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Bad hagwon

 
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S3raph1m



Joined: 06 Mar 2017

PostPosted: Wed Jul 11, 2018 9:29 am    Post subject: Bad hagwon Reply with quote

So, I thought I was being careful and would not get into a bad Hagwon job, but lo and behold... The problem is not my work hours or lack of pay or anything like that. My boss is insane. She seemed so nice during the interview and over the phone. Seemed nice on the phone. She was even nice when we met her in person before accepting the job because we wanted to see the school in person. I must be a bad judge of character because she is nuts. Constant micromanagement and close watch over CCTV. If she's unhappy with something, she's entirely too comfortable with yelling at and scolding you in front of your class (which is really shitty since I'd like to be viewed as somewhat of an authority figure). Got screamed at once for playing Hangman for 5 minutes when we finished the book work early (yeesh!).

Anyway, I gave her my letter of resignation and offered to stay for the 45 days notice as stipulated in my contract. However, now she's acting super nice and our recruiter that got us the job has been blowing up our phones telling us not to leave and that it is bad to break contracts, blah blah blah. I get the impression that my boss is going to try and convince my friend and I who came with me on a couple position not to leave. Should I just pull a runner and head to China or something? Am I even likely to get a letter of release? I'd rather my friend and I pull a runner and at least make things a little more difficult for my boss if she's unlikely to give the LOR. Or should we stick it out and see if she'll give it?

Also, why would the recruiter be messaging us? Do recruiters not get paid until we've been there a few months or something? I was under the impression they forget about you after they get you into a position. We've only been here a month now, so I'm wondering if that's the case.
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ttompatz



Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Location: Kwangju, South Korea

PostPosted: Wed Jul 11, 2018 9:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The day after payday just head for the airport and find a nice beach somewhere while you look for a new job in a new country.

For anyone who can get an E2 for Korea you can work just about anywhere in East Asia. Pick a country.

China is in peak Hiring for the fall term. There are easily 50,000 jobs on offer and the pay and benefits are similar to Korea. Just be careful of punitive clauses in their contracts and don't be afraid to say no and go to the next recruiter.

Taiwan is an easy country to find work but there are no benefits for EFL teachers.

Finding work in Thailand is about as difficult as stepping off a curb. The only downside is the pay is lower (typically US$1300 (45k baht - don't settle for less)) but the cost if living is dirt cheap if you are not in Bangkok or a tourist trap. Fly in, get a room in a guest house and start kicking the tires.

Lots of ex-E2 types are also in Thailand on extended tourist visas and working on-line for companies like DaDa, itutor, SayABC, and the like. They can earn more on-line as EFL teachers than many would earn in a regular day-time job. Decent fiber optic connections are cheap (150mbps - unlimited data stream for $30/month)

Vietnam is also in peak hiring but full time work is hard to find. There are a lot of backpacker types who jumped from Thailand when immigration cracked down on illegal workers.

.
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S3raph1m



Joined: 06 Mar 2017

PostPosted: Thu Jul 12, 2018 3:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks so much, dude. My friend and I are going to talk about it tonight. We’ll figure out what we’re doing next. It’ll most likely be China until our ARC expires next June and then we’ll come back to Korea and try to vet the next employer a bit better.
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creeper1



Joined: 30 Jan 2007

PostPosted: Sun Jul 15, 2018 7:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You can't just "go to China and work a few months" and say it like it's a piece of cake.

In China (like Korea) there is a bunch of documentation required before you get a legal position. Degree certification, background checks with apostile and oh a health check.

It's not cheap and the visa process takes a long time and almost certainly requires a flight home.

Here in Taiwan that is not the case although criminal record checks are now necessary.
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isitts



Joined: 25 Dec 2008
Location: Korea

PostPosted: Sun Jul 15, 2018 11:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

S3raph1m wrote:
Thanks so much, dude. My friend and I are going to talk about it tonight. We’ll figure out what we’re doing next. It’ll most likely be China until our ARC expires next June and then we’ll come back to Korea and try to vet the next employer a bit better.

ttompatz can confirm this but I don't think you need to wait for your ARC to expire. Just leave it with immigration at the airport on your way out of Korea. I believe that will effectively cancel it. You'll need new documents to come back in, but...better than waiting.

