Korean Job Discussion Forums

stew1988 · Joined: 04 Apr 2011

Both myself and my wife called the man in charge of my case at Ansan immigration. He was the rudest, most aggressive characters. He refused to talk to my wife completely. I called him and he told me to stop wasting his time. He said he was not interested in my side of the story and that he was not going to issue my number. He said that I could not have my documents back. I said "why did Incheon allow me to have a VISA and you will not?". To which he abruptly told me to go and apply at Incheon then. He then put the phone down on me. My prospective boss who was understanding of my situation and fighting my case simply said there is nothing more he can do...the man at immigration also told me that every time I apply and get rejected, this will go against me and make it more difficult to get the VISA.

Rotten luck.

YTMND · Joined: 16 Jan 2012 Location: You're the man now dog!!

luckylady · Joined: 30 Jan 2012 Location: u.s. of occupied territories

stew1988 · Joined: 04 Apr 2011

Thank you, I appreciate the advice.

I have asked the immigration on various occasions about "what can be done" to get this thing processed and they always lead me down the same lines...

"Your VISA has been rejected, please contact your employer for more information"

"You must apply again. You are free to apply again. Each immigration officer is different"

They are basically saying that two things have to work in unison for me to get this VISA number. Firstly I need to find an employer willing to accept the past and take my words as the truth (not easy). Once achieved, I then need to hope that my case falls into the hands of somebody that will do the sensible thing, which in my mind is to investigate the situation and then relay the information on to the prospective employer, leaving the final decision up to them.

Throw into the equation the fact that the never return documentation, this is an insanely frustrating system. Now it's not worked from here in the UK and I'm not sure about the likelihood of achieving better results by just getting a couple of copies of my document, flying to Korea and doing the search in person. Of course this begs the question, what do I do if the same thing happened inside the country and I am left stranded. Funds don't exactly help the situation either.

I've tried searching for Korean law specialists here in the UK and that was a futile task. I suppose we would have to discuss this with a lawyer inside of Korea. As for the Ministry of Justice, I will definitely get onto them and see what they have to say about the situation.

I think that with my letter of explanation (translated into Korean), a variety of previous character references from other employment, Korean based character references, a job offer and a director asking immigration to grant the visa issuance number, plus not a blemish to my criminal record in either Korea or the UK, they have treated me unfairly. Of course this seems to be something that I can whine about, but do very little about in the way of rectifying their decision. Of course the boss needs to find another teacher now and I have t start over regardless.

Hopefully something will work itself out.

PatrickGHBusan · Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2012 3:42 am Post subject:

stew...wasn't it the prospective employer who refused to sponsor your visa?

What kimmi seems to be telling you is that you are indeed free to apply elsewhere. If you do that, start with full honesty right off the bat and include the full story of your past experience in Korea. That means not surprises for a potential employer.

I do not see why you would be unable to get a job as from what you told us, you ran but did nothing criminal.

As for your documents, not getting them returned is odd and a pain in the ^%^&&^, that is for sure. However, you need to focus on moving towards your goal (returning to Korea) and that means biting the bullet, getting new docs and applying again but this time with full disclosure.

Good luck.

stew1988 · Joined: 04 Apr 2011

No that's not it Patrick...

The first time around it was the school that retracted the offer. So, like you say, I went with full honesty and found a man willing to back me with a job. He persisted and persisted, however the second time around, it was immigration that declined me, unwilling to listen to my story or understand that there was a school willing to hire me...

The boss informed me of what my old school were saying about me: none of what they are saying about me is backed up with evidence and is not true in the slightest. The old school are saying that I shouted at the children, that I took vacations throughout the school term without permission, that I drank too much alcohol and that I destroyed my apartment prior to leaving...

There is not evidence of this because none of it is true, that being said, the immigration this time around will not listen or even read my letter explaining my side of events. So one time the immigration is willing to let me in but the school says no, the second time the school wants to hire me and the immigration says no...all the while I am losing hundreds of pounds worth of documents and ending up back at square one.

YTMND · Joined: 16 Jan 2012 Location: You're the man now dog!!

PatrickGHBusan · Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2012 5:57 am Post subject:

Plume D'ella Plumeria · Joined: 10 Jan 2005 Location: The Lost Horizon

Something about this sad tale is not sitting right with me. Three possibilities come to mind:

1). This is a very clever troll. I tend to think not.

2). This is a very unlucky, young and naive fellow. A holy innocent, as it
were. I tend to think so.

3). This holy innocent called Stew, is leaving out some very salient and
significant parts of his story. It sounds to me as if he angered some
people who have the ultimate power to grant or deny him a visa. He
says he's coming clean with an honest and truthful story. I wonder if
this is really the case. This last, I think, might be what's creating his
difficulties.

What's the real and true story here, Stew? If you don't want to disclose, that's fine, but in that case, visiting and re-visiting this forum to get opinions, already given in spades is kind of futile.

It sounds like you need to get VERY honest with yourself, with your wife, with Korean authorities and schools and possibly with forum members to move forward with your life and with your immediate goals.

stew1988 · Joined: 04 Apr 2011

What do you want me to say, I murdered three kids with a pizza cutter?

I left my job. The school did not pay me on time, sometimes not at all, they were clinical, aggressive and unfair in the way they treated all members of staff. The boss regularly infringed on my personal life, undermined my authority in the school and made me feel as small as possible. I couldn't take any more so I left. The school have discovered that I am applying again and as such, are making it as difficult as possible for me to get back in. They don't like me, they despise me for walking out on them and want to make sure I never get back in. My recruiter, the same man that made violent threats upon me leaving, also informed me that I would never work in Korea again, because he would make sure of it. He's doing a bloody good job of it as well.

Where am I to blame? I didn't stick it out. In retrospect I should have just let them treat me like an animal and take it. I should have reported their behaviour to the appropriate bodies rather than running away and leaving them to call me all the names under the sun. Yes I was naive, but at the time, I never actually imagined working in Korea again as long as I live.

I've got nothing to come clean about. It's like I've always said, the school can say what they what and so can I. If you have to believe somebody, who will it be? Stew the young foreign guy or the Korean directorial figurehead who is well known within the community? Stew the foreign guy who can hardly articulate a sentence of explanation in Korean, or the fluent, articulate, religious and church going hagwon owner? I, like many of you believed immigration would act on hard evidence rather than word of mouth and sheer conjecture, this unfortunately is not always the case.

Troglodyte · Joined: 06 Dec 2009

Zyzyfer · Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2012 9:47 am Post subject:

stew1988 · Joined: 04 Apr 2011

Guys...I can't see how the way I did things was so ridiculous...for a guy who doesn't have a lot of money, I tried two times to get the visa issuance. The was told by immigration that it was not them rejecting me and advised to try again and tell my story to a future employer. So I got my documents again, found a great school and a boss willing to back me to the end. How is that the wrong way to do things? It enabled me to get a prepaid flight, it enabled me to go straight into a house and it enabled me to go straight into work on an E2 VISA...why is that such a mad thing to have done?

Sure, looking back now, it's very easy to say: "what a fool, you have to be stupid or a glutton for punishment!"...then again, what are the chances of things conspiring in the way that they have done? I look back now and yes, I do think: why the hell didn't I just go out to Korea with a few sets of documents! That being said, I know what I did was the best route given the situation and I also know that I have been dangerously unlucky, your use of the word cursed does seem quite apt.

I may be an idiot at times, but I think it's harsh to keep condemning me for the way I have tried to get back to a decent working life in Korea.