Korean Job Discussion Forums

[deluxe]

After nearly six years in Seoul, I moved back to the states in January. And after working six months at an office job that paid me less for twice as much work, I quit. I'm going to move back to Korea. I will resume teaching at a university, just need to get hired. My old school said there was a pretty good chance they'd hire me back for Spring 2011. However, I need to move back now.

I had a bunch of household and personal effects shipped over to the states, and now I want to ship everything back to Korea. Some of it is furniture that was purchased in Korea, but I don't have any proof of that aside from the packing manifest.

I've been reading things online that give me the feeling that I'm going to need a work visa before I can ship everything over. Does anybody know if it's possible to ship my household over with a tourist visa? And if it is possible, what am I looking at in terms of duties and taxes? I believe it varies depending on the visa, but then again, most of what I'm shipping back came from Korea, to include two bicycles, two couches, a very nice bedroom set, kitchenware, and probably some more things I'm not remembering.

I already realize that I should bring all of my electronic goods on the plane with me, as I've done a dozen times before, as customs doesn't seem to care at the airport. But I would like to ship some things, like the xbox 360. Would it be taxed?

I wish I still had connections to people in the U.S. military over there, it would make this move so much easier...

[cert43]

Why in God's name are you comming back on a tourist visa?!

If you can afford to use a International moving company, you can

certaintly afford to get your visa ( it will cost about 25,000 to bring

everything, this includes duties and taxes).Damn, if your goods are worth

more then that, then one could only assume you must have

enough money self visa sponser (as it only costs 5,000 for E-7 Visa)

Otherwise, just hope on a plane and come ( that would certainly fit better)

Something doesn't add up...

[Yaya]

You need to move back NOW for a position beginning next spring? Hmm...

[deluxe]

You need a job offer for an e7 visa, but you got me thinking that I should look into getting an investor's visa. Maybe I could buy part of my girlfriends's company over in Seoul. She's a big reason why I need to get back over there too...five years together and now six months apart.

An investor's visa requires 50mil in the bank, last I checked. Hope is hasn't gone up.

Oh, and moving my household back will only cost about 2 or 3mil. Taxes and duties should not be an issue as everything came from Korea anyway!

[Troglodyte]

OP, out of curiosity, how much did it cost you to ship all that stuff to the States from Korea? And how did you go about doing it?

@ cert43
Is it only 5000 USD to self sponsor?

[deluxe]

I just read that the minimum investment amount for the D8 is now 100mil won. Damn, don't have that much, but I am going to see if I can get it. Apparently you can just buy an apartment for your investment, and then you've got a visa...at least that is what I understand to be the case from my research.

Anyway, it was around 3mil won to move everything out here. Biggest mistake was the movers I chose, Mr. Bae listed in the Korea Herald. I thought it would be cheaper, but once I had paid all the additional fees in the states, it would have been better to go with the quote I got from a real professional company. Unfortunately I cannot recall their name at this time.

fwiw, I need to get to back to Seoul to be with my lady of 5+ years. Marriage would make it very easy to move back, but that's not an option right now.

[cert43]

Well, heard that there does have to be a guarantee amount 5,000( plus authorization certitificates) for the E-7.This is still is a employer-sponsered visa, but not sure if the employer or employee puts up this monatary guarentee.( guess it would depend largly on how the company's overall capital and long-term prospects matched up with your overall your skill set);or on the flipside; if you would want to invest into thier stock and trade.

Re: Investment Visa? Yes, this is strickly for investment purposes. You are investing in your company, Korean economy and whatever else
immigration deems.Added to all this,is the fact that you would be a foreinger dealing all the Korean trademark regulations;so it would be quite hard to do without without proper assistant ( Korean spouse,friends,etc).

But,what Iam wondering if buying a Korean-based ESL Franchise would be cheaper and more profitiable then say buying a USA-based one,such as a Mc Donalds or Starbucks? There are certaintly enough over there to do this.