Korean Job Discussion Forums

[stew1988]

Hello again guys. I have decided to actually return to Korea and seek out another E2 Visa. I worked in Korea the other year and I did do a midnight run for a variety of reasons. Due to my close personal attachment to the country, I've decided to go back and have a couple of recruiting interviews lined up. Basically, I didn't tell the recruiters about my history in Korea and just left it out of my CV. I did also contact recruiters telling the truth, these ones would not even give me the time of day. So I have a few questions on how I should do things. Thanks for taking the time to answer...

1. I did a midnight run from a hakwon before. If I try again, will I be able to search for jobs in public schools or am I likely to get declined doing this? Should I just stick to the private schools?

2. Is there a chance that I will get through the process, send my documents and then get declined by immigration right at the last? I called immigration before and they told me the previous E2 Visa had been cancelled, they also told me I had been logged as a midnight runner.

3. Would it make a difference if I tried to go back to the same sort of area. For example: If I ran away from Busan, would it be wise to apply for a new position away from Busan, ie: Daegu.

Cheers for the advice!

[modernseoul]

How long ago did you do your runner? If it's under a year it will cause a few more issues.

[PatrickGHBusan]

Depends if your visa has been cancelled (so how along ago was your runner).

Except for that and unless you ran leaving substantial debts behind (say a trashed appartment, heavy unpaid bills....) you should have no problems securing new employment.

[stew1988]

Well the thing is, I ran away less than a year ago. So I believed that my VISA had not been cancelled. That being said, my wife called the Korean immigration and they told her that my VISA had in fact been cancelled and I had been registered on the system as a midnight runner. She spoke to them in Korean

[stew1988]

So, the thing is, I need to go through the entire application process in order to find out if immigration will accept me again or not. This is pretty inconvenient as the process is fairly drawn out just to find out at the end of it all it's all fallen through.

[ttompatz]

[allovertheplace]

Running is not a crime! If running was a crime it would be called indentured servitude and not teaching.

[PatrickGHBusan]

As Ttom said, unless there was a criminal complaint against you, you will not have a problem as the visa appears to have been cancelled.

Also, if your wife is Korean, you could get a F6 visa instead of an E2. You would still need to meet the requirements of the E2 to teach (degree, CBC..) but you would have more choices as far as jobs are concerned, including registering to teach legal private lessons.

[stew1988]

Can I ask, does it make a difference in your opinion whether I return to the same area or not? For instance, if I taught in Gyeonggi-do before, would it make any difference at all if I was to return to Gyeonggi-do again? Essentially, would it make my chances better if I applied for a different area of the country this time?

Cheers.

[ttompatz]

[stew1988]

Thanks for the info. OK, so it's irrelevant what area I return to, but will it make a difference whether I go for a private school or a public school position?

Cheers.

[ttompatz]