How to Send Your Teaching Salary Home from Korea, China, Vietnam or the Gulf

The cheapest way to send a teaching salary home is usually a multi-currency account like Wise, because it converts at the mid-market exchange rate and shows you the fee before you press send, where a bank wire hides most of its cost inside a worse rate. The catch is that it works far better in some countries than others. In Korea and the Gulf it is straightforward once your paperwork is in order. In China and Vietnam, local currency controls limit what any service can do, and you should plan around that rather than around a marketing page.

Open a Wise account before you leave

What a Bank Transfer Actually Costs

Ask a bank teller what it costs to wire money home and they will quote you a flat fee. That fee is the small part.

A typical international wire has three costs:

The sending fee. The number they tell you. Often modest.

The exchange margin. The bank converts at its own rate, which sits somewhere between one and four percent worse than the rate you see on Google. On a monthly salary that is the equivalent of a second fee, and it does not appear on any receipt.

Intermediary and receiving fees. Wires route through correspondent banks, each of which may take a cut, and your home bank may charge to receive. You find out what arrived when it arrives.

Send the equivalent of $2,000 a month for a year and the exchange margin alone can be several hundred dollars. It is the largest invisible expense of most teachers' contracts, and most never calculate it. Our salary pages show what you earn; this is about how much of it you keep.

What Wise Does Differently

Wise is a multi-currency account. You hold balances in several currencies, and when you convert between them, it uses the mid-market rate, the one you see when you search the exchange rate, and charges a fee that is shown to you as a separate line before you confirm. That is the whole difference. No margin hidden in the rate, no surprise on arrival.

The other features that matter for teachers:

Local account details. You get account numbers in major currencies (for example GBP, EUR, USD, AUD) so you can be paid or send to yourself like a local transfer.

Hold and convert. Keep a balance in the currency you are paid in and convert when the rate suits you, rather than on payday.

A card. Spend from any balance while travelling between contracts without another conversion.

None of that is unique to Wise any more; there are competitors. We list Wise because it is the one with the widest currency support for the countries teachers actually work in and the clearest fee display. Check current fees on their site, since they vary by currency pair and change over time.

Set It Up Before You Leave

This is the single most useful piece of advice in this post. Open your account while you are still in your home country, using your home address and home ID. Verification is designed around home documents. Trying to verify from a Korean apartment with a passport and no local utility bill is possible but slower and more fragile.

The sequence:

1. Open the account from home. Verify with your passport or national ID and a proof of address.

2. Add your home bank account as a recipient.

3. Send yourself a small test transfer so the recipient is confirmed and you know the flow.

4. Enable two-factor authentication with an authenticator app rather than SMS, because your home SIM may not work abroad.

Do all of that before the flight and the first salary transfer is a five-minute job.

Country Notes: What Actually Works

South Korea

Korea is the easy case, with one condition: you need to be properly documented. Korean banks will not let a foreigner send money abroad without seeing an Alien Registration Card and, usually, your employment contract, which establishes that the money is legitimately earned salary. Once your ARC is issued, open a local account at a bank with English service, register your contract with them, and you can send out of Korea by local transfer to Wise's KRW account details or by a bank wire funded transfer.

Keep payslips. Korea tracks how much a foreign worker sends out relative to declared income, and being able to show the source removes any friction. Our Korea guide covers the ARC timeline.

China

Be realistic here. China controls RMB outflows tightly. A foreigner sending salary abroad needs to show the bank a work permit, a tax certificate for the income, and the employment contract, and the amount is capped against what the tax paperwork shows you have earned. That is a rule of the Chinese system, not of any transfer service, and no app makes it go away.

What that means in practice: Wise can be used from China, but with limits on what can be sent and how, and the paperwork is the same paperwork you would need for a bank wire. Many teachers in China find the most reliable route is a bank wire from their Chinese bank, with documents in hand, into their Wise USD or GBP balance, or directly home. Some employers will pay part of the salary to an overseas account by arrangement; ask before signing. Whatever you do, get your tax certificates from your school every year, because without them nothing moves. See teaching in China for the permit side.

Vietnam

Similar story with a lighter touch. Vietnamese dong is a restricted currency, and banks require evidence that the money is earned salary before allowing an outward transfer. Bring your work permit, contract, and payslips to the bank. Once the transfer is approved it can go to a Wise balance or straight home. Wise's support for sending out of Vietnam is limited, so expect a bank wire for the first leg. Cash economies also mean some teachers are paid partly in cash, which cannot be sent abroad through any legitimate channel; ask for bank transfer salary from the start. See teaching in Vietnam.

The Gulf

The UAE and Saudi Arabia have open currencies and no restrictions on sending salary home. Local exchange houses are popular and can be competitive, but compare them against Wise's displayed rate before assuming. Your salary arrives in a local bank account tied to your residence visa; from there, a local transfer to a Wise account or a direct international transfer both work. Salaries are usually tax free, so there is no tax certificate hurdle. See teaching in the UAE.

Japan and Taiwan

Both are straightforward. Japan requires your residence card and a My Number for bank accounts; Taiwan requires your ARC. Both currencies convert freely and Wise supports both well.

Timing Your Transfers

Once your route works, two habits save money.

Do not convert on payday by reflex. Hold the local balance and convert when the rate is favourable, or split across the month. Currency moves of two or three percent in a month are normal, and over a contract that adds up.

Send fewer, larger transfers. Fixed fees per transfer favour monthly or bi-monthly sends over weekly ones. Check the fee structure on the currency pair you use.

What to Avoid

Carrying cash across borders. Declarable above a threshold, unsafe, and if it goes wrong there is no recovery.

Informal exchange. Someone in a WeChat group offering to swap RMB for dollars is not a service, it is a risk.

Leaving your salary in a local account when you leave the country. Closing a Korean or Chinese bank account from abroad ranges from awkward to impossible. Empty it before your last day.

Bottom Line

For Korea, Japan, Taiwan and the Gulf, a Wise account opened before you leave will save you the exchange margin on every salary you send home, and the setup is minor. For China and Vietnam, the constraint is the local currency rules, not the tool; get your paperwork in order, expect a bank wire for the first leg, and use Wise on the receiving side. Check what your role actually pays on our salary pages, then work out how much of it you want to keep.

Open a Wise account before you leave

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