Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Ya-ta Boy]

There is a kind of useless lesson for everyone at the end of this.

My visa at my current job started on Jan. 23, �07 so I fell in that grace period last winter where Immi didn�t ask those of us renewing for a CBC in that three month period. I let it slide all summer hoping they would either scrap or at least straighten out the policy. Foolish me. I got around to getting my fingerprints taken in November and sent them off with the money and waited patiently for them to come back so I could send them back again with some more money for the apostille. They finally came and I sent for the apostille. Naturally, you can�t enclose a pre-paid envelope (or at least the lady at the post office didn�t know how to do it) so off the letter went in late December. Well, nothing came back. I ended up calling at 4am and found out that yes, the letter had arrived on Dec. 29 and the woman had sent it back all apostilled, by surface mail.

With that information�including the trace the post office had done, I went to Immi on Jan. 22 and was given a 10 day extension, not the month I was expecting. Unfortunately the following weekend was Lunar New Year so the post office was shut down for almost half of my extension time.

Feb. 2 I went back to Immi hoping to get second and longer extension. This time they were happy to give me the second extension, but only for another 10 days. They (the young woman behind the desk and two supervisor types) said that the next time I�d have to pay a W100,000 fine since you can only have two extensions. [That might be useful information for someone in the future�Immi only gives two 10-day extensions in my kind of situation.]

I get back to school. The boss is not happy but can�t get angry at me since I didn�t do anything wrong. However, he said the big boss has recently decided to obey the law and not let anyone work illegally. He said one of the Russian teachers had been in a similar situation and they threatened to withhold her pay and possibly not renew her contract.  Why the old geezer decided to start obeying the visa laws now of all time, I don�t know.

So last week I decided I�d better give up on the first apostille and try again. I got new fingerprints and went back to the bank for more money orders and this time went to FedEx and paid W30,000 each for two envelopes (one for the FBI and one for my mom to try to get a state CBC). Anyway, on Monday this week the boss dropped by to tell me just before class yesterday that unless my visa situation is settled this week I won�t be on the teaching schedule for next week.

Complicating the whole thing, the top boss who wants to enforce the rules doesn�t know anything about what is going on. It turns out my immediate supervisor and the boss above him have been hiding the issue from the big boss. Not only that, my private student (set up by the school) is a former Minister of Defense. I�ve been keeping him posted about developments and on Monday afternoon he called the big boss�s assistant who is his junior and told him about the whole thing. My supervisor was acting very weird today and the boss above him left a note on my desk saying he wouldn�t be going to Immi with me today. I think Junior may have chewed them out for handling the issue poorly.

Anyway, I went to Immi today and was refused a 3rd extension. They were very polite about the whole thing and said they understood the situation but rules are rules.

I�ve been sitting around all evening looking all my stuff wondering if I�m going to just be suspended on Monday or if I�m going to have to pack all this crap up and move to a new job�after my CBC shows up. If it ever does.

Lesson: Procrastination does not pay.

[BigMikeAbroad]

That is suckage yo.

Mike

[BreakfastInBed]

Sorry to hear about your troubles. It's a little late for you, but for the benefit of anyone else reading this, if you are American you DO NOT need to send your criminal record check all the way back to the States for an apostille. Go to the embassy and sign an affidavit. That works as well as an apostille and is a heck of a timesaver if you're in a pinch.

[ChinaBoy]

Your school hired a Russian teacher illegally and then threatened to without their pay? You're better off somewhere else.

[ThingsComeAround]

It sucks that your school is giving you the 'ho-hum, we don't really see a need for you' kind of attitude. There are always options to keep people in the system.

I hope you have learned to handle all that at home and in-person. (It is redundant to travel every year home, but let the school pay that bill)

You may want to PM bassexpander, his workplace is seeking experienced teachers: http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=147333

Good luck in your future

[Yu_Bum_suk]

And here I thought that I had major hassels last time around. Are you sure that you need to get fingerprinted? I thought you could just sign for a county check if you're an American and that will do.

[candyteacher]

oh man, thats sucks. I hope it works out for the best for you. please let us know how it pans out for you. best of luck!!

[soviet_man]

2 years at the same place is a good run.

The way I see it - if it is meant to be, it will sort itself out.

You could actually turn it into your favor:

eg. Go on holiday for a couple of months and come back to replace one of your co-workers who has a contract ending then. Therefore it is a win/win situation for both you and the school. [/b]

[Ya-ta Boy]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[greedy_bones]

Another quicker option for you is to just do a state criminal background check and check the box on the form that asks for notarization. Mine took less than a week once it arrived. This would save you the time of having your mother go to a public notary.

[Hyeon Een]

On the plus side you might just be in time for last-minute-hirings at Universities. With your experience and qualifications a Uni job would be no problem. Unless it's a uni for idiots (of which there are a lot..) the students will be great and hopefully the conditions will be good.

It's probably time to stop that 5 day work week nonesense and cut it down to 3 or 4 haha.

[Ya-ta Boy]

[Ya-ta Boy]

[Caerus]

That's horrible, best of luck.