For future reference, it's best to have extra documents (even the criminal background check) in case things go south within the first few months. Obviously, you'd have to make sure your background check can last long enough...But even if it doesn't, extra fingerprint cards (with your prints) have a pretty long shelf life. Not sure which country you're from, but last I checked the FBI accepts prints that are 18 months old. You can send said prints to a channeler and get an apostilled background check pretty quickly.
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S3raph1m



Joined: 06 Mar 2017

PostPosted: Mon Jul 16, 2018 3:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

isitts wrote:
S3raph1m wrote:
Thanks so much, dude. My friend and I are going to talk about it tonight. We’ll figure out what we’re doing next. It’ll most likely be China until our ARC expires next June and then we’ll come back to Korea and try to vet the next employer a bit better.

ttompatz can confirm this but I don't think you need to wait for your ARC to expire. Just leave it with immigration at the airport on your way out of Korea. I believe that will effectively cancel it. You'll need new documents to come back in, but...better than waiting.

For future reference, it's best to have extra documents (even the criminal background check) in case things go south within the first few months. Obviously, you'd have to make sure your background check can last long enough...But even if it doesn't, extra fingerprint cards (with your prints) have a pretty long shelf life. Not sure which country you're from, but last I checked the FBI accepts prints that are 18 months old. You can send said prints to a channeler and get an apostilled background check pretty quickly.


I’d really appreciate if someone could confirm this. I’ve heard this before, but I’ve also heard you need to wait for it to expire. If this is true, I’ll just go home to the US for a month and then come back to Korea.
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isitts



Joined: 25 Dec 2008
Location: Korea

PostPosted: Mon Jul 16, 2018 5:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hmm... Reading through some other threads that he’d posted in (some of which were your threads)...and it would seem that if your E-2 is a multiple entries visa, then you have to wait. I just checked mine, and it is a multiple. I think before, the visa was single entry and the ARC acted as your multiple entry permit. Perhaps that’s changed.

It’s frustrating. I had to leave China because of a bad employer. And that would have been more of a headache to transfer documents to a new school. So I came back here in part to wait for my visa there to expire (though, they may have cancelled it...I just didn’t bother checking).

Anyway, hopefully things work out for you.
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ttompatz



Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Location: Kwangju, South Korea

PostPosted: Sat Jul 21, 2018 11:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

If you are NOT an American then turning in your ARC will cancel your allowed period of sojourn since you only had a 90-day, single entry visa.

If you ARE American then turning in your ARC will NOT cancel your visa or status of sojourn since the visa is good for 1 full calendar year and multiple entries. You have to wait until it expires. The only solution to this is to get a LOR (unlikely) from your employer when you pull your midnight run.

.
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Aine1979



Joined: 20 Jan 2013
Location: Incheon

PostPosted: Sat Jul 28, 2018 2:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

ttompatz wrote:
If you are NOT an American then turning in your ARC will cancel your allowed period of sojourn since you only had a 90-day, single entry visa.

If you ARE American then turning in your ARC will NOT cancel your visa or status of sojourn since the visa is good for 1 full calendar year and multiple entries. You have to wait until it expires. The only solution to this is to get a LOR (unlikely) from your employer when you pull your midnight run.

.


This changed at least 18 months ago, if not longer. Americans can now cancel their visa by turning in their ARC at the airport. My colleague did it in February 2017, 3 months into a 12 month contract. She's American, turned in her ARC at the airport, my boss applied for a new VIN and she got a new visa at the embassy in Fukuoka.
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S3raph1m



Joined: 06 Mar 2017

PostPosted: Fri Aug 03, 2018 2:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Update: found another job and got a post-dated LOR. I gave a formal letter of resignation and started my 45 days notice for quitting. We’re on a couple position and threatened to pull an immediate runner if she didn’t give us a post-dated LOR. Surprisingly, it worked. O__o
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Chia Pet



Joined: 23 Jun 2013

PostPosted: Wed Aug 08, 2018 9:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Aine1979 wrote:
This changed at least 18 months ago, if not longer. Americans can now cancel their visa by turning in their ARC at the airport. My colleague did it in February 2017, 3 months into a 12 month contract. She's American, turned in her ARC at the airport, my boss applied for a new VIN and she got a new visa at the embassy in Fukuoka.

