Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jenstew]

I'm looking into teaching in Korea but want to get my paperwork together before posting my resume and applying. I've got most of it figured out, but I'm hung up on the background check. I've read a website that says it's best to get it on the city level as opposed to the national level. This seems a bit strange since I've lived in several cities, and I thought I could just order a background check off of the internet. How have you gotten a background check?

The second piece of confusion is getting it Apostilled (whatever the hell that is). I've got a unique situation here in that I'm not in the USA, I'm currently in Thailand and was hoping to fly from Thailand to SK. How should I handle getting this thing apostilled and is it the sort of thing that a friend or family member can take care of back home?

Any advice would be much appreciated. And if anyone has applied and successfully achieved a job while they were overseas and didn't actually have the paperwork with them, I'd love to find out how you did it.

Thanks!

[losing_touch]

I did mine from Thailand. I had my family mail me the fingerprint cards for the state of Maryland. I went to the cop shop and had my prints taken. I did two sets in case one of them somehow got screwed up. There is no fee for this, but I gave the guy 200 baht or so. Then, I mailed them back to the states. The background check arrived back at my address in Maryland. Then, that document was shipped off to the Sec. of State who blessed it with their seal. From there, it was forwarded to my employer here in Korea. That really was a pain.

[bacasper]

After getting your background check notarized, get someone to take it to the State Department for the apostille. They needed a $10. check, and it only took a few minutes.

[jenstew]

OK, so it sounds like the apostille thing can be a real pain when you're abroad, but at least it's doable. My question is, how do you get the background check. I've heard of people having letters from the local police department, you got a fingerprint card, and any time I've had a background check for a job in the past my employer just went to an online agency, submitted my social, and then printed out the results. What are the guidelines for the background check?

[losing_touch]