Korean Job Discussion Forums

[timephone]

So at this point I feel both lucky that I've found a job I'm looking forward to but also filled with anxiety that my E2 visa application and documents have already been at the (American) consulate for 3.5 days and haven't been returned yet.

I'm really excited and am in the midst of planning everything, but this aura of dread hangs over every spare thought. I keep reminding myself that I'm supposed to leave in 7 (perhaps 8 ) days and I don't have the required visa. I have to wait until Monday to call the consulate. I'm also worried that maybe I messed up on some tiny detail on the application itself--my contract, notice of appointment, transcripts, recommendations, etc. were all included, and I feel these are waaaay more important than some stupid thing I wrote in section 18 or 20 of the application, but I don't know how picky they are about these things.

Buying the plane tickets is not a worry, and my passport and visa should be in my hands the day after they send it (overnight express). But I still feel like crap...too much anxiety! Has anybody else ever had this close of a call w/ visa and contract timings before? Am I overreacting/worrying too much?

[Redfish]

I leave in two weeks. School is waiting on my issuance number then I gotta drive six hours to Atlanta for visa... I'm kinda nervous too. Word case scenario I go to korea on tourist visa and switch to e2 when there!!!! Yikes!

[viciousdinosaur]

OMG, amateurs. Redfish, you can't go to Korea on a tourist visa and switch when you're there. You have to fly back out of the country.

OP: If not having your visa with a week buffer before departure is stressing you out you are in for a very rough ride this year.

[lemak]

Yep....by Korean (and much of Asian) standards a organizing stuff a week in advance is a lifetime. You'll give yourself a stroke if you start expecting things to be done at, by our standards, reasonable notice. It simply doesn't happen there.

I was arranging a visa once in Bangkok and got a phone call from the boss at 11pm on the Tuesday night telling me I needed to be there (in Korea!) and ready for work by 10am Wednesday morning. He didn't get the impossibility of what he was asking. Obviously never happened, but does show the general last-minute mindset.

Vicious is right, too...Korea isn't like say, China where they can often change your visa category from inside the country. Needs to be done at an embassy outside the country.

[Dodge7]

They're still flying people in from the West? Thought employers would have their pick of the litter from within Korea. They must be desperate.

[iggyb]

Is this a public school job?

They should worry. But, yes, managing stress and irritation is a must in working overseas especially in the Korean ESL industry especially in the hakwon system.

Until you get the visa in your passport, your contract means nothing. On rare occasions, even having the visa has meant nothing.

About 3 years ago, SMOE overbooked about 100 people when the collapse of the global economy caused more people than usual to renew their contracts. I was 1 of those 100. Our recruiters kept telling us the visas were on their way. Mine kept saying the paperwork was in the mail and I'd be able to head to Atlanta (too - much shorter trip) to get it in no time.

Some people had already bought their tickets. A few already had the visa in their passports - but got an email like the rest of us saying - too bad - the job is cancelled.

I was told it was because I couldn't get the visa and arrive on time.

It wasn't until later that footprints came here to tell us the recruiters had been told at the last minute the jobs had been voided due to overbooking.

One poor guy on here was on a layover in India when he got his email not to come.

The people who had the visa had a hard time. I don't remember how it worked out for them. It was a complicated immigration issue.

Most of us just had to shrug our shoulders and move on. I felt bad for the people who had bought their tickets already. I'd waited because I knew the Korean ESL industry and didn't trust it...

Anyway, the public school system hasn't done that much to people, but this is an unusual year for them. Gyeonggi Province and SMOE have had big changes lined up for this year...

[lemak]

[timephone]

Thanks guys, some of your words of wisdom really helped. I understand that a week can be a very long time. I'm actually in the middle of moving out of the house I've lived in for 20 years, so there's lots of stress going on beyond waiting for my visa. I might have been exaggerating a little bit about the anxiety, however this board is a great place to vent. Really the scariest thing is that I've quit my regular job here in the US, so it's Korea or bust at this point for me.

[iggyb]

Are you going for a hakwon or public school?

[ttompatz]

It is at the consulate already (from the sounds of the original post)... it is not like he is still waiting for the NOA/VIN from Korea.

He will be fine.

.

[timephone]

[Benjamino]

[iggyb]

I believe -- if you have held an E-2 visa for a year or more before, you don't have to do a visa run if you want to switch.

At least that is how I remember how it worked when I went back to Korea in 2009 under the no visa tourist waiver.

I had held a few E-2s about 10 years earlier. So I didn't have to go to Japan.

[Benjamino]

I've never been to Korea before in my life and I didn't need a visa run. It's on the immi website under 'change status of stay' .

[grant gerstners]

My departure to come to Korea was in spring 2010. I had already worked many weeks communicating back and forth with my recruiter, who was very patient in shepherding me through the details of the process.

At the point where I was waiting for the visa from Chicago, my recruiter and I agreed it was prudent to wait until I had the visa in-hand before booking my flight. I had less than a week to go before my agreed-on start date and went just a little over the flight reimbursement amount (for a one-way plane ticket).

But, I started early June and didn't have any significant orientation with EPIK until late September.

It might not matter much if you show up to your orientation a day or two late. I recall a few late-comers at my orientation.