This will only work if the old employer who you ran from informs Immigration that you left. Employers are supposed to inform Immigration, but they often don't (there's no real penalty I guess). I asked about this when I visited an Immigration office (BTW the hotline gives wrong information sometimes). If the employer has not informed Immigration, whether out of laziness, not knowing the rules, or spite, you will be unable to apply for a new visa until your old contract expires. It's a terrible policy.
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Aine1979



Joined: 20 Jan 2013
Location: Incheon

PostPosted: Thu Aug 09, 2018 6:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Immigration give totally inconsistent information. In this case my colleague was advised by immi to cancel her own visa at the airport because her employer hadn't. No idea if they would have, she did it 2 days after her last day and employers have 14 days to report it. As I said, she had no problems cancelling it and coming back a few days later as a tourist before doing a visa run.
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isitts



Joined: 25 Dec 2008
Location: Korea

PostPosted: Sun Aug 12, 2018 5:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

S3raph1m wrote:
Update: found another job and got a post-dated LOR. I gave a formal letter of resignation and started my 45 days notice for quitting. We’re on a couple position and threatened to pull an immediate runner if she didn’t give us a post-dated LOR. Surprisingly, it worked. O__o

Nice. Congrats!
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ttompatz



Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Location: Kwangju, South Korea

PostPosted: Tue Sep 25, 2018 4:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

S3raph1m wrote:
isitts wrote:
S3raph1m wrote:
Thanks so much, dude. My friend and I are going to talk about it tonight. We’ll figure out what we’re doing next. It’ll most likely be China until our ARC expires next June and then we’ll come back to Korea and try to vet the next employer a bit better.

ttompatz can confirm this but I don't think you need to wait for your ARC to expire. Just leave it with immigration at the airport on your way out of Korea. I believe that will effectively cancel it. You'll need new documents to come back in, but...better than waiting.

For future reference, it's best to have extra documents (even the criminal background check) in case things go south within the first few months. Obviously, you'd have to make sure your background check can last long enough...But even if it doesn't, extra fingerprint cards (with your prints) have a pretty long shelf life. Not sure which country you're from, but last I checked the FBI accepts prints that are 18 months old. You can send said prints to a channeler and get an apostilled background check pretty quickly.


I’d really appreciate if someone could confirm this. I’ve heard this before, but I’ve also heard you need to wait for it to expire. If this is true, I’ll just go home to the US for a month and then come back to Korea.


If you are NOT American (single entry visa with ARC) then it is possible but you need a complete, new set of documents.

If you ARE American (multi-entry, 1-year visa) then handing in your ARC will NOT solve the problem. Find a beach somewhere.

.
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Chia Pet



Joined: 23 Jun 2013

PostPosted: Sun Sep 30, 2018 10:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
If you are NOT American (single entry visa with ARC) then it is possible but you need a complete, new set of documents.

If you ARE American (multi-entry, 1-year visa) then handing in your ARC will NOT solve the problem. Find a beach somewhere.

.

This advice is outdated, as some posts above have shown. I'm not going to repeat what Aine1979 and I already posted, but I'll add that I was told you do NOT need new documents if you have been out of Korea for less than 90 days since ending your job.

I'd advise anyone with a critical immigration question to visit an office directly (skip the hotline). The problem is, if your area is covered by Seoul or Suwon Immigration, you are required to set up an online appointment, and the schedule may be all blocked out for a month or more. This will PROBABLY be the case if you are covered by Suwon. It's insane and very inconsiderate of Immigration. (Most of the individual Immigration officers I've talked with in the past have been nice, but I feel like the people in charge of the department must be jerks (release letter policy, are you kidding?)). Anyway, if you can't get an appointment soon enough maybe you could try visiting another area's office. You can check schedules for any area on the website.

I'm hoping my advice can get out without this site's recent logout problems getting in the way.
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