Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Bingo]

Last week my buddy received his Australian CRC in the mail. On Tuesday I went with him to the Aussie embassy to get it apostilled (or whatever the term is) and the folks at the embassy asked to see his Australian passport. He said he didn�t have one; he travels on a British passport for convenience (EU) and sentimental reasons. He was born in Wales but his family moved to Australia when he was seven. He is now thirty seven. He spent his entire adult life in Australia. So, as logic would have it, Korean immigration should wish to see a criminal record report from Australia. Right? (After all, it�s highly unlikely that he acquired a criminal record in Wales before leaving there at age seven.) It�s in Australia where he would have acquired a criminal record, so that�s where he applied for the CRC. The embassy, however, said he had wasted his time. Immigration demands that the CRC must match the passport. It doesn�t matter if he left Wales at a week old, that�s where they want the CRC to come from.

He couldn�t believe it, but I wasn�t the slightest bit surprised. Just another case of logic going out the window in Korea. My friend could, hypothetically, have spent ten years in an Australian prison for child molestation, but they don�t care. They won�t even look at his Austrialian CRC (even if it contains a murder conviction) because it doesn�t match his passport. Now he has to start again, getting his finger prints done again, filling out forms again, all to get a CRC from a country he left as an infant. Brilliant logic. But, as I said, absolutely nothing surprises me in this country anymore.

[WoBW]

Korean logic just floors me.

Keep us posted about how his UK check goes. I need to do it in a couple of months.

[Julius]

[philipjames]

Absolutely absurd. I have friends who have Irish passports even though they never lived there. They are American born and bred but got the passports because their parents / grandparents were born in the Republic of Ireland. By immigration's logic, their CRC should come from Ireland (where they never lived) and not the US (where they lived for thirty years).

Brilliant.

[maingman]

WoBW

PM ... me if you would like some information on the UK
Criminal check i think I have a list of the things you need

Im in the process of doing mine

[philipjames]

Although I support criminal background checks for all teachers who come into contact with minors, the sheer incompetence of Korea's implementation of these E-2 regulations never fails to amaze. Situations such as the one being discussed here make me wonder if they really care about the children's safety, or if they really believe there's a threat to their welfare at all. If they were genuinely concerned, surely they wouldn't tolerate the situation mentioned by the OP. It makes me wonder if the whole criminal background thing is merely political, driven by nationalism / xenophobia more than genuine worry about offenders. If they were genuinely concerned about deterring a threat they would not / could not tolerate the massive loophole mentioned by the OP.

[Fishead soup]

[Gwangjuboy]

[justaguy]

Anything out of the ordinary will get the attention of any officer anywhere in the world.

Your documentation is out of the ordinary. Therefore it got scrutinized more because it looked suspicious.

Also please remember that Korea does not recognize dual citizenship for both Koreans and foreigners.

As far as the Koreans are concerned you are one nationality or another. Make your choice.

[DongtanTony]

I'm putting myself in the shoes of an immigration official and coming to the same conclusion.

Your passport says you're from Britain...and you're showing me documentation from Australia...at an Australian Embassy no less.

You could hem and haw with me all day about how long you've lived there...where's your proof???

37 years old or not...seems a little naive to me to expect that kind of situation to not have some wrinkles.

[canuckistan]

[cruisemonkey]

[philipjames]

Dude you sound retarded. People hold onto passports for many different reasons. Our home countries are full of people who were born elsewhere, but have immigrated to Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand or the US as children. Many become citizens or permanent residents of their new country, but opt to keep their home country's passport. That's their right. But for Korean immigration to think that the CRC should come from the country named on a passport even though the carrier left their country of birth as a child and moved permanently to a second country, is sheer lunacy. For you to think that immigration has 'logic' on its side is mind boggling. The OP's friend did the logical and honest thing by getting a CRC from the only country where he could logically have one, Australia. For him to have applied to the UK police for a CRC check would have not only been illogical, it would have been cynical and dishonest. More importantly, it would have appeared highly suspicious. It would suggest to anyone with a brain that the OP's friend had something (from his adult life in Australia) that he desperately wanted to hide. Why else would he choose to provide a CRC from a country he left as a child? His only fault was being honest and above-board. The CRCs, after all, are supposed to be about finding out what potential teachers have been up to as adults, not as children.

[poet13]

So how is Korean immigration supposed to know if your friend is telling the truth? It seems to me that you and your friend are assuming that immigration is going to just take your friends word for where he lived. What documents did your friend provide that are proof positive that he has lived in Autralia steadily since he was seven?
An Australian passport logically demands an Australian CRC.

As to what the other poster said about demanding CRCs for every passport you hold, it would be even worse if they demanded them for every country you've lived in... I've lived in 6 and if they count S Africa's visa (permanent resident I think), 7. I'd never get another visa here...

[philipjames]

Just another example of immigration not having thought things through.