sheet explaining the difference between “netto” and “brutto” rates in Poland in order to make negociating your salary a breeze.

Our program does not have any specific start dates, and you are free to arrive (or leave) as you please. We only ask that you arrive at least 5 days before you plan to begin teaching, and do not leave in the middle of a teaching semester for obvious reasons.

However, the biggest hiring seasons for English teachers in Poland is between September and mid October, and again between January and mid February. We highly recommend that you schedule your arrival for one of these hiring seasons to give yourself the biggest window of opportunity to find work.

We are a teaching community, not a recruitment agency or a language school. As such, it is not possible for us to guarantee a job for any of our Wizards. Schools in Poland do their own hiring, so no matter what you will still have to interview and get hired by a school before you start teaching.

If you would prefer to come to Poland with a guaranteed job, you can apply for our Language Assistant program.

While we try our best to match all approved Wizards with jobs before their arrival, this is not always possible as many schools in Poland will only hire face-to-face. On average, about half of our inbound Wizards are able to secure work through our network before arriving, and another chunk arrive with interviews or trial classes already setup. The overwhelming majority of the remaining Wizards are able to find work within their first month in Poland.

Theoretically yes, but realistically, this is not something to rely on unless you are extremely qualified and/or willing to do a bit of your own job hunting in advance. While we do put forward Wizards to our partner schools before they arrive, for obvious reasons we do prioritize Wizards who are already here, and then Wizards who have already confirmed their arrival date. Furthermore, many schools are reluctant to consider applicants who are not already here or planning to be here by a certain date. If you are not capable of doing your own job hunting before and after arriving in Europe, this is not the program for you. Feel free to apply to our Language Assistant program if you’d feel more comfortable having a guaranteed job before embarking on your travels.

Absolutely. Teaching jobs in Poland, like the rest of Europe, are rarely advertised overseas, and most schools will expect you to already be in the country before making the call to hire you. Our network of schools provides a “back door” to interview in advance to teaching jobs that would not otherwise be advertised or available to you.

Additionally, for non-EU citizens, our program provides a solution to the “chicken and egg” catch common in Poland and other EU countries: You can’t get a job until you’re legal to work, but you can’t be legal to work until you have a job. As an English Wizard, you will have a work visa allowing you to legally teach English in Poland, so you can tell schools that you are already legal to work and they can hire you without any additional procedures.

Finally, being part of the English Wizards community means that you are part of Poland’s largest community of native English teachers In addition to support you’ll receive from our community managers and your fellow Wizards, this translates to the #1 job hunting resource: word of mouth.

Being accepted as a Wizard means that you are part of our community. As a teaching community, we pride ourselves on being made up of 100% top quality English teachers. It also means that we will be sending you forward to our partner schools, arranging a work visa on your behalf, and providing you with an enormous amount of additional job searching support. Similar companies in Europe charge hundreds, or even thousands of dollars for services like ours. We provide these services free of charge to teachers we firmly believe will have no problem finding work as an English Wizard and representing the English Wizards community.

Absolutely! Just specify in your application that you would like to teach in the same city. If you would like to share accommodation, you can let your Community Manager know this once you have been accepted.

Absolutely! We love seeing applications from future Wizards who have already made the jump into life overseas. However, if you are not an EU citizen, you may not be able to get a visa before you arrive, as it is not always possible to obtain a Polish visa in a third country. Instead, you will have to come to Poland without a visa and apply for a Residence Permit at the Immigration Office.

This depends on how fluently and clearly you can speak English. If your level of English is anything below perfectly fluent or if you have a non-native accent, we unfortunately cannot accept you as a Wizard. Poland, like the rest of Europe, has a very high level of English proficiency. There is no shortage of local teachers who can speak C1 English and have advanced degrees and loads of teaching experience. For us to be able to consider you, you must offer something that no Polish teacher can offer: a native understanding of the English language. If you can speak English with a native proficiency and a neutral accent, and can prove it in your interview, we will gladly accept you. However, you must still be prepared for a more competitive job hunt if English is not your first language, and the chances that we will be able to guarantee you a job before your arrival will be slimmer.

If English is still your first language and you speak with a clear, standard accent, we will usually still be able to accept you as long as you meet our full requirements. For example, if you were born in Guatemala, hold Guatemalan citizenship, but moved to the U.S. at a very young age and speak English perfectly with an American accent, we will treat your will will view your application with the same merits as an American-born native speaker.

If you are a Native Speaker and a qualified teacher, you are welcome to apply, and if we think you have what it takes to make a great Wizard, we can accept you into the program. However, if you have no teaching experience, the chances that we’ll be able to match you with potential jobs before you arrive is very slim, so you should be prepared for a more competitive job hunt upon arrival.

We highly recommend that less experienced teachers first start with our Language Assistant program. You are free to begin hunting for full-time teaching work during your time as a Language Assistant.

Yes, assuming you meet the rest of our eligibility requirements. A Bachelor’s degree is not required to teach in Poland, although it is a plus. Wizards without a Bachelor’s degree who possess a TEFL and prior teaching experience usually have no issue finding jobs in Poland.

