Korean Job Discussion Forums

[purple_buddha]

I'm enrolling in a university class in Septmeber and would like to balance my schedule with a solid, part-time gig. However, the potential P/T job situations I've encountered involve teaching illegally.

In several cases I was informed by a director or a recruiter that the hagwon will sponsor an E-2 visa for part-time teaching. As I have an F-2-1 visa already, I figured this to be a relatively painless endeavor with immigration: just present all the necessary documents, pay the fee at the local immigration office, and start teaching.

A week ago I had a director in Junggye lie to me and my Korean wife's face and tell me he would sponsor an E-2. Come the 11th hour before I'm supposed to start teaching there, he tells me he's not going to sponsor an E-2. Good-bye to that position.

I had another director flat out refuse to sponsor the E-2 even though he was so desperate to put a foreign body in the classroom, he was practically reaching through the phone to grab me and throw me there.

Then, there's Julie Choi, a recruiter at i-BizTrip, who wants me to start teaching in Anyang starting immediately. She keeps promising there's an E-2 visa sponsorship, yet I haven't seen the school or spoken to anyone there. I'm just supposed to show up, teach for three hours (M-F), and she (the recruiter) will pay me 30,000 won an hour. There's no contract and obviously no E-2 visa application.

Apparently, some directors and this recruiter don't seem to care about placing a teacher into an illegal teaching situation. With all the immigration sweeps lately, I'm not taking any chances.

It seems to me the only way to get an E-2 visa and teach legally is to take a F/T position, which I won't be able to do, as my class is four hours long in Shinchon, and I live in Siheung City. Or, have my wife start a business that will allow me to teach English legally, which we don't have the funding for.

Anyone else tried for a P/T gig? If so, will a school provide some sort of contract? My understanding is no contract=no E-2 visa at the immigration office.

I'm finding that securing a legitimate, P/T ESL teaching job is a bit of a pain in the arse at the moment.

Thanks for any input.

Cheers!

[thekingofdisco]

If you are declaring the tax, isn't working with an F visa perfectly fine?

[saw6436]

Even with an F2-1 visa you still need an E-2 to legally work. I'm in the same boat as the OP. Fortunately I had no problem securing an E-2 with the school I am teaching at part-time (14 hrs / wk).

Getting an E-2 for part-time work is not at all a problem from the side of immigration. Sounds like you simply need to find a school with a reasonable ammount of common sense. Your primary visa is the F2-1 and your E-2 is nothing more than "permission to work".

For the life of me I can't understand why a school would not sponser an E-2 for you situation. Good luck.

[taegu girl]

It is possible to get an E-2 visa for part time work. Immigration is not going to check with the hagwon and say" Oh, he/she only worked 12 hours a week instead of 30 (or whatever number is considered fulltime)", you just need to find a place that is willing to pay for the paperwork involved and you should possibly be willing to pay for part of the cost involved in the visa run. When my korean husband and i were waiting in Korea for my husband's American work visa to be approved, i got bored sitting in the house all day watching tv while he worked and since i had just moved to a new city i didn't know anyone. I went and called a few places advertising positions and was straight forward with them that i would not be able to work full time for a year but would give them an advance warning once we got the approval notice so they could find a new person. Some hagwons turned me down but one (way across town) was willing to sponsor an E-2 for me because they really needed a teacher. Since it was so far away (almost 1 1/2 hours one way by subway) they gave me the late morning and early afternoon hours which definitely did not add up to full time work. Pay was by the hour instead of by the month because of this which was fine with me since i was doing it since i was bored out of my mind. Also i helped pay for the visa run because i didn't want to run the risk of working illegally and they weren't willing to pay the full cost for someone that only ended up working for them about 3 months. I did sign a contract that had full time hours listed but there was an understanding between us that i was not going to work that many hours and that he was going to pay me hourly (neither condition written on the actual contract) Long story, just to say it is possible so don't give up. Good luck...

[purple_buddha]

Thanks for the responses.

With summer vacation winding down, I should be able to find steady, part-time work that isn't dependent on the vacation and extra summer classes scenario.