Korean Job Discussion Forums

[koreaquestions]

I was fired in February from a school I started teaching at June 5th, 2012. My visa expires on Aug. 3rd. I don't know if it's an important fact or not, but I handed in my ARC card at the airport when I left Korea and returned home to N. America.

Recently, I was offered a position through a recruiter from a new school. I did not tell the recruiter of the school where I was fired and when they asked for references, I gave them the reference of the prior Korean school I had been at instead.

I cannot get a letter of release from my 2nd Korean employer, as he made it clear that he will not talk to me. I do know that he did not call immigration to terminate the E2 visa when he fired me.

The new school wants me to start teaching on Aug. 5th, which happens to be two days after my current visa expires. They want me in Korea on Aug. 2nd. They have just received all my documents and will apply for the visa issuance number tomorrow, July 23rd. What do you think is going to happen? Am I going to get one more chance to go to Korea? Or will immigration not process an issuance number and I'll lose my documents?

Thanks very much for your opinion!

[Kepler]

I think you should be fine. You handed in your ARC when you left which cancelled your visa. It's been over a year so your previous contract must have expired already which means you don't need a letter of release.

[le-paul]

Thats right. Once you left, it cancelled out that your exA-hole didn't cancel the E-2. You've got the job, thats the most difficult part over!
Technically, the system starts from scratch again.

[young_clinton]

You shouldn't have sent your documents to the school until you had all this sorted out. Most likely Immigration will not give you an E-2 until August 3rd has passed. I would call Korean immigration and see if they will delay processing your visa. The documents are a problem because they probably won't return them which means you may have to start over from scratch.

[Skippy]

I think you will be fine, if I am reading correctly. Even through old school is still your sponsor till Aug 2nd or so, you can come back to Korea on a tourist visa. You just will not be issued a new E2 visa till the old one expires. So there might be a delay with the visa confirmation. Maybe, just maybe since it is close enough immigration might not care of the week or two difference Yet once you have the VIN you then can do a Japan Visa trip.

Do remember getting the VIN can take a week or two. So there might be a period of couple of days to week or two of you working illegally. Just do not let it go to long.

[ttompatz]

[thisisausername]

Sometimes immigration asks for a letter of explanation. As long as you are polite and professional in this letter you'll be fine. the only issue could come from your new school not liking that you hid this. But if that's the case they just won't hire you. Someone else will.

[koreaquestions]