Absolutely. We work with a TEFL certification program to provide our Wizards with a discounted TEFL course which you can take as you hunt for jobs. If you are new to teaching, we highly recommend you instead apply for our Language Assistant program, which will guarantee you part time work and accommodation as you complete your TEFL.

English Wizards is a community of Native English Teachers that provide teaching services to schools, businesses, and other clients all over Poland. We also offer the schools that we work with a huge variety of other services in addition to top-quality teachers like yourself, such as outsourced payroll and tax compliance. Just like how the schools pay teachers for their teaching, schools pay us for our services.

If you are a citizen of an EU or EEA country, the answer is no. You can work freely in Poland without a visa. But if you are not an EU or EEA national, you must have a work visa to work in Poland. Our team is very experienced with this process and will help you obtain one.

It’s a bit complicated, that’s why our legal team does the dirty work! But in a nutshell: There are two steps to obtaining a Polish work visa. First, the company you’ll be working for (us) applies for a work permit through the local labor office. Next, you take the work permit, your passport, and a few other documents to the nearest Polish consulate or embassy and receive a work visa. Alternatively, you can travel to Poland and submit the documents at a local Immigration Office and obtain a Residence Permit.

The cost of obtaining a Polish work permit is 500PLN (about €115). This must be paid to us, as we will be taking care of the entire work permit process, including fee payments. If you are applying outside of Poland, you must also pay the consulate fee, which varies from country to country. For example, in the U.S. it is 72 USD and in New Zealand it is 102 NZD. If you are applying within Poland, you must instead pay the Residence Permit fee of 490PLN.

In a nutshell, yes. If you meet our eligibility requirements of our Teach in Poland program and you are accepted, yes you qualify for a Polish work visa. The only possible situation where there may be complications is if you have a criminal record or any mental or physical health issues. If this applies to you, please indicate so in your application.

As of now, you can still freely live and work in Poland without a visa, but unfortunately nobody can say for sure about the future. However, the Polish government has vowed to allow UK citizens to remain in Poland without any additional red tape in the event of a “no deal” Brexit. Essentially, you should be fine unless something goes horribly wrong. And even if it does, we’re ready to make sure you’ll find a way to stay here!

Polish work visas are always tied to the employer that arranged the work permit. Traditionally, non-EU English teachers are caught in a trap since it isn’t legal to work at more than one school. Being part of the English Wizards community means that you’ll have a work-around to this frustrating limitation, as your work permit will be with English Wizards, and not any particular school. You are free to teach English anywhere you’d like, and we provide outsourced payroll services to schools which allow them to pay you legally under your work visa.

For private tutoring, we offer a simple (and 100% legal) system of invoicing your private students and including the pay in your monthly pay check.

Keep in mind that your work permit only allows you to work as an English teacher, so getting paid for any work that isn’t English teaching is not legal. If you would like to “branch out” and find other work, let us know as we may be able to modify your work permit accordingly.

Just like the locals, of course! Navigating Polish cities is very easy, as all have well developed and reliable public transportation systems, with buses, trams, and in the case of Warsaw, a metro. Cities offer transit passes for around €20-30 per month depending on the city. Your Program Director can show you how to obtain one of these. Some Wizards who choose to live near the city center are lucky enough to live within walking distance of their jobs.

Not at all! You will quickly get to meet the other Wizards working in your city through our Facebook group and regular social events. All cities in Poland where we have Wizards working in are very cosmopolitan and have vibrant expat scenes. These communities of fellow foreigners are usually very friendly, with Facebook groups and regular meetups to welcome newcomers to the city. The Polish people are also very friendly and welcoming to foreigners, just make a few trips to a social bar or cafe and you’ll see for yourself! The level of English spoken by Poles is very high, so the language barrier is rarely a problem when meeting locals. In many cities, Community Managers also organize language exchanges, which are a perfect opportunity to mingle with locals, expats, and fellow Wizards.

You will get paid by the hour, and will be paid monthly via bank transfer. The rate of pay will depend on whaat job you are able to land, and you are completely free to negotiate your own pay rate with your employer. English Wizards does not mediate such negotiations, however can offer you advice on what rate(s) can be expected from which schools.

 

The exact nature of the hours is between you and the school or business. Typically, teachers at public and private schools will work regular school hours, teachers at language centers will work weekday afternoons and evenings and occasional Saturday mornings, and business English teachers will work weekday mornings and early afternoons.

Teaching “full time” for an English teacher in Europe generally means teaching 20-30 hours a week, and very few teachers work more than that. It is very common for schools to offer new teachers only part time hours, often between 5 and 15 hours per week, until they have proven themselves as a good fit for their classroom. As such, you should be ready to only work part-time (or juggle multiple part-time jobs) during their first few months before filling up your schedule.

In Poland, personal income taxes are paid by the employer and not the individual. That is, the school will pay income taxes and social security payments on your behalf as part of your “brutto” salary. The salary the school offers will almost always be the “netto” rate – that is, what you get in your hand. There are no further taxes on this income, and you can see and spend every last penny of your “netto” salary. You will never have to file taxes.

We offer all of our Wizards a handy cheat sheet explaining the difference between “netto” and “brutto” rates in Poland in order to make negociating your salary a breeze.