Korean Job Discussion Forums

[hugekebab]

Hi,

I'm going to give notice on my contract according to the contract terms and conditions (I will be giving about 5 months notice and the contract only requires 2 by April 30th). It's a non faculty university contract but I'm contracted to teach only regular semester classes (unless it's in the summer/winter break.)

Does anyone know (a source would be nice)if they are obliged to give me a letter of release so I can go to another uni job in Korea, or can they arbitrarily refuse (I believe the latter to probably be the case.)

Thanks

[sarbonn]

I've never experienced the situation, so everything I have to say is from other people, but I've read so many threads about this issue where it seems that in almost every case the situation is unique, and that the school can do pretty much anything and can respond in all sorts of different ways. That's one of the problems (and benefits, I guess, too) of Korea. There is no standardization towards these sorts of things, and 10 people can do the exact same thing and get 10 different results.

[OculisOrbis]

There are three main possibilities in your situation:

1. You work happily until your end date and your school is reasonable and gives you a letter of release.

2. You work until your end date and your school is unreasonable, refuses to give you a letter of release and cancels your visa and you have to leave Korea within 10 days.

3. You work until your end date and your school is unreasonable and refuses to give you a letter of release, but doesn't cancel your visa - meaning you might not be able to get a new visa until your old one expires.

Also, there could be a step preceding #2, or #3, which means your school is staffed by total dickheads. The possible prequel to those is that your school is offended by your resignation and fires you long before your date that is 5 months past your notification date and also likely tries to screw you out of some cash, too.

I would guess that all are equally possible. No matter what assurances you might receive from your admin prior to submitting your resignation letter, you won't know for sure which one will occur until you actually do it.


And to answer your question, no, they are not obliged to give you an LOR. If it was explicitly stated in your contract that you are entitled to one then you could fight it with the labor board, but that would prob take longer, and be more hassle, than its worth. I can't offer a source for that info, but they sponsored your visa and they have the right to decide if they want to let you switch your visa and work for another employer or if you will be required to go through the entire visa process again.

And it sounds like you are already aware of this, but you also need to have completed 9 (or was it 10?) months of your current contract to be eligible to change employers with a an LOR and without leaving the country.

[hugekebab]

OK thanks.

Judging by what's happened to people here before, there shouldn't be any monkey business with money etc. as long as I give notice (they released someone from the contract earlier) It is a university and on the whole they are sort of ok with stuff like that (sort of.)

Question.

I'm going to quit about six months into the contract, so say they don't give me a LOR, will I be able to do a visa run to Japan? Is there any way to cancel my own visa or does it have to be the school that does that. Do I have any way of taking it up with the labor board if they do refuse to cancel the contract.

[hugekebab]

Oh, one more thing, I have a bargaining chip because nearly all the teachers are leaving in June and the uni make money from special classes over July/august, so I would think if I offer to stay all the way until September (which I don't have to do according to the contract; I can go in June) then I would be pulling my manager out of the shit! (Basically everyone is leaving this year because of her shocking management.)

Anyway I guess I will have to see how my manager reacts.

[OculisOrbis]

Well, should they get touchy about it and if you want to play the "i'll stay and do the camps if you give the letter" card, I suggest it be on the condition that they give you a post-dated letter before any extra classes begin. It's just a show of good faith and doesn't inconvenience anyone that was intending to honor the agreement in the first place.

If you haven't completed at least nine months of your contract, you will almost definitely have to do a completely new visa so start putting together a new set of documents now for KIMMI. If you have no immigration black marks then you could just go to Japan or another country and wait for the issuance number and then come back with a new visa. I caution that, however, since in the last four months I have had four acquaintances that waited outside Korea for their issuance numbers only to be told that they had a blemish on their immi record for something and would have to go their home country to do the interview. Most of them worked it out, but one had to go home on borrowed money cause they spent everything waiting weeks for a number that never got issued.

Officially, it's not possible to cancel your own visa, but when you leave the country and turn in your ARC to immi at the airport and tell them youre finished - then they should cancel it. There are no real guarantees that they actually did it and if your employer put a complaint in to immi then your application for a visa can get complicated. Usually it's done correctly without complications, but there's no guarantees for anything when it comes to KIMMI and their practices.


If your employer won't give you the letter and youre worried about getting the visa canceled, try to get someone from your school to accompany you to the KIMMI office and cancel it while youre with them. That way you can be sure it was done and it will also save KIMMI the price of a stamp to mail you your exit order.[/b]

[hugekebab]

Hmmm I can see this getting bloody stressful!

I don't know if it makes any difference, but this is the second year I'm with my uni, I signed another contract with them for a second consecutive year and just got an extension done at kimmi. Does that mean I'm past the 9 month thing?

[OculisOrbis]

You would think that if you signed a new contract and extended your sojourn would mean that you will still be considered as completing at least nine months since you are with the same employer continuously. I guess it depends on your immi agent, but I have a feeling it doesn't work that way.

My personal experience with the extension issue was at the labor board where I was disputing how my school underpaid and terminated me in my 13th month. I had extended for one extra month to give them time for the new teacher to arrive since they asked me to do that as a favor to them. They repaid that favor by firing without notice and cheating my pay for that month.

When we each gave our version of the events to the labor board agent, the agent sided with me and said they owed me all the money that I claimed was owed to me. Then after my director spent 5 minutes alone with the agent, the agent flip-flopped and said that my 13th month was actually a new contract and I was not entitled to things such as notice for termination since I had not worked for six months yet - meaning I was screwed out of more than 1.1 mil of the 1.3 mil owed to me. I assumed there was an envelope passed across the table that influenced his reconsideration of the situation......

Now I realize this is a different situation and agency, but I think it would probably apply to immi as well. You signed a new 12 month agreement and if you haven't honored 9 of the 12 months (75%), then I doubt you are eligible for a straight-up employer transfer. Most likely, you will need to do the visa run, but it all depends on the immi agent's individual interpretation of your situation (and/or outside influence from your current employer i.e. the mysterious envelope)......and anything can happen with that and it may or may not adhere to the actual written regulations.