Korean Job Discussion Forums

crazycanuck · Joined: 11 Oct 2003 Location: Incheon

For complete rules regarding obtaining an E-2 visa you should contact a Korean Embassy website in your home country. For Canadians here is a link to one of the consulates:

http://www.koreanconsulate.qc.ca/

All E-2 visa applicants and those renewing will apparently have to go through the same process. This includes the EPIK people!!!

WE must obtain a Criminal Background Check!

It seems that the Korean Ministry of Justice didn't factor in the people who are already here and would actually consider staying. The new regulations are completely designed for first time teachers coming to Korea.

If your visa will need to be renewed within the next two months it would make sense if you obtained your new visa before Friday December 14!!!

There are a lot of different stories floating around on this web site. The Ministry of Justice has done a great job of making their new regulations simple, clear, easy to understand, and above all accessible by the very people who it affects. Now who wants to buy the bridge I have for sale? Several translations are out there which are actually spreading the confusion. The Korean bulletin states the local, provincial, or national CRCs would be acceptable. If you visit a Korean Embassy website you will see that this information is incorrect. Furthermore I was told that once I received my CRC I would have to go to the Canadian Embassy to obtain a verification stamp. When I contacted them I was told that they don't do this for these documents.

Having people go through a Criminal Background Check (CRC) is actually a good idea. But where is the plan for people who are already working here and have been here for several years? It takes in excess of 4 months to complete this CRC. I have been here for over 10 TEN years! Most of my co-workers have been here for over 5 years. There are about 30 of us at one university alone.

As the regulations are now, anyone who intended to renew their E-2 visa within the next 4 months is done. If you planned on staying in Korea, pack your bags you are going home. You would have had to apply for the CRC 4-5 months ago.

Recommended solution which others will take credit for:

Shouldn't all instructors currently working in Korea with an E-2 visa be asked to submit a criminal background check without having to fly back to their home country, notarizing the CRC, then validating it at a consulate or embassy? If the document is sealed as are the transcripts wouldn't that be enough???

90 days is an unworkable number for the CRC as we don't really have any idea as to how long it will actually take to obtain the document!!! The RCMP and FBI websites state that it will take longer then 14 weeks!!! Longer could mean five or six months for those that don't quite grasp the English being used here.

Al Khidr · Joined: 27 Nov 2007

I checked out your link to the Canadian website, but it specifically states those with current E-2s are exempted as I cut paste below from that website:

. To obtain VISA at the nearest Korean Consulate;
- all applicants, except those who worked previously with an E1, E2, E3 visa in Korea without any illegal activities, must be a Canadian citizen.
- all applicants must have an interview at the consulate by a consul. If applicants are not in the Montreal area, phone interview will be arranged.
- First time applicants (non Canadians) must apply for visas at the Korean Embassy or Consulate in their own countries.

It is becoming clear that those with E-2s in Korea are to a greater or lesser degree (unfortunatley, since there seems to be little uniformity on this form immigration department to the next) are being given some latitude as otherwise there will be NO foreign English teachers with E-2s come end of the winter.

crazycanuck · Joined: 11 Oct 2003 Location: Incheon

4. To obtain VISA at the nearest Korean Consulate;
- all applicants, except those who worked previously with an E1, E2, E3 visa in Korea without any illegal activities, must be a Canadian citizen.
- all applicants must have an interview at the consulate by a consul. If applicants are not in the Montreal area, phone interview will be arranged.

This doesn't remove the CRC from the items listed above it. This sentence actually makes no sense at all. I assume that they are saying that if we worked in Korea previously that we wouldn't have to have an interview.

some waygug-in · Joined: 25 Jan 2003

I think what they are trying to say is that people who worked here previously can do the visa in Japan (same as before), but the thing is so poorly worded that it's hard to make head or tail of it.

Until they can come with something understandable, you can expect that there will be all kinds of problems with this. Immigration officials can interpret it any way they like, because it is so badly written.

Typical Korean "foresight" in action. Rolling Eyes

slothrop · Joined: 03 Feb 2003

ED209 · Joined: 17 Oct 2006

MarionG · Joined: 14 Sep 2006

I just looked on the Korean consulate in NYC site, they have nothing about the new visa requirements. My daughter called there to ask some questions on Monday, they said "What new visa requirements? What consular interview?"

crazycanuck · Joined: 11 Oct 2003 Location: Incheon

A friend of mine is American. He apparantly called the US embassy in Seoul asking for some information. He said they were quite rude to him and told him they were tired of answering information that had already been posted on their website. So I took a look. They don't even have the transcripts in sealed envelopes regulation posted yet and that was two years ago??? Here is the website with no information:

http://seoul.usembassy.gov/t_visa.html

More information: New Zealanders can apparently obtain a Criminal Records Check within a maximum of 20 working days. The UK supposedly has something similar which takes up to 40 days to obtain. I have yet to find out how long it takes to obtain a records check from Australia. Canadians need to submit an RCMP records check and the Americans need to obtain an FBI records check.

Draz · Joined: 27 Jun 2007 Location: Land of Morning Clam

cruisemonkey · Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 12:23 pm Post subject:

Where do people keep getting the idea that teachers who are renewing/re-signing i.e. staying at the same job, will have to go through all the new, visa regulation steps?

If you are renewing/re-signing, you DO NOT need a new visa (you're already IN Korea) - your ARC's expiry date is extended for one year from the date of the application.

As for section 4 above, it's crystal clear -
First-time visa applicants who are not Canadian citizens, cannot apply at the Korean embassy or a consulate in Canada. Simple! Rolling Eyes

blonde researcher · Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 3:36 pm Post subject:

Dont trust any government organization to send something back in time. Prepare for it to be late.

some waygug-in · Joined: 25 Jan 2003

indytrucks · Joined: 09 Apr 2003 Location: The Shelf

Scouse Mouse · Joined: 07 Jan 2007 Location: Cloud #9

[quote="slothrop"]

Rteacher · Joined: 23 May 2005 Location: Western MA, USA

Well (in response to "Indytrucks") I think that public school teachers have to pay for their yearly medical exam anyway (at least I had to pay for it this year - I think it was free previously)

Although I've been at the same high school for nearly three years, I've never had a criminal check done - so I need to have that done before I can re-sign.

(I'm sweating the small stuff - like trespass violations when distributing religious literature in mall parking lots...)