Korean Job Discussion Forums

[CrazyMonkey]

I am going to keep this one short (and not carefully proofread this post, so don't give me any sh*# if see a mistake or two) becuase I am so ticked off at immigration right now that I am about to explode.

Here is the situation: I am in the process of getting the visa for my new job, but Immigration won't accept my transcripts because they are not "sealed." In truth they are sealed (they bear the official school pressed seal on the paper) but they are not in a sealed envelope, since my univeristy does not issue transcripts in sealed envelopes. Instead it is printed on each page of the transcripts "Transcripts are official if it bears the college seal and if signed by the Director of Academic Affairs." (my employer asked me what bears have to do with transcripts. HA HA HA)

My school will not issue my transcripts in any other way, and Immigration will only accept "sealed" (I assume sealed evelope) transcripts.

AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Any ideas? Advise? Flowers for my grave?

[waterbaby]

How does your uni send you the transcripts?

[CrazyMonkey]

They send them in an A4 size UPS or DHL envelope, unfolded.

Will Immigration take transcripts that are in any envelope that is sealed shut or does it need a "seal" (such as a physical sticker that states "invalid if this seal is broken")? My employer seems to think it is a seal on a sealed shut envelope, as that is what the other 10 employees he has just hired have given him.

[lbellamy]

Brainstorm brainstorm...

Quickest: You could ask Immigration if they would accept a direct fax from your university to their very own fax machine ...... Some unis will confirm telephone enquires from prospective employers about graduates' degrees. ie the reference check. So they should be prepared to do this for Immigration by fax on Uni letterhead etc. You'll have to tee it up with a sympathetic person in the uni office who is prepared to do the work.

Next quickest: Or get someone at home to actually visit your University's relevant office and persuade somewhere there as to your need. I went into mine and they just whipped out an envelope, stuffed the transcript in, 'sealed' it (with a uni stamp across the the envelope flap onto the body) and handed it to me. That's what I took, unopened, to the JP for certification. If you don't have someone handily near the uni then contact the Alumni office and enlist their help. You just need one sympathetic person prepared to take this on withint the uni for you. Then get it FedExed over.

Very quick: Or contact the Korean Embassy back at home. Their word should work and they can just phone your uni then fax Immigration on your behalf. That's one government office to another and should be offical enough. Plus it's likely the embassy have already dealt with exactly this already (especially if you're Canadian).

Probably not quick: Or contact to the Korean Ombudsman / get your Embassy to mediate. Ask your new Director to enlist the Ombudsman Office support to beg Immigration for special case treatment. I suspect the Immigration Officer is powerless to do anything except apply the rule, unless he/she has a superior document to attach to your file that will 'cover them' if they make an exception.

Possibly quite quick: Or ask Immigration if they would accept a Korean law firms word, then hire a lawyer to check it out by phone/fax then write something official in Korean to Immigration to vouch for your degree being genuine.

Risky: Bribery. I wouldn't try it myself.

Whatever the outcome, would you post it? I was told I'd face this next time I applied for a visa, having just been granted one based on Korean Embassy certified copies of my degrees (which I had the Korean Embassy back in Australia certify - which they did on the basis of a registered Justice of the Peace's stamp on my copies.) I had to do all that by post because the Embassy was in Sydney and I wasn't. That was this last March.

Darn those cheaters who spoilled things with fake degrees....

Someone else on this site recommended visiting Immigration early in the morning before they're worn out by frustrated stressed visa applicants....

I think your Alumni office is the best idea.....

Good luck.

[crazylemongirl]

[canukteacher]

You had to have received the transcripts in a sealed envelope. Just give them to immigration exactly as you received them. That's what I did, and they were accepted without question.

CT

[mysteriousdeltarays]

Don't panic guy. All they want is transcripts in an enveloped mailed from the university that haven't been opened.

The problem is where to get them sent to. I used the U.S. embassy here but they got pissed off about using them as a "Post office Box" plus Ihad to take a day off from work and wait in line forever.

Most universities, I may very well be wrong, we all know I'm a jerk, won't just send them off to goof ball addresses overseas. Mine has all these "confidential" things like my date of birth, place of birth, social security number etc. on them.

I'm very "tired" of the world. I don't like the idea of all these things now being "top secret."

There is a positive side to this. There have been a lot of scum bags showing up around here lately. Bangkok trippers, I just got slugged in the eye by one tonight, toss off job interviews for a week or so. At any rate they may be able to buy phoney diplomas and transcripts but they envelopes, stamps (good luck whipping up stamps on photoshop guys!) the post mark (the FBI may want to have a little conversation with you about mail fraud, the Treasury boys will love the photoshop stamps!).

