I am an US citizen who is interested in working the EU, Ireland and the UK and wondering how to go about go about gaining the permits to work on a temporary basis in such countries. I am also interested in working in Korea (South) and Japan.

I am currently a resident of Las Vegas Nevada, 26 year old guy who just wants to travel a bit before I turn 30.

Any one else here moved from the US to some where else in the world?

What advice could you give me?

How was the experience?

Thank you and hope to hear from you.

If you have a college degree, one way is to look for work teaching English as a second language. This is a popular way to live for a year in Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, and other countries. I don't know what the situationn is now in Eastern Europe, because I'm not sure when they come under the EU employment umbrella, but there used to be a lot of work there.

In some countries, like Korea, ESL pays well enough to live and to save money. In others, like Thailand, it pay just enough to get by, generally.

There are courses you can take to get a TEFL (Teacher of English as a Foreign Language) certificate, though in many countries it isn't necessary. China and Vietnam have short term suumer programs where you teach for two months or so.

If you are by any chance have a teaching certificate and a few years experience, you could look at teaching in international schools. A few don't even require experience.

Otherwise, getting a work permit for all of these countries is next to impossible. In the EU, the employer must provide some sort of evidence that there are no qualified people from the EU interested in the job. This hurts those who want to teach English, as there are all those people from England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales to fill such postiions. I've heard that there are some people who teach in Spain without work permits, partly because by the time the permits would be issued, the year's contract would be up.

You might be able to qualify for a WHV (Working Holiday Visa) for New Zealand or Australia.

Where can I look up more about these programs that teach for 2 short months? This seems to be a start.

Try Dave's ESL cafe, which is the major esl job site.

I looked at Dave's and found one summer job posting on the China Job Board, to give you an idea. There will probably be a lot more posted this month. Vietnam sometimes has summer jobs, too.