Korean Job Discussion Forums

[sunnydaysahead]

Hello all,

Just wanted to post that I've successfully gotten a new job, new contract and new visa without a Letter of Release. Thanks to some of the posters on Dave's, specifically PeterDragon, who helped with PMs and phone numbers.

I started work at my first job in April. At the end of August, I gave them a letter of resignation and 30 days notice -- I wanted to leave at the end of six months.

My boss denied me a Letter of Release and said that he needed 60 days notice, even though my contract said nothing about any kind of notice needed, and had a clause about "voluntary resignation" being permitted.

I went to immigration in Omokgyo twice (I live in Seoul) after that to ask them what my options were. Both times they told me:

- You need a Letter of Release to switch jobs while you're in the country
- Or, you can cancel your visa, leave the country and come back and apply for a new job.
- To cancel your visa, you and your boss need to come in together to the immigration office to cancel it.

Immigration also told me:

- A hagwan can't have outstanding visas for employees who don't work there anymore (aka an employee who quits) and they have 10 days to report to immigration about any change in staffing. If they're found out not to have reported that information to immi, they can be slapped with a fine.

I told my boss this. He refused to come to immigration with me to cancel my visa. So, after a long standoff with my boss, I left the job in early October (more than 30 days after my first letter of resignation, but less than the 60 days my boss had asked for). My boss threatened to blacklist me and said I would have a hard time ever coming to Korea again.

After I quit, I went to immigration and told them I'd resigned from my job (this was now my third visit to immigration). They gave me a 30-day exit order and told me that my visa would be canceled after that and I could come back and apply for a new job.

(Later that day, two immigration officials visited my old job, checked for ARCs for all of the foreign teachers and demanded to know who had replaced me - because my old job hadn't reported the fact that I'd quit to immigration.)

A month later, I left the country on the exit order, which voided my visa, and came back as a tourist. A couple weeks after that, a visa for my new job was approved, and I left the country again to pick it up.

I'm back now, legally, at a great new job. I don't know for sure if this would work for anyone else, but I wanted to post it here so people could read it.

The overall things I learned were:

- Immigration is its own animal -- go to the source in person, the Omokgyo office, and ask them what your options are if you are quitting your job early. It helps if you frame your questions by saying, "I want to be sure to do the right thing."

- Navigating Korean visa laws are stressful. Supportive friends got me through the last few months. If I had been on my own without their help, I would have given up and stayed at my old job.

- If you're trying to do what I did, make sure your new job is aware of your visa situation -- my new employer knew about the uncertainty and the lack of the release letter, but still applied for my visa, which was awesome. It is a risk for your new job as well.

- No matter what your boss threatens, breaking your contract can't prevent you from entering the country again. You can always come back as a tourist unless you've commited some crime. (I checked with a lawyer about this to make sure.)

[CasperTheFriendlyGhost]

Thank you for a helpful story.

[anyway]

Yea, thanks a lot and good on ya. I'm sure there are more than a few (thousand) people in K-land who will be glad to know about this....

[bassexpander]

Yeah, and the funny thing was that immigration ended up checking out the school. Funny.

I hope your boss feels like an ass for inviting a raid to his front doorstep.

[zizi]

Thanks for posting the story OP. It gives the rest of us who are in bad situations hope. Now we just need to figure out the new visa laws.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Great news. If only that were SOP, a lot of bad hagwons wouldn't be able to keep doing the crap they are, especially with the coming changes.

[Draz]