The Departure Board, Edition 7: JET closes on Friday, and Latin America's 2027 school calendars start to land

By Tara Bourke, Premier TEFL. Reviewed by Ola Flynn.

JET closes to US and Canadian applicants this Friday, 13 November, and the UK window shut on 5 November. In the same fortnight Costa Rica published its 2027 school calendar, with students returning on 1 March, and Bogotá's public schools set a 25 January start. TAPIF stays open until 15 February, and neither NALCAP nor EPIK has moved.

Where every window stands today

JET: two days left for US and Canadian applicants

UK applicants closed on 5 November. Canadian applicants have until Friday 13 November at 3pm EST, which is 8pm in London and Dublin. US applicants have until 11:59pm Hawaii time the same day, which is 4:59am Eastern on Saturday 14 November, or just before 10am in London and Dublin. JET Program USA says the deadline is final and that no applications are accepted after it has passed.

What comes next is slow, which is the reason to get in now. JET Program USA schedules interviews for late January 2027 and announces results in April. The Embassy of Japan in the UK runs interviews from January into early February and releases results in March or April.

A note on JET's own website. CLAIR, which runs the program, has had its homepage on a maintenance page since at least 5 November, citing PHP vulnerabilities and giving no return date, and it tells applicants to use their embassy or consulate page instead. That means we could not re-read its pay page this fortnight. The last figure we read there, on 17 October, was 4.02 million yen before tax in the first year, which is about $25,415 at the European Central Bank rate of 10 November, or roughly $2,118 a month. We are printing it with that date attached and will re-check it when the site returns.

Latin America's 2027 school calendars are starting to land

In Edition 6 we said no Latin American country had published its 2027 school calendar. Two now have, one has approved its framework, and one has not moved. These are the dates a school hiring for next year is working to.

Costa Rica's calendar carries a change worth knowing. The ministry splits the year into 180 lesson days and 20 days of teacher training, planning and management, and counts all 200 as days of service. If you are weighing a Costa Rican contract, ask how many of those days you would be paid for in school and how many are training days.

The Bogotá resolution covers the city's public schools only. Colombia has many certified education authorities, each issuing its own calendar, so check the dates with any private school or language academy that offers you work. Nothing in these calendars says when schools hire, so we are not printing a hiring season for any of these countries. For the country detail, our Colombia guide and Costa Rica salary and visa guide go further, and Costa Rica has no employer-sponsored teacher visa route we could confirm on an official page, so read our Costa Rica work visa guide before you accept an offer.

TAPIF: the background check has a shelf life

France's teaching assistant program is open until 15 February 2027 through Villa Albertine's application portal. The fee is $149, non-refundable, and Villa Albertine says no fee waivers are available. Assistants work up to 12 hours a week in up to three schools for seven months, October to April, for 1,010.67 euros a month gross, about 810 net. That is roughly $1,133 gross and $908 net at the European Central Bank rate of 10 November. You need to be a US citizen or permanent resident aged 20 to 35, with three years of higher education by departure and B1 French.

The detail worth acting on is in the program's FAQ, which asks for a criminal background check issued within the previous three months. Four months is a long application window, and a check ordered now could be out of date by the time you submit in January or February. Our reading is to work backward from the day you plan to submit, not forward from the day applications opened. Check the exact wording on the FAQ before you order.

EPIK and NALCAP: no movement, and what that means

EPIK's how-to-apply page still says spring applications open on 1 August of the previous year, and it still posts no closing date. Its salary page is still stamped 4 May 2026 for the Fall 2026 intake and says the education offices are not hiring at Level 3, so the scale you can be hired on is unchanged at 2.2 to 2.8 million won a month. That is about $1,643 to $2,091 at the European Central Bank rate of 10 November, 1,501.56 won to the euro. We could not load EPIK's timeline page today. When we read it on 17 October it put spring interviews and document checks between October and January, so a missing closing date is not a reason to wait. If you are in the queue, have your apostilled background check ready before your interview.

Spain's NALCAP page reads "Application Period: Closed" and gives no 2027-28 date. It still lists a monthly stipend of 800 to 1,000 euros depending on region. If Spain is your plan, use the wait to get your degree conferred and your documents in order, and we will print the date the day the ministry does.

What should you do in the next three weeks?

Get qualified before the southern school year starts

A teacher hired for a 1 March start in Costa Rica will usually be asked for a TEFL certificate, and three and a half months is enough time to finish one. The 120 Hour Online TEFL Course is the standard entry qualification and most people complete it in four to eight weeks. If you want more weight on paper, the 180 Hour Level 5 TEFL Diploma is a regulated qualification. You can compare everything on our accredited TEFL courses page.

Catching up? Issue 006 covered Latin America's school years, visas and minimum wages, and issue 005 covered JET's opening and Fulbright's final week.

Sources and method: JET deadlines are from JET Program USA, JET Programme Canada and the Embassy of Japan in the UK, and the JET maintenance notice from CLAIR. JET pay was last read on the CLAIR FAQ on 17 October. TAPIF is from Villa Albertine and its FAQ. EPIK is from its how-to-apply and salary and benefits pages. NALCAP is from the Spanish Ministry of Education NALCAP page. Costa Rica is from the Ministry of Public Education's 2027 school calendar, Bogotá from the Secretaría de Educación del Distrito's announcement of Resolución 1230, Argentina from the Ministry of Human Capital's Federal Education Council announcement and Chile from the Ministry of Education's regional calendar page. Conversions use the European Central Bank reference rates of 10 November 2026 (1 euro to 1.1214 US dollars, 177.38 yen and 1,501.56 won). All checked 11 November 2026 unless stated.

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