Look I know it is a pain in the posterior. Just have them sent to your parents, if they haven't moved etc. and have them forward the envelope inside another envelope.

Whatever you do don't let any idiot rip the things open during a job interview.

Oh another thing. Don't ask for them in bulk, like five at a time. The workstudy fools (I honestly talked to an air head named Barbie, I'm not kidding you at 3:00 A.M) will put them all in the same envelope.

Well happy early A.M. dialing to you! Say hello to the Heathers and Chads of the world for me. Brag to them about the millions you are making here and don't forget to mention the Hula dancers and the palm trees waving in the wind.

Good luck to you. The last thing we need around here are more Kung Fu "Fightas" around here. I say this with a bottle of semi frozen Prego Chunky Garden Pasta Sauce pressed against my eye (in lieu of ice) while enjoying an exotic tropical drink with a little umbrella in it

[sheba]

At worst, Im sure you can buy the official 'sealed' tape or stickers somewhere? The unopened envelope should be enough on its own.

[Banana Bender]

How about finding a laminating machine and doing it yourself. They only want to see it in some plastic.

[lastat06513]

A friend of mine, a very big goofball and professional underachiever, had the same problem as you.

I'm not saying its right or anything, but if they want to see an envelope, give them one.

easy as that....


I know, it was wrong to say that, but this "sealed transcript" mess is making it more unbearable for alot of teachers.

It is only a band-aid for a mess that won't get cleared up as easily. Korea can't change people's character or lifestyle and they think that by asking for "sealed transcripts", then only good teachers would come here.

no, they won't.

What about the bad hakwons that fire people or do unscrupplous things to their foreign teaching staff like withhold pay or keep people's degrees.

Do "sealed transcripts" change their attitudes? No, it doen't

This is the only topic that pisses me off the most....

[Homer]

By sealed they simply mean in the unopened envolope you received your transcript in.

It is as simple as that!

As to what to do, plenty of good advice in this thread already.

Just don't laminate them as they won't accept that either as you would have taken them out of the enveloppe and hence they would not be sealed....

[CrazyMonkey]

In the end, I just asked my university to send a copy of my transcripts in an official university envelope that was sealed shut but did not have a seal. For good measure, I asked them to date and sign the envelope. When it got here, I left it in the DHL envelope it came and had it handed into the lovely happy people at Immigration. They accepted it, but I wish I had found a way to fight for the legality of my transcripts with a lawyer. I guess we just have to take it with a smile and hope they see fit to bestow the honor of their good graces on our humble existence. The saga continues�

[Summer Wine]

[lastat06513]

What I mean by "show them an envelope" is to simply put them in an envelope and give it to them.

[mysteriousdeltarays]

What is the definition of a seal? A closed envelope as in America. A stamp applied over the back, a wax seal from the 17th century. An embossed seal going through, my transcript is three pages long, folded in thirds plus the front and back makes eleven pages. Sure a lot of embossing machines will just punch that through.

I've gotten all sorts of crackpot answers. The president of the University signs over the back. Sure, He's not so busy he wouldn't bother to do that for me.

The transripts are completely automated run by idiot work study students. Sure they do custom printing.

I challenge the moderators to delete this. All this nonesense based upon a recruiter. I know they are God Here.

I went through Hades shall we say to get the ones I have now. We old people get tired and revert to our Marxist Leninist past on this.

I'll be the first to crash through the gates in a tank bearing a blood red flag, then we are going to round up the recruiters.

Let's face it the Bangkok trippers of the Lonely Planet won, with their bogus degrees and their part time jobs. "I'm making a fortune here playing hangman, come on over dude, let's party."

My current "letter of invitation" bears a large red star. 17 years of hard work and depravation, sunk by a moronic web site that I notice is up and running again catering to the same crowd.

I have survived through all sorts of things here. Everything from tear gas to the post IMF crackdown when they deported everybody they could because I was always scrupulously clean. And now I have to leave because of what?

David Kang and the "backpacker crowd." Incidently if anybody cares which sure as Hades nobody does. We don't teach ESL. We teach EFL which is what the Laotion refugees need before they arrive by leaky boat.

ESL is what you teach Laotian refugees after they arrive. How to tell dog food from Campbells soup. It is presumed they speak at least some level of English.

Have you ever seen the sun set under the sea? vs Have you ever seen the sun set beneath the sea? The latter meaning you watch the sun sun go under the horizon.

Gee what is the differance? Duh I'm just trying to pick up some pocket change to go to the Island. I have a map.