Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Holyjoe]

This is probably a bit of a daft posting as I believe I already know the answer, and may seem to be unneccessarily worrying over something that isn't really all that much, but I thought I'd put it up for discussion anyway.

My school is on the 4th floor of a building, and on the 3rd floor there is a different school, one of 2 campuses in my town (ie 2 branches of the same chain). My director has recently purchased the school below our one and is planning to merge both into one hagwon with the other school's name.

Fair enough so far.

However, the actual merger won't take place for a few months yet as she gets to grips with the logistics. This has come at a time when one of the other school's foreign teachers finished their contract and went home, so they've been a little stretched for staff.

(Now if you're keeping up you can probably guess what's coming next)
So my director asked me one day to "help" out and take a few of the classes (the other school asked, and I'm well under my contract hours anyway so it's not overtime or anything). I refused, on the grounds that teaching at another hagwon is illegal, and I have no real desire to get busted for that thank you very much. I suggested that if she wanted me to take the class then the kids would have to come up to our academy and take the class in my normal classroom. This wasn't suitable for a variety of reasons.

So, we decided upon an 'outside class' in the park close to our school - have a fun class rather than a teaching class, which was fine with me.
Then I thought later... is it fine?

I know this is being really pedantic, but I think in theory you could get busted for "teaching" a class of kids in the park because it's not in your actual hagwon that your E-2 is tied to. Is it possible that if, by some miraculous twist of fate, immigration were cruising the neighbourhood then I could get busted for "teaching" in a park?

Yes this probably sounds ultra-paranoid... but I'm awaiting my F-2 visa coming through and there's absolutely no way I want to risk jeapordising that as I'm sure you can imagine.

Any thoughts/ideas/experiences welcome!

[schwa]

Sounds to me like theres nothing shady going on, so in terms of coming to grips with her merger, one of the first orders of business for your director ought to be a visit to immi to straighten out your situation. I mean, why not? A form, a fee, a scribble on your alien card, & everything's legit. In your boots, I'd insist on it. Taking a class outdoors is not an issue. Not being registered to teach them could be.

[Walter Mitty]

For the class you taught in the park, was it just kids from the "new" school or a mix of your existing ones and the new ones?

That's splitting hairs, but it's probably easier to justify that in the eyes of immigration than if it were just students from the other school.

If your school bought the other one outright, all they'd need to do (as far as I can tell) is absorb it into yours, so that all the classes fall under the same name. As long as the new name matches the one on your contract / visa / alien card you should be fine.

[Holyjoe]

The other school have a new teacher arriving "in a couple of weeks" (yeah yeah), so they are struggling to cover all their classes with a foreign teacher, which is where I fit in.
The kids in these outdoor classes are all from the other school.

Both schools won't fully merge for another couple of months yet, so it's not really possible to alter my E2 location yet as then I wouldn't be able to work at the current school (I think).

Once this new teacher arrives then there won't be any need for taking these extra classes and then there won't be any problem.
I was just a wee bit curious as to the "legality" of teaching away from the location listed on my E-2 with kids that aren't from my school, as from reading here it seems immigration can be notoriously fickle...