Korean Job Discussion Forums

[StephannieK]

Quote from immigration's New release dated Dec 13, 2007

Participating consular officers expressed their support for the need of criminal background report and health certificate. But they expressed the concerns about the issuance of the criminal background checks due to the limited resources, backlogs, or the long time requirements for verification.
- It varies from country to country from 40 days to 60 days to have one's criminal background check issued. In the case of the United States and some other countries, one can have his/her criminal background check issued out of the website and get them notarized (consular certification) in the embassies.

Anyone had any experience with this one yet?

http://www.immigration.go.kr/indeximmeng.html

[agentX]

When I applied to EPIK thru a recruiter this past October, they requested a criminal background check (CBC). They never said where to get one, so I asked my recruiter if an online one was ok. He said it was fine. They didn't say anything about having it notarized, so I printed it out and sent it out. The office was a little confused so I had to explain it to them and e-mail the original.
This is the site I used.
http://www.sentrylink.com/ They seem to be legit, and have been in business long enough to not be a BBK or a Fly-by-night.
They offer NATIONAL criminal background checks as part of their package.
This is what employers do in the USA- you submit something like a SSN and and DOB along with your name (duh), and the employer does the search. I don't really understand why the MOI would want people to submit the background checks with their applications. I mean, unless they check the "checker" the MOI would not know whether or not the documents are tampered with.
Notarization is fairly easy to obtain. Shoot, becoming a notary is pretty easy in itself. http://www.notarytrainer.com/beanotary.html
In this site, New Jersey doesn't even require an exam or training (you can buy a kit from the site that has what you need, like a manual and stamps).
This site http://www.nationalnotary.org/howto/index.cfm?text=howToNotary tells you how to become one in the 50 states and Guam.

This gives me a business idea. Let's find someone (English-speaking Korean or an F-4 or a Korean-American) and have them become a licensed notary in a state with some standards (Mississippi) or low standards (Kentucky and Arkansas) or no standards (Wyoming). He or she can travel to the states, get this done in like a day or two, come back here and be our point-man for notarization. That way, whenever we need this crap done, we can just print the damn thing out, take it to the Notary here in Korea, stamp-stamp-sign, and it's all good.

Am I a genius or what?

[StephannieK]

yea, EPIK told me the same thing, then recanted & said they want the FBI one & the website one was just a temporary acceptance until the gov. one comes in.

becareful about telling our secrets (or secret potentials) there are trollers about... did you see how folks were quoted in the Korea Herald last tuesday with "foreigner's enraged over e-2 changes"

[agentX]

If the Korean Herald wants to point out the obvious flaws in the MOI's plan, then that is fine- but I'm not the only one who's noticed that, either here or on another msg board. I'm pretty sure the MOI will figure it all out in due time and make changes. They're not unreasonable people. The FBI's backlogged by 7 months, and they're not reliable. After that much time, there's no other means other than an online check or a quickie local check.

It would be nice to have a notary outside of an Embassy, though.