Korean Job Discussion Forums

Jimmy · Joined: 10 Dec 2003 Location: Various

I Was just informed by a recruiter that notarized degrees are no longer accepted by the korean consolate that processes the working papers in korea and the original degree will have to be sent to korea, which will be held at the school

this is the first I've heard of that so was hoping I could get some feedback from those in the know

Holyjoe · Joined: 03 Mar 2003 Location: Away for a cuppa

prairieboy · Joined: 14 Sep 2003 Location: The batcave.

Huh? The original has to be sent and it will be held by the school? That's asking for trouble.

canuckistan · Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2003 7:21 pm Post subject:

I have 3 notarized copies of my degree that were done by the Korean consul himself back home.
Have the Korean consul notarize it him/herself. Can't do better than that! This is a service they provide when processing work visas. Costs little and saves soooooo much hassle later on.

To me it sounds like you're getting jived by a recruiter. Once they have your original degree they can really be, um, difficult in giving it back-- it's a meal ticket for them as you now can ONLY use them as a recruiter because well, they have your original and you don't!
Hard for you to apply/get offered a job elsewhere without said recruiter wanting to extort a cut. Very problematic if a school wants to deal with you directly and not go through a recruiter. You can lose opportunities over that.

Since recruiters are notorious for "losing" degrees, I won't get into the dirty business of using other peoples' stolen original degrees to fake up papers for people who don't have the required education to work in Korea.

Once a school has your original, they can leverage you to keep you around, maybe in the hell that is their hagwon. If they demand it, it should ring some alarm bells. Do not give people this power over you.

If you're going to do something as risky as hand over/mail an original degree, I'd have another original ordered up from your uni somewhere on you just in case.

waterbaby · Joined: 01 Feb 2003 Location: Baking Gord a Cheescake pie

Canuckistan has posted some good advice there. I'd find yourself another recruiter.

busan_boy2000 · Joined: 11 Nov 2003

Don't send the original. I made that mistake after having countless problems getting my visa from Canada (I graduated last summer - so initially I only had transcripts and a notarized cert. saying I graduated and would recieve the paper at convocation, but that could be a whole new thread - that ordeal). Long story short I realized that it was my hagwon boss that was holding up my visa ect. But the point is that they will hold it sometimes as that is the only leverage they have over you - especially if they make you work before your visa run (illegal but very common for us newbies).

It is true on the other hand that you could just order a new one - my uni charges $50 bucks and shipping - but that can sometimes be hard/hassle. Afidavit saying it was lost or destroyed in some cases. So don't do it, take it to a notary public, make a copy ($20 and send it to the consulate to get notarized) you might as well make 2 or 3 notarized copies while at it.

One more thing and a little off from the op. This topic has been discussed to death about how retarded this country is with the visas, but why don't they just start veryfying academic records? That would be the easiest thing, set up a centre in some town where the sole job is to check these out. This instead of changing the law pertaining to the types of documents that are acceptable every few months as they seem to do, save the hassle and just make the phonecall to the uni. It would have made my life easier with the whole graduating but no convocation thing. Each time my visa was rejected (3) I wanted to scream at the government here - "Just call my school - they'll vouch for me!" This whole original degree thing is a joke.