France opens tomorrow: TAPIF 2027-28 takes applications from 15 October, and the window runs to February

Two weeks ago this edition’s France row read “not published”, and we said a pattern is not a date. The date is now published. Villa Albertine, the French Embassy’s cultural arm in the United States, opens the Teaching Assistant Program in France for the 2027-28 cohort on Thursday 15 October 2026 and closes it on 15 February 2027. That is four months, which sounds generous until you count the references, the proof of three years’ study and the French-language bar in it. Behind France, the three JET deadlines are now all published, and one of them we have finally read at source.

Ola FlynnBrand and Marketing Consultant at The TEFL Institute Group. Wrote the Irish edition’s Issue 3 on pensions and the Swiss day 14 rule.

What moved since Edition 5, on the record. Three things. TAPIF’s 2027-28 opening date is now published by the programme itself, so the “pattern, not a promise” line we printed on 30 September is retired and replaced by a date. Ireland’s JET closing date of 4 December, which our Deadline Alerts page has carried since 1 October on our founder’s read of the Embassy page, was re-read by this desk on 14 October and is confirmed. And NALCAP’s page, re-read today, is still the 2026-27 page, so the Spain row stays closed with no date. Nothing we printed in Edition 5 needed correcting.

The big oneThe dates, in the order they bite

The TAPIF, British Council and Irish JET rows were read on the programmes’ own pages on 14 October 2026. The US JET and EPIK rows are carried from our 30 September read. The UK JET date is the one our Deadline Alerts page carries; the UK programme site loads nothing without a browser, so we could not re-read it today and we say so rather than pretend. Where an official page gives no date, the row says so.

Date	What opens or closes	Who it applies to	Source
Thu 15 Oct 2026	TAPIF 2027-28 opens for applications	US citizens and permanent residents, aged 20 to 35	Villa Albertine, read 14 Oct
Sat 31 Oct 2026	Irish pay and file deadline for the 2025 return, extended to 18 November only if both filing and payment are done on ROS	Irish residents with non-PAYE income above Revenue’s thresholds	Revenue, carried from 17 Sep
Thu 5 Nov 2026	JET 2027 closes for UK applicants	UK passport holders	Our Deadline Alerts page. The UK programme site could not be read by this desk on 14 Oct, so treat the date as carried, not re-verified
November 2026	British Council English Language Assistants 2027-28 opens. No day is published, only the month	UK residents, five of the last ten years in the UK	British Council, read 14 Oct
Fri 13 Nov 2026, 11:59pm HST	JET 2027 closes for US applicants	US citizens, through jetapplication.com	JET Program USA, carried from 30 Sep
Fri 4 Dec 2026, 23:59	JET 2027 closes for Irish applicants. Email only, to the JET Desk at the Embassy	Irish passport holders	Embassy of Japan in Ireland, read 14 Oct
Mon 15 Feb 2027	TAPIF 2027-28 closes	US citizens and permanent residents	Villa Albertine, read 14 Oct
Not published	NALCAP 2027-28 opening. The Ministry page still carries the 2026-27 conditions and the 2 June opening of the last round	US and Canadian citizens	Spanish Ministry, read 14 Oct
Rolling since 1 Aug	EPIK Spring 2027, reviewed in the order received	Passport holders of the seven EPIK countries	EPIK, carried from 30 Sep

If you only do one thing this week. US readers with a France plan: the portal opens tomorrow, and the two documents that take longest are the ones you cannot write yourself, which are your references and your transcripts. Ask this week. Irish readers: the JET Desk wants everything in one PDF by email, with references sent separately by the referees themselves, and it says in as many words that a reference arriving after 4 December disqualifies the application. UK readers: 5 November is three weeks away.

