Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Khenan]

Has anyone else had an apostilled background check be refused by the Korean immigration office? Mine was. They said that it wasn't an official apostille, which it was. After talking to my Secretary of State's office, I learned that they actually cannot refuse to recognize an apostille under the Hague Conventions without first calling the office that issued the apostille and talking to them about it.

In fact, that's only the recourse for figuring out if an apostille has been forged or not. If it is a legitimate apostille, the Korean immigration *can not* refuse it without violating the Hague.

Another super important point is that the Hague conventions allow for apostilles to vary in their appearance from state to state. One of the reasons why Korea rejected my apostille was because it didn't look *exactly* like what they thought it should look like. The Hague specifically states that this is not a legitimate basis by which to refuse an apostille.

Just thought I'd share my experience and what I learned....

[mrsquirrel]

So what was the outcome?

[kimchi_pizza]

There.You.Go. They can't even recognize an apostilized, notorized, specialized and any other "-ized" document when they see one. You might as well use a regular ink stamp with a smiley face and THEN it'll go thru.

[Suwoner10]

Korea is the most bizarre place on earth. Hands down.

[diablo3]

Well well well...it gives me great pleasure to say .... wait for it...
"Don't be an E2-visa sponsored teacher in Korea"

It is so ridiculous that they cannot even read their own writing anymore.

You might be better off trying to fake it yourself.

The ESL industry is about to implode.

You have lost nothing, and saved a lot of stress.

[Khenan]

Well, the result in the short term has been that my visa is delayed. I know there's a lot of bitter people here that have had bad experiences with Korea, but I'm still looking forward to it. Besides, I have a pile of student loan debt (Thank you, America), and really need a good paying job asap. My contract has me starting at 3.2m won, so I'd like to keep (get) this job.

My Secretary of State gave me some documents to give to Korean immigration that basically explains for them what their job is and how to do it. Hopefully they will understand that they are in violation of international treaties at the moment.

Over the course of this difficulty, I have done a lot of research into apostilles. I've read the entirety of the Hague conventions and tons of associated recommendations/opinions, etc, so if anyone else has had problems, I may be able to give you some insight on the *real* situation with apostilles.... if not the Korean situation.

[hellofaniceguy]

[moosehead]

[Khenan]

Washington

[sojourner1]

I am not a bit surprised about your documents being rejected. I feel bad for you.

Are they trying to severely limit the number of hagwon teachers to move English education to the public schools? There definitely is a big change coming about and I am sure the hagwons are concerned as mine is who expresses worry about the schools' future despite it having no enrollment issues. I don't tell my hagwon director what I think about the English education industry and you probably should not either; let them figure it out for themselves or they might screw you on money for sure if they think it's the end. I can tell my director already has this idea by her attitude and concern for the school's future, but I won't feed into that since she owes me money.

I did hear that they want to double the number of English teachers this summer in public schools though I have no real confirmation of this. Maybe I would come back then if they got it together on what they want and are doing. At this point, we can only speculate and wait to see what Korea wants to do.

I do believe that the Korean government wants parents to invest that English hagwon tuition money into other things such as financial securities or business while their kids receive English education at their public schools. If I were a Korean parent, I would want to be able to invest this extra money while my kids receive adequate education through the public schools.

These changes coming about have nothing to do with what the Korean people such as parents think or want, it has to do with the government wants for them. I am not talking for or against the government, I just wish they would make it clear what they are doing or what their English education goals are.

[cruisemonkey]

Where does one get and E-2 job starting at 3.2 million?

[Leslie Cheswyck]

^ You mean the state they almost named Columbia until some congressman piped up and said "No, no, we can't name it that. People will confuse it with the District of Columbia!"

[Khenan]

It definately seems like a strange time to be coming into the profession. Like I said before, I just need a good paying job right now, and these guys will pay me more than a public school in the states will. I have an MA btw in education and a BA in English. Aside from the money, I really need to get out of this country for a while. I suspect that some of you that have been overseas for a while might have forgotten how obnoxious it can be to live in the states sometimes.

The grass is always greener...

(Edit: Sorry for the US-centrism... but those of you not from the US can probably imagine how I feel )

[Khenan]

[idonojacs]

Yeah, Khenan, it does sometimes seem to be a toss up which country is more screwed up, the Korea or the U.S.

This mess with the apostilles makes me wonder how long it will take for Korea Immi to reject an apostille from New Mexico, as it is not an English speaking country.