Korean Job Discussion Forums

[LexusNexus]

When I first contact recruiters, get the documents aposillied, and fly out to Korea,

How long does it take? What is the shortest amoung of time?

I am asking because I'll be staying at my parents place in the US, and I don't want to stay over 1 month (although I can) because I'll get sick of them and they'll get sick of me.

I am teaching in another Asian country, and want to plan my stay & Korean E-2 process as quickly as possible.

Thanks for any replies.

[Seoulio]

this is average and based on my experience

you need to be in your own country to get a criminal background check.

Go to a small town outisde your major city and get the CBC, usually takes les than a week.

Get your transcripts ordered, takes less than a week.

In the meantime you are contacting recruiters ( i dont deal with them they are a pain.) if you get lucky you will get a job that you are wiling to take in a week, then you must interview and get approval. You can usually do this in a week or two total ( or even as quickly as a day if you find a good job, but this is usually too fast and you get a BAD job

Getting your appostile done takes a day.

Now you have a job offer and all yor documents send of the documents, get a reply back and your contract sent back to you ( takes 1 - 2 weeks)

Now you have to send your documents to the Korean consulate with your passport to get your visa ( 5 - 10 business days)


A month is pushing it. 5-7 weeks is average but 3-4 is possible if you pay the etra and have prompt delivery of all documents

[LexusNexus]

Thanks, Seoulio.

You've been a great help.

[jmuns]

depending on what state you are in, and where you are in that state the appostile can take more time. if you drive to your capital yeah you can get your cbc appostile in a day, but if you mail it in then it is going to take at least a week. the only way to get that done in a day is in person.

[LexusNexus]

[Seoulio]

[gay in korea]

Based on the title I was pretty sure that when I clicked on the link I was going to be reading a question about losing your virginity.

[jmuns]

[Seoulio]

[jmuns]

[naturegirl321]

I got my CBC while in Peru. My parents did the paperwork. I moved from Peru to Kora and am spending about a month in the US as well.

My CBC took over a month since I had problems getting it apostillised. Lovely State of Illinois. Transcripts took about two weeks. YOu can do these at the same time.

For the CBC, go to the Dept of State website and order an order form. Sounds silly, I know. My mom requested an order form, sent that off with my name and 16 bucks and got the CBC.

FInding a good can take a day, finding a good job takes longer.

From my experience, once you sent your stuff to Korea it takes about two weeks for them to get the visa issuance number. If you taught in Korea before, I did, then you can simply mail your passport to the consulate without an interview. And they can mail it back.

Problem with that is that some things may get "lost:" in the mail. Visa takes 2 to 3 days to get put in your passport, provided that there are no holidays.

I-s say that if you sign your contract 1 may and post it to Korea, book your flight so that you go to the US on 15 May.

Figure about a month to get CBC, transcripts, and a good job,
Two weeks to process your visa in Korea
three days to get the visa.

Plan on about 8 weeks, just in case problems arise, for example, I got my CBC wasn-t notarsied, so had to be sent back, they sent the CBC back, again wasn-t notarised. Third time it was. So got sent to the apostillise, got sent back without the apostille since they just changed the rules and it had to get authenticated before apostillised. Lovely red tape, luckily my parents did it for me

[kinerry]

[asutrack]

Kinnery is right.... Lawyers do not do Apostille (in the U.S. anyway). Generally, you need to get your Apostille from the Secy. of State.

As to how long does it take start to finish; 2 weeks is the absolute minimum. With that said, it really all depends on where you live. My GF, who lives in NYC, completed the entire process in that time. Of course, I had been through the process and walked her through it. She also had to run around quite a bit: trip to Uni. for Transcripts; Trip to get fingerprints, Trip to drop off CBC to get Apostille; etc. She could have done things by mail but that of course takes longer.

IMO: If you have to do things by mail it will likely take 4-6 weeks.

[LexusNexus]

naturegirl123

[eliross]

I did a local (from the county sheriffs office) background check in Washington last year while I was in Vietnam. It took three days through the mail (I think you can do it in a day if you walk in and ask for it) and then I had to get an apostille from the US embassy in Vietnam. Technically you should be able to get the apostille from any notary but I had my first background check returned because the apostille wasn't from the state secretary. Getting a local background check required my mother to call and ask for it.
I couldn't do a state background check because I only found it offered online and Korea will not accept a background check off the internet (even if it's a certified document). You can also do an FBI backgorund check that can take up to 3 months. This requires you to send in your fingerprints from a police station (you can do this from abroad as long as they take decent fingerprints.) The nice thing about the FBI check is that it's easier to get it a second time when you decide to change jobs.
Transcripts and diploma depends on your university. The good ol' Evergreen State College in your neck of the woods took two weeks to send me these. GET EXTRA COPIES OF EVERYTHING. After I sent my background check, two transcripts and a diploma to Korea the Korean consulate in Seattle wanted to see it all again! I had a flight out in three days and my visa reservation number but they wouldn't give me my visa. Luckily I had some old sealed transcripts from before I had graduated and I gave the consulate these. They were so confused with all the paperwork they stamped my visa anyway.
It's the luck of the draw and they might have their act together now.