Korean Job Discussion Forums

[PureLuck]

Hi, something weird and unsettling just happened to me, and I was wondering what you guys thought. I was supposed to leave next week to start a job teaching but my recruiter contacted me tonight saying that the school had cancelled the contract and no longer needed me. However I already got my visa issued from the embassy and it's in my passport ready to go.

Now that I have my visa, can I just use it for any English teaching job over there? Will it be a problem? Can I start looking for other jobs and use my "already got a visa" thing as kind of a selling point?

[CentralCali]

Your E-2 visa is tied to your employer. Basically, the school owns the visa and you cannot transfer it without their say-so. If you were to enter Korea on that visa and commence work at another school, you would be violating Korea's immigration law. And when it comes time to register at the local Immigration office, you'd be all kinds of shafted.

Contact the school that's rescinded its offer of employment and ask them to issue you a release letter.

ttompatz can give you more detailed advice. But the important thing is you don't go to Korea without visa sponsorship from a school that is actually going to have you work at that school.

[PureLuck]

[trueblue]

OP...interesting (yet unfortunate) situation.


However, once you have your E-2 visa, I believe you have 90 days to obtain your Alien Registration Card. If that is not taken care of within the required time frame, your visa is cancelled.

I would consider using another recruiter, though. If you have the funds to get yourself here, that would be great. You can go to immigration, tell them what happened and you will likely receive a D-10 visa...which means, you can look around for your choice of job and the D-10 can be transferred to an E-2.

Though...if the employer simply cancels the visa, you will have to stat over with the documents.

If you go that route, keep all email correspondence (trust me, it comes in handy). Immigration would call the school to see what their explanation is. IF they tell the truth...no problem. IF they lie, well...you have proof of the situation.

In fact, this entire situation seems sketchy. I wonder if the recruiter paid back the fee he/she charged the school?

CentralCali is right...ttompatz will have some high speed guidance on this matter.

[PureLuck]

[ttompatz]

[PureLuck]

ttompatz - Thank you for your reply. I think you must not have read my subsequent posts after my original posts. Currently I'm planning on just transferring the visa to a new employer. I've been trying to research this with Google and the information I'm getting is that it's possible to transfer your visa as long as you have a letter of release from the former employer and your ARC.

In my case since my contract never began, it's a little weird, but I don't see it being a problem to get a letter of release from them. My recruiter is also communicating with them so we'll see how that goes.

I guess all I need is a letter of release? And it will probably also mean I can't work until my transfer is approved, right?

Do you happen to know anything about this? Thanks.

[Skippy]

[Troglodyte]

Normally immigration won't let you transfer your visa so soon unless the employer has fired you for economic reasons. For that to be a valid reason, the school need to have declared and received approval 30 days before firing you (which is unlikely the case). Still, they might take pity on you and do it. As well, if you're in Korea then you can always go to the LB and claim that you were fired without just cause and ask for approval to transfer your visa. The original school will NOT like that because it will get them a permanent record at the LB but they've already shafted you so don't worry too much about making problems for them if it comes down to that.

Personally, I would not get a visa until the flight to Korea had been booked and paid for by the school. You've seen what can go wrong. Keep it in mind for the future.

If you take the offer of this second school then make sure that they give you a RETURN ticket in advance. If they can't resolve your visa situation and decide to just drop you then at least you'll have a flight home. Otherwise you'll be left to pay for that since most places would simply cut you loose and let you fend for yourself. You would have no recourse to get any pay owed either. Tell the recruiter that you want a return ticket with open return date. If he says some BS like "This school is very honest. You can trust them." Then remind him that you trusted the last school and that didn't work out too well.

[PureLuck]

[Troglodyte]