Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Tiger Beer]

Did I catch your attention?

Has anyone posting on this board ever been busted for teaching privates? If so, what was your experience?

I've heard tons and tons of rumors, but haven't met anyone who has been actually busted, fined, and deported.

Rumor has it that its 1 million won fine and you have to leave the country within 48 hours or something like that? But i heard yet another rumor that you can just come right back on another visa?

Anyone with the experience can verify, deny, correct or ridicule this?

[vdowd]

Yes, I had a friend who was caught teaching privates. She had been teaching privates for over a year when she was busted shortly after renewing her contract. After someone reported her, she was followed by a private investigator who confirmed the rumor.

Result: Her school would keep her and would pay the fine if she paid them back. It was very high - she would have been working for 3 months without pay if she accepted OR she had 48 hours to get out of the country. Since she was some distance from Seoul this was a challenge. She opted for the flight home.

So if your teaching privates be very wary. The best bet is to teach at your home because if investigated, the children are just visitors. And consider not accepted $ for payment - gifts between friends are more easy to defend.

[Tiger Beer]

[peemil]

Why work?!?

[jajdude]

I met one guy in Taiwan who was deported (from Korea) for it.

[euro_slapper]

[Gosp]

What if no money changes hands? I'm not implying anything sexual or taboo, but what if there's food exchanged for private lessons. What if you just spend some extra time with one or more students off the clock ��for free�� to help them out [age would be a consideration here, you can't be hanging out with a bunch of five year olds at nine in the evening].

P.S. Can you tell I've never taught English before?

[tomwaits]

2002 I was busted for teaching in an illegal hagwan. (No e-2 of course.) Anyway I was not deported I was given an EXIT ORDER which I think is more common. There were no restrictions on re-entry..In fact all my stuff was here so I just did a quick "visa run." Actual deportation I suppose would be different...By the way the fine was 700K--school paid most of it-they were good about it...They hold your passport until the fine is paid.

PS---I don't think the onus is on Immigration to provide a lot of proof. If someone reports you and Immigration find you (say) sitting around a table with Koreans-you are BUSTED.

[JennyJJ]

Funny that almost everyone claims to "know someone" or "has a friend" yada yada yada, but few really know.

I have "some friends" and "know some people" who have taught privately here for years - with never a bust. I suspect busts are quite rare and tend to involve people who are too visible and overdo it - and perhaps tout their activities a bit too much. My previous tour of Korea (in Pusan 93-95) involved 2-3 privates every weeknight for two years - with never even a whisper of a problem. Never met anyone there who got busted - never met anyone where I am now who got busted.

Much more likely you'll get busted working at a hagwon illegally as the hagwons tend to pimp each other to immigration - for what they would view as "competitive" reasons. Have heard of ONE person in four years here - who was busted - and that was at a hagwon.

That aside, the mad dogs arrayed against privates will now go on a feeding frenzy. Usher them in boys . . .

[Homer]

Jenny,

By the same logic, simply because you never really saw or hear of anyone being busted it does not follow that it does not happen more often then in your experience.
I personnally know of 7 people who got busted, all of which were deported and fined to various degrees.
Of course its not a majority of people teaching pvts who get busted but some do.
Also to consider is those that get busted and no one hears about.

Its a difficult thing to measure really.

[Juggertha]

I must agree... Jenny, if they were busted I suppose it'd be hard to meet them.

Honestly I think this is a pretty fair representation here. It happens. Not too often but it does. When it does it sucks and chances are you have to pay/leave.

I also agree that imigration really needs "little" evidence to boot cha.

[sadsac]

Privates do not only cover teaching students outside your contracted school. If you give your tim voluntarily to an orphange or any organisation such as that and are caught without having he consent of your school, then this also constitutes teaching privates. Money doesn't have to change hands and it clearly states any for of remunneration is unacceptable. So be very careful.

[Homer]

sadsac,

But there are degrees there.

I volunter at the Y and immigration came over a few times. They asked me, I told them, they checked I was not getting paid and everything was fine.

[TheUrbanMyth]

[bjonothan]

Teaching illegally used to be a very good way to make a heap of cash. Me and a mate did it for two years before we realised that it wasn't the way to go anymore. I got an E-2 visa this time, my friend however was flown here and then denied an E-2 visa because he couldn't give the immigration office a decent enough explanation about what he had been doing for the 2 previous years. Now with all of the paki, Indonesian and whatever other countries having people here for years on no visa at all they decided that my mate wouldn't be getting a visa but they would turn a blind eye to him staying here. He said he did free consulting work and that didn't worry them. I stayed with a host family when I first came here, so what if I taught the kids there.....would I get deported? NO!
Thay still have to prove that you were doing something wrong.