Overseas internships

Quick answer

A real overseas internship is sponsored by the employer, holds the correct work authorisation, does not charge you for the placement, and has a named supervisor. Confirm the visa rules with your own country's embassy or consulate, and with its overseas labour body if it has one, before paying anyone.

Internships abroad are sold to students in a way that rarely describes the arrangement accurately, and the pitch is much the same in every country. This page is about how they actually work, which official bodies decide each part of the question, and how to check an offer before you pay anyone.

The four things that decide whether it is real

Who sponsors the position. Normally the employer, who then pays you and handles the administrative cost.
Who holds the work authorisation. Not the same question as the first, and the one people skip.
Who pays for it. You should pay your own travel, living costs and the visa fee. You should not pay for the privilege of taking the job.
Who is your supervisor, by name. If you cannot name them, that is the finding.

The official bodies, and what each one decides

These are the places that give authoritative answers. An agency cannot override any of them, and an agency that quotes them accurately is rarer than one that quotes them vaguely.

Your own country’s embassy or consulate for the country you are going to. They decide what you may do on the visa you will hold, and they are the only authoritative answer on whether a particular arrangement is permitted. An agency’s opinion about this is worth nothing.
The Department of Migrant Workers, under the Department of Foreign Affairs. Handles assistance and repatriation for Filipinos abroad, and is the right body to contact if you are stranded or being mistreated overseas. Ask your agency’s arrangement to be confirmed here before you pay.
The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration. Covers deployment for overseas employment. Whether a given internship falls inside its remit depends on how the arrangement is structured, and that is a question to put to them rather than assume.
The Department of Foreign Affairs. For the wider question of what is happening with your document, and for consular assistance.
The company’s own HR or careers page, found by you rather than supplied by the agency. This is the cheapest and most decisive check on the whole thing.

How to check an offer

Ask, in writing: which country, which visa or work permit, held by whom, under what programme. “We handle everything” is not an answer.
Contact the company on an address you found yourself. Confirm the role exists, that they arranged it, and ask who your supervisor will be.
Ask your own country’s embassy or consulate for that country whether the described arrangement is something a citizen of your country may do on that visa.
Ask the agency who pays them – the company or you – and how.
Get the fee itemised, in writing, and ask what happens to it if the placement does not happen.
Do not send money before an offer letter from the employer. An offer that exists only in an agency’s document is not an offer.

Warning signs

A guarantee of placement, a visa, or a job after graduation.
A price quoted only after several meetings, or only on request.
Being asked to enter on a tourist visa and work “just a few weeks”. This is a problem whether or not anyone intends anything dishonest.
Testimonials you cannot independently verify, from people who will not give a number.
No named supervisor, or a role described only as “exposure to an international environment”.
Pressure to pay a deposit before anything has been confirmed by the employer.

If something goes wrong

Contact your own country’s embassy or consulate for the country you are in – that is what they are for. In the Philippines the Department of Migrant Workers also assists nationals abroad and can tell you what support exists; most countries have an equivalent labour or foreign ministry service. If you paid an agency and the placement did not happen, keep every document, including the receipt: that is the whole of your case.

Related: student internships here, which covers the rules that apply to unpaid work, and getting an internship in the Philippines for how to apply. Those rules are about domestic placements, but the principle is the same – the employer bears the cost, not you.

This page is general information, not legal or immigration advice. Rules about work authorisation differ by country and by nationality, and they change. Confirm your own position with the embassy or consulate concerned before you commit money.

Tools for working through this

Word Counter — for the cover letter, and for checking an offer letter’s wording is not longer than it needs to be.

Case Converter — tidies application forms where the same name has to be typed identically in six boxes.

Citation & Bibliography Generator — some placements ask for an academic reference or a written report.

Percentage Calculator — for checking an offer’s stated pay against local rates before you accept it.

All pages in this section

Choosing where to intern abroad: six deciding factors — The six questions that decide the destination, and the two that come before any of them: what the visa permits and who sponsors the placement.
Visas and work authorisation for an internship abroad — Which permission you actually need, who issues it, and why the answer depends on the work rather than on the offer letter.
Checking a placement abroad before you pay anyone — The checks to run before money changes hands: who employs you, who supervises you, and what the employer confirms in writing.
Working culture and language on an overseas placement — What changes when you are the outsider in a workplace, and how to read the rules nobody writes down.

Common questions

Who should sponsor an overseas internship?

Normally the employer, which then pays you and handles the administrative cost. If an agency is selling the placement, ask who employs you, who supervises you, and who holds the work authorisation.

Which body decides whether I can work abroad?

The destination country decides what you may do on the visa you will hold, and your own country's embassy or consulate is the authoritative source on that. Where a country has an overseas labour body - the Philippine Department of Migrant Workers is one - that body handles assistance and repatriation for its nationals.

What should I do if something goes wrong?

Contact your own country's embassy or consulate in the country you are in, and its overseas labour body if it has one. Keep copies of the offer, the contract, and any payment receipts, and do not hand over your passport to an employer.