Questions to Ask Before Accepting an Overseas Job Offer (Scam Checklist)

An overseas job can change your life — or cost you your savings, if it’s a scam. Before you accept any offer abroad, run it through this checklist. If an offer can’t pass these questions, that’s your answer. This is the single most useful thing you can read before you pay anyone or book a flight.

Verify the employer and recruiter

Before anything else, confirm the people are real:

• Does the company actually exist? Look for a real website, address, trade licence and phone — and check them independently, not just what the recruiter sent.
• Is the recruiter licensed? In most countries, legitimate overseas recruiters are registered (e.g. India’s eMigrate, the Philippines’ DMW, Pakistan’s BE&OE, Poland’s KRAZ). Verify the licence number.
• Can you reach the employer directly? Be wary of “jobs” that only ever come through a middleman on WhatsApp.

Pay, contract and visa questions

Get the real terms in writing and ask:

• What is the exact salary, in what currency, paid how often?
• Is the pay ‘all-in’ or does it exclude housing, transport and food?
• What visa is this? Insist on a proper employer-sponsored work/employment visa, not a tourist or “free” visa.
• Who pays for the visa, medical and permits? (Genuine employment visas are usually the employer’s cost.)
• Is there a written contract stating salary, job title, hours, benefits and notice — before you travel?

Accommodation and travel costs

These quietly decide whether the job is worth it:

• Is accommodation provided, shared, or paid by allowance — and is anything deducted from your wages?
• Is transport to work included?
• Who pays for your flight — you or the employer?
• What happens to your housing if the job ends?

Add it all up. Two offers with the same salary can be very different once housing, food, transport and flights are counted.

Red flags that mean walk away

Stop immediately if you see any of these:

• You’re asked to pay upfront — for a visa, “training”, “registration”, or to “block/secure” the job.
• Pressure to decide or pay fast — real hiring isn’t an emergency.
• No written contract, or a contract that doesn’t match what you were told.
• They want your original passport “as security”.
• The offer is too good — huge pay for no skills, everything free, travel “tomorrow”.
• The job changes once you arrive — a classic trafficking tactic.

The one rule that protects you: legitimate employers do not charge you to hire you. If money has to flow from you to get the job, it’s almost certainly a scam. See our full job scams guide, and the country guides for India, Pakistan, the Philippines and Nigeria.

Official resources

• US FTC — Job Scams
• ILO — Fair Recruitment

Ready to apply the right way? Browse genuine listings on OverWorld Jobs — always free, always scam-checked.