Korean Job Discussion Forums

[JeonjuMichael]

OK everyone, here's the deal, right from the horse's mouth. I just spoke for 20 minutes with a representative from the International Cooperation Division, Korea Immigration Service. There is no postponement of the new visa rules. Effective midnight tonight, December 14th, 2007, all new E-2 applications must be accompanied by a criminal records check, a medical exam and an interview in your own country. The embassies have all met and decided against providing these services to foreigners who are currently here.

To summarize, if your contract is ending and your visa is about to expire and you wish to work for a new school, you mustreturn to your home country to get these documents and interview.

These new regulations only apply to E-2 visas. Anyone working on an E-1, E-7, F2, C4, etc will not be affected.

Addressing the much-talked-about March 15th grace period. This only applies to anyone transferring their existing E-2 visa to a new school or for anyone renewing their visa with their current school, in which case a new visa would not need to be issued. If you are switching schools or staying with your current employer for a new contract, you have until March 15th to do so without being subject to the new regulations. After March 15th, everyone regardless of their situation (renewal, transferring, etc.) is subject to going back to their home country for the criminal, medical and interview. There are no exceptions, contrary to what has been misreported in the media.

Here is a copy of today's media release from the Korea Immigration Service.

"Mandatory Requirements of Criminal Background Check and Health Certificate

In order to prevent illegalities of E2 teaching visa holders such as unlicensed teaching, drug use, etc, the Ministry of Justice made it mandatory for all the E2 teaching visa holders to submit criminal background check and health certificate starting from December 15, 2007.

As a bid to strengthen the qualifications of E2 teaching visa holders, the Ministry of Justice also made it mandatory in principle for all the applicants of E2 teaching visa to have an interview at the Embassy of Korea.

In addition, the Ministry of Justice announced that it would strengthen the management of immigration policy on those E2 teaching visa holders by cracking down on the unlicensed teachers of fraudulent documents(forgery), drug use, sexual offense, etc.

Ahead of the implementation of this program on Dec. 15th, 2007, the Ministry of Justice held the town hall meeting with 10 consular officers of seven embassies including those of the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Ireland, South Africa. the Ministry of Justice gave explanation of the program and details and asked for the smooth implementation and facilitation by the embassies in Korea.

Participating consular officers expressed their support for the need of criminal background report and health certificate. But they expressed the concerns about the issuance of the criminal background checks due to the limited resources, backlogs, or the long time requirements for verification.
- It varies from country to country from 40 days to 60 days to have one's criminal background check issued. In the case of the United States and some other countries, one can have his/her criminal background check issued out of the website and get them notarized (consular certification) in the embassies.

Despite the difficulty of implementation and lack of resources, the consular officers participated in the town hall meeting, showed their strong support and willingness of cooperation for the earlier implementation of the program. They also agreed to the need of closer cooperation channel and discussions with Korea Immigration Service.

For any inquiries, please contact International Cooperation Division(Tel 02-500-9191~9199)."

If there is still any confusion, feel free to call them yourselves and to ask any clarifying questions. I have relayed all of the information here as it was presented to me (yes, I did take notes and yes, I did repeat my questions and their answers numerous times to make sure I was absolutely clear).

Direct all of your foreign co-workers to this post to help promote the spread of accurate information, not the misinformation that is floating all over this board and online.

On a personal note, I am going to be transferring my contract (if I stay) in the next few weeks (my current school is closing). I will not be returning here, ever. This is absolutely ridiculous, and if you look online, you can find many similar-paying positions in Taiwan, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Poland, Slovakia, etc. etc. etc. Korea's English industry is effectively going straight into the toilet within the next 18 months.

[indytrucks]

[VanIslander]

"Interntational Cooperation Division"?

What a name!

[flummuxt]

This whole thing is very puzzling to me. I'm sorta glad they are not putting off the implementation because this will force them to work out the details.

Is it really the case that you would have to travel to a Korean embassy at your own expense to meet face to face with a consular official? What, exactly, is the point of that? Or would you be able to talk on the phone to answer any questions? Do they realize that some people live thousands of miles from a Korean embassy? Such a trip could cost a thousand dollars for airfare, lodging, etc.

And what if you go home and it takes a week or a month to get your criminal check results back? What are you supposed to do then? That certainly would cost people without a mommy and daddy to turn to some money.

And here's an interesting variable: What if someone stole your identity when you were overseas? It's happened to me.

You are going to potentially have to commit substantial time and money to this without having certainty about the outcome. You could find yourself stuck back home with your stuff in Korea. This is not too probable, but it is possible. More probable, you could find yourself waiting for your paperwork while your return ticket takes off without you.

Since I am at a public school, and presumably will be able to renew my visa a month before it expires (???), I guess I will be OK. (What is the timeframe for renewing a visa before it expires?)

For somebody overseas applying for a job, it should not be an insurmoutable challenge, just a bit more red tape and time for most. But for people having to go home to renew, it could turn into a nightmare if things don't go smoothly.

We will see.

[nautilus]

If thats true then it looks like they just opted for stabbing oneself in the foot.


The other stuff is Ok but the "fly home for interview" thing will kill the esl industry. Its just too stupid.

[The_Eyeball_Kid]

[daz1979]

My contract is finished on April 2nd. If I can extend prior to March 14th for another year without having to go home or submit further documentation, that will be fantastic.

I didn't quite understand the whole switching schools part of this post though. Are you saying I can change employer before then, but I wont need a new visa? How does that work?

[huck]

So, will Americans be allowed to interview with the Korean Embassy in Guam?

[dogshed]

Get the CBC from a website and have it notarized? What?

[superdave]

there WILL be benefits ... and maybe this is how the korean government sees it.

there is a MASSIVE number of foreigners coming to korea to work. it creates a lot of problems because the market is saturated with potential employees ... one of the problems is the systematic abuse of employees by hogwans. why pay them when you can fire the foreigner and get another one???

if korea makes visas more difficult to get, people who are prepared to jump through the hoops will get a visa ... people who are lazy will go to thailand/china/wherever.

so this will reduce the number of foreigners ... it'll also (probably) reduce the number of idiot foreigners, because coming here will be hard work.

the effect, then, will reduce the potential work pool.

the result will mean that wages will increase (less supply, more demand) and exploitation by hogwans will drop because it'll COST MORE money to fire and rehire.

i have to agree that the new rules appear to be stupid, and they appear to be racist, and they appear to be everything bad.

but if they thin out the herd ... especially the retards at the bottom of the foreign gene pool who come here and make everyone look bad ... then that's good for the rest of us.

[plato's republic]

So what the OP is basically saying is that, those of us already here teaching on an E2 visa, can change jobs or extend our current contracts before March 15th 2008 without having to go through the new regulations. After that 'grace period' we are all subject to the new regulations. Is that right? Can anyone else confirm this? I haven't actually read anything from the MOJ that sounds quite like this, regardless of what some paper pusher at the International Cooperation Division might have said.

[yingwenlaoshi]

So by what you're saying they told you, it sounds like I can renew anytime between February 1st and March 1st without providing a police or medical check. February 1st being the first day I can re-sign because of the 2-month rule.

My contract finishes March 1st.

[fruitcake]

[plato's republic]

How can one 'switch schools' yet continue to work for the same employer?

[tzechuk]