Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Aussiekimchi]

Transcripts procedure.

I thought I would call Immigration today to get official rulings on the procedures newbies should take when preparing to send their transcripts.
I made my first phone call to their office at 10.30am. It is now 2.30pm.
After 4 hours, and 7, YES 7, different answers, I have finally been told that these horrible bits of useless paper need to be :
* original
* in a sealed university envelope
* have a stamp or sticker on the back
* have some sort of signature over the seal

Thing is though, what is stopping someone who has loose leaf transcripts doing this?
They get a mate to go to the university and get a University envelope and send it over.
They seal the originals themself, place an obscure "void if opened" sticker over the seal, and sign over the seal themself.

I am so happy Immigration are on top of things!
Good luck with any new visas guys...it's a bloody lottery.

[jinju]

transcripts? I couldnt be bothered.

[Homer]

Well...a do not open seal is not the same as a University seal....but hey do as you please.

Personally, I don't play the lottery with my visas....I prefer the legit way.

[Pak Yu Man]

Good. The harder it is for new people to get a visa...the more money I will make.

Maybe more people will say "f*ck this" and head to China or Japan.

More for me

[Ya-ta Boy]

I wish I could believe Immi had a set policy that all branches understood and followed.

[cornie_man]

(With crossed hands) "waeguk... no".

[lastat06513]

I have been writing this since it first got a spot on the forum last year;


~ Making the laws more stringent doesn't mean more money and more respect for the ones staying behind. It just means that the owner can either: A) Control the conditions of the contract or find a more suitable candidate in country. B) Go into another line of business.

And I find out that a few people did find some around the "sealed transcript" and it sounded alittle like what the person mentioned here.

Look at the Taiwan forum and talk to people there and ask them if the situation got any better since their government placed stringent rules on teaching there.
It just meant that alot of schools couldn't find suitable teachers to work there.
I have even known schools that would rather close their doors rather than hire a bad teacher that could ruin their reputation and actively recruit before opening again.


I think the argument of "more for me" doesn't necessarily work.

[Homer]

I disagree to an extent here lastat.

I think the rules badly needed to be updated and made tougher. The problem is that they need to be enfored uniformally and equally across the country so that people know the rules clearly.

If the goal is to get better teachers and eliminate the morons then this needs to be followed by some sort of clean up of the industry where shady hakwons are taken out of business or forced to shape up through some sort of regulatory system. It seems the government chose another route by opening Public Schools, upgrading EPIK and other such programs. This has hurt hakwons big time and since most public schools demand better (or qualified in some sense) teachers (usually) it will have (long term) a positive effect on the job market. Right now it has contributed to a sort of teacher shortage as new measures have combined with increasing competition from other asian markets (namely China).

Overall, I think raising the bar is an excellent step...if followed up by other steps (which the government measures seem to be). However, we need to be careful and not to expect overnight changes. This will take time.

[sadsac]

There will never be uniform measure adopted by Korean immigration because if you look at the fine print at the bottom of their notice boards, there is an advisory there that states that the head of that branch can request whatever documentation he sees fit regarding visa applications. That's why there is so much confusion, each boss has his own idea on what's best. I do agree with Homer, there should be a set criteria for setting up a hogwan and the first one should be the owner speaks English. Until they introduce a licencing system that works, wages won't go up, available teachers will diminish and the governemnt will continue to put half assed programs within the public school system to make learning English even more of a circus than it is now.

[Kwangjuchicken]

In the case of EFL teachers, they should do all they can to make it as simple a process as possible. After all, they want us here. If, for example, University X advertised for a native EFL teacher, and that University requested and examened the documents, had interviews and then finally chooses one of the applicants (out of sometimes over 1000)
and then that person signs the contract, anything that makes getting a visa difficult is just a big pile of horse %$#*&^.

[Homer]

Pehaps k-chicken but the transcripts request is a measure intent on weeding out people with fake degrees. I think we can agree that this is a reasonable step for immigration no?

I do think however that once you earned a visa and want a new one later on, you should not have to submit all documents again. They should have some sort of record.

Then again, the Canada passport office asks people who want to reniew their passports to go throught the exact same process with the exact same documents and requirements as those of a first time applicant (found that out when I reniewed my passport a few years ago)...

[lastat06513]

But as the OP stated above, what is to stop a person from making their own transcripts?

They already know the criteria that immigrations is looking for, so what is to stop them from doing that?

I think that the self-inflicted shortage Korea is making for itself is very good for the short-term, but it will backfire in the long term.

I feel transcripts submission is a good idea, but immigrations must know that not every university has the same sealing process as what they want and they should get up off their arses to verify for themselves.

I still feel that the best thing to do is to get them apostlized and/or get an affidavid from the embassy to state that the embassy is real, thus making the transcripts are indeed real.

If a person does this and becomes successful, please post it here and I guarantee that I will buy them a full spread dinner at the restaurant of their choice plus a pitcher of the finest German beer brewed in Shinchon.

[Kwangjuchicken]

This is getting out of control. More and more ads on the Korean job list say all on the short list need to bring sealed transcripts to the interview. And, then at a later date, they will tell who got the job. So, this is not just am immigration thing, but also the schools. But, here is what really gets me. If I go to an interview with sealed transcripts, then it must mean they are going to break the seal. So, then that means I can not use those for another job nor a visa renewal.

.

[sadsac]

There in lies the fundamental flaw with the transcripts, we want to see the originals, but to do that we have to break the seal, therefore voiding them as being able to be submitted under immi guidelines. Uniformity is what is needed. Make the screening process more demanding and issue a visa for 5 years and not tied to a particular school or hogwan. That may then make it more difficult for owners to screw teachers over because you can just pack up and go. There needs to be a major overhaul of the current system.

[harryh]