The France deskWhat TAPIF publishes, and what it does not yet

You voted for walkthroughs over rates after Edition 4, and we promised the next programme after JET would get the same treatment. France has chosen itself by opening tomorrow. Here is what the programme’s own pages say on 14 October, the day before the portal goes live. What they do not yet show is the required documents list inside the application itself, because the application is not open. We will read that list the day it appears and print it in Edition 7, in the same table form we used for JET. If you want the standing picture first, our guide to TAPIF covers the programme year by year, and the cost of living in France for English teachers sets the stipend against rent.

The term	What Villa Albertine publishes	What to check now
Window	Opens 15 October 2026, closes 15 February 2027 Updated 21 October 2026: the window opened on 15 October exactly as published and is now taking applications. This table is the record of what Villa Albertine published on 14 October, the day before the portal went live, and is left as sent.	Four months on paper. References and transcripts are the slow items, so start those first
Who can apply	US citizen or permanent resident, with a passport valid through the end of the contract in France	A passport expiring before 30 April 2028 needs renewing before you submit, because the programme asks for validity through the contract, not through the application
Age	20 to 35	The page does not say at which date the age is measured. We have not seen that rule published, so do not assume a birthday that falls inside the window is safe either way
Education	At least three years of higher education completed at the time of departure	Measured at departure, so a current student in their third year can apply. Proof will be by transcript, as it is for JET
Language	Native English speaker with intermediate French, B1 on the CEFR scale	B1 is the bar most applications fall at. If you have no certificate, find out now how the programme accepts proof, because the window is long enough to sit a test inside it
The job	Up to 12 hours a week, in up to three schools, October to April, seven months	Three schools can mean three timetables and three commutes. Ask about placement geography once an offer comes
The money	1,010.67 euros gross a month, approximately 810 euros net depending on regional deductions	Published in euro, so no conversion is applied here. Our France cost of living guide puts a room in a shared flat at roughly 400 to 550 euros a month outside Paris, which is most of the net figure

The pattern we retired. On 30 September we wrote that the last cycle opened 3 November and that early November was a pattern rather than a promise. The programme has opened nineteen days earlier than that pattern, which is the whole reason we refused to print it as a date. The hub board and its alerts band carry the new date from today; the Deadline Alerts page and the Salary Index are refreshed in the sweep that follows every edition.

The France Education International page that the hub board links to is the programme’s own description of the assistantship across all nationalities. It refuses automated reads, so this edition cites Villa Albertine for every TAPIF figure above. The TAPIF programme page and the call for applications.

On the wireBritain opens next month, Ireland’s JET date holds, Spain stays silent

British Council English Language Assistants: 2027-28 opens in November

The British Council’s programme page, read on 14 October, says applications for 2027-28 will open in November 2026, with no day given. The programme sends around 1,800 assistants from the UK to nine destinations a year on six-month or one-year paid placements. The last round closed on 28 January 2026 at 13:00 GMT with a reference deadline of 11 February, so expect a January close again, but treat that as the pattern until the page says otherwise. The eligibility page asks for English at C2, age 18 or over, five calendar years of UK residence within the last ten, and A-level or equivalent. On pay, the destinations page for the current cycle publishes an approximate net salary only for some countries, Austria at about 1,630 euros a month for 13 hours a week being the clearest, and we will print the 2027-28 figures when that page is updated. The programme page, eligibility and destinations.

JET Ireland: 4 December, read at source, and the file is stricter than the US one

The Embassy of Japan in Ireland’s JET page, updated 30 September and read by us on 14 October, closes the 2027 application at 23:59 on Friday 4 December 2026. Submission is by email only this year, to the JET Desk, in one combined PDF in the checklist’s order, under the Embassy’s 10 MB attachment limit. Transcripts must be original or certified, each page signed and stamped, from every institution attended including a study abroad semester. The two references go directly from the referees to the JET Desk, not through the applicant, and the page says a reference that arrives after the deadline disqualifies the application. Anyone wanting an April or early arrival must add a Police Certificate and a Certificate of Health, and if the Police Certificate is not back in time, proof of having applied is accepted as long as the certificate itself lands by 28 January 2027. Our Irish sister title takes the whole checklist apart in its own Issue 6 this week. Embassy of Japan in Ireland, applying for JET.

