Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Olivencia]

My friend has a B.A. from a diploma mill. Will he be allowed to work in Korea? That is, do they check these kinds of things? If so, does it matter with Immigration as to whether or not he could work in Korea?

Thanks

[browneyedgirl]

Is it an accredited diploma mill?

[Kikomom]

When he goes to the consulate for his E2 visa they may want to call the 'school' to verify his degree. So he might make it that far. Then the runaround starts.

[DCJames]

It's all good over here. Just make sure you wear professional clothes at immigration. Many hogwons will look the other way, other hogwons won't even check. Some hogwons are stringent and will check.

It's a roll of the dice. Fortunately for those with diploma mill degrees, you can roll as many times as you want.

[CentralCali]

Not that I believe the original post is anything other than a trolling for entertainment, but for those who decided to buy their diploma from a mill instead of earning it from an accredited institution, they may wish to remember that a Canadian gent pulled that stunt and spent a few months in a Korean prison before getting deported.

[blackjack]

[yeremy]

Korean Immigration and the public schools have a list of diploma mills. It's several pages long. If your friend's "diploma" is from one of those on the list, he's out of luck. The name of the game is fraud and if he does the crime, and he gets caught, he'll probably have to do the time. People have been caught and done some time for degree fraud.

Good hagwons do care whether or not their teachers have legitimate degrees or not. The key issue is whether or not the school in question is accredited and if that accreditation is accepted or not by Korean immigration.

I doubt you will get a lot of sympathy with those teachers here who have had to verify their degrees yearly and even more than once a year because different parts of the powers that be did not coordinate their requests and asked without consulting each other.

[dimnd]

The majority here worked hard for that degree. Speaking of myself, it took me 5 yrs with my two science majors and many years of student loans to pay off and filling out all the FASFA stuff each yr. Sure have no sympathy for anyone who did not get their academic degree without working for it. This is what hurts us all at immi...and like other posters have said prior, get caught with the wrong document...doing the time should be the consequence. Fraud is fraud!

[TheUrbanMyth]

[Robot_Teacher]

For Americans, it needs to be a uni accredited with the Department of Education. This usually means a school with a physical campus such as, "University of Missouri - Columbia," where you actually go to school for 4 to 5 years, sometimes longer if you take fewer classes to work a job while you're at it. I paid my dues for to get on an airplane for this $20,000 a year job.

That's not much money, is it? Considering you study and work 5 years to get qualified, but times are very different today. College not paying off is a whole other issue, but yes, privately owned diploma mills are insufficient and should be since that would make the traditional degree very worthless.

[ThomasR]

Here is the Catch-22... If Korean Immi calls my university to verify if I went there or not, they would say "Go F*ck yourself. Privacy..." something along those lines. I cant even get MY OWN information from them half the time. So how does K Immi verify it? Most Unis I know wont give any info out to anyone except for the person who holds the degree. Does Immi even have a way to verify outside of calling and attempting to get the info?

[TheMeerkatLover]

I think you should sign up for ATEK to support your cause. I'm sure they will support any degree mill holder if it means they will increase their membership.



Go ATEK!!! woohoo!

Meerkat

[bassexpander]

Korean immigration has a list of diploma mills. People have been busted before.

[makemischief]

[Tobias]

He will need the transcripts that accompany the degree. In sealed envelopes, no less.