NALCAP: the page has not turned over

The Spanish Ministry’s North American page, re-read on 14 October, still describes the 2026-27 school year, still gives 800 to 1,000 euros a month depending on region, and still shows the last window as having opened on 2 June. There is no 2027-28 date, and we will not guess one. If Spain is your plan and you hold a US or Canadian passport, this is the year to get the degree conferred and the documents gathered. NALCAP, Spanish Ministry of Education.

EPIK and the UK sponsored board: not re-read this edition

EPIK’s Spring 2027 intake was rolling at our 30 September read, reviewed in the order received, and nothing on the hub has changed since. The UK Teaching Vacancies board was last read on 17 September and is off the table rather than carried as a stale count. Search it yourself, filtered to visa sponsorship.

Openings board

Programme	Pay, as published	Deadline	Status
TAPIF France	1,010.67 EUR gross / month about 810 EUR net	15 Feb 2027 opens 15 Oct 2026	LIVE WIRE OPENS TOMORROW
JET Japan, US	4.02M JPY / year	13 Nov 2026 11:59pm HST	LIVE WIRE 30 DAYS
JET Japan, Ireland	4.02M JPY / year	4 Dec 2026 23:59, email only	LIVE WIRE 51 DAYS
JET Japan, UK	4.02M JPY / year	5 Nov 2026 per our alerts page	LIVE WIRE 22 DAYS, UNVERIFIED TODAY
EPIK Korea	2.2M to 2.8M KRW / month by level and region	Rolling since 1 Aug	LIVE WIRE APPLY EARLY
British Council ELA	Varies by destination Austria about 1,630 EUR net, last cycle	Opens Nov 2026	ON THE WIRE MONTH ONLY
NALCAP Spain	800 to 1,000 EUR / month	Closed	LINE CLOSED NO 2027-28 DATE

TAPIF, British Council, Irish JET and NALCAP rows read on the programme’s own page on 14 October 2026; US JET and EPIK rows carried from our 30 September read; the UK JET date is carried from our Deadline Alerts page and could not be re-read at source today. Pay is shown in the currency the programme publishes, and this edition applies no currency conversion. Days-to-deadline are counted from 14 October.

Reader favouritesThe count we promised, and the honest version of it

Edition 5 said we would print the poll count in Edition 6. Here is what we can print. The hub poll’s last audited standings, re-checked on 1 September after automated clicks were stripped out, had Teach online ahead on 7 of 17 verified votes, with Asia and Europe on 3 each. We could not read the live tally for this edition, so those are the standing numbers rather than a fresh count, and we are telling you that instead of printing a figure we did not see. On the question Edition 4 asked, walkthroughs or rates, the JET desk in Edition 5 and the France desk above are our answer to the first half. EPIK’s document chain is next in the queue. The poll on the hub stays open, and it still decides.

CV corner: the four things a French assistantship file needs that a TEFL CV does not

1. Proof of French at B1, not a claim of it. The programme asks for intermediate French on the CEFR scale. B1 means you can handle most situations that arise while travelling, describe experiences and give reasons for plans. A line on a CV that says “conversational” is not evidence of that. Find out this week how the portal wants it shown.

2. A passport that outlives the contract. Validity through the end of the contract in France is an eligibility rule, not a visa formality. If yours expires before May 2028, renew it before you submit, not after.

3. Three years of higher education, evidenced. Measured at departure, which means a current third-year student qualifies, but proof will be a transcript, and transcripts take time to order.

4. Referees briefed early. We do not yet know TAPIF’s reference format for 2027-28, because the portal is not open. We do know from JET, where the references come through a portal or go directly to the desk, that a referee asked in the last week is the single most common reason an otherwise complete file fails.