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captain kirk
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
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 Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 6:55 am Post subject: Ever get scrutinized by immi for being here on a touri visa? |
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Once I stuck around, between jobs, here in Korea. Went on a three month meditation retreat in the mountains at a buddhist temple with monks. Whole time we didn't leave the grounds, just sat and meditated all the time being cross-legged up the yinyang.
When that was done I was looking for a job. When I got that Immigration wanted to know what I'd been doing in Korea for three months. This was Inchon Immigration which I heard is tough. Port, and lots of foreign factory workers. So imagine Immi's surprise when they call up the head monk at the temple who says, yes, C'pn K was there sitting cross-legged up the yinyang like the rest of us knee achers. Haha, it was sweet. Better luck next time, Keystone Coppers.
So I've got some time again between jobs and saw the info on a dave's thread about goshiwons and thought why not stay in a goshiwon and study Korean instead of going to Thailand and, ahem, having fun. If I were to stay here, insanely seriously studious at a goshiwon for a couple of months would it be the same treatment. Immi asking for details about where I was and what I was doing for that time suspecting it was privates?
Has anyone sticking around, not working, on a tourist visa had this happen?
Thanks. |
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JongnoGuru
Joined: 25 May 2004
Location: peeing on your doorstep
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| Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 7:06 am Post subject: |
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| okay, no more coffee for me. |
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nautilus
Joined: 26 Nov 2005
Location: Je jump, Tu jump, oui jump!
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| Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 7:10 am Post subject: |
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| great! South Korea joins North korea and Myanmar as the only countries where tourists must prove exactly what they were doing on their holiday. |
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capebretoncanadian
Joined: 20 Feb 2005
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| Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 7:24 am Post subject: |
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| nautilus wrote: |
| great! South Korea joins North korea and Myanmar as the only countries where tourists must prove exactly what they were doing on their holiday. |
I stayed here six months........to the day on a tourist visa....then re-entered ON a tourist visa before I settled down and got to work.....never got a second look except "What is the purpose of your visit?"..............My friend.....not a teacher.....just a traveller...has stayed off and on in Korea for FIVE years....and hardly elicited a blink.....as far as I know the way the OP was treated is definitely not the norm...just my two cents |
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nautilus
Joined: 26 Nov 2005
Location: Je jump, Tu jump, oui jump!
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| Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 7:32 am Post subject: |
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| capebretoncanadian wrote: |
| nautilus wrote: |
| great! South Korea joins North korea and Myanmar as the only countries where tourists must prove exactly what they were doing on their holiday. |
I stayed here six months........to the day on a tourist visa....then re-entered ON a tourist visa before I settled down and got to work.....never got a second look except "What is the purpose of your visit?"..............My friend.....not a teacher.....just a traveller...has stayed off and on in Korea for FIVE years....and hardly elicited a blink.....as far as I know the way the OP was treated is definitely not the norm...just my two cents |
Times have changed though....there have been multiple clampdowns, mass expulsions, media coverage etc since then. Korea doesn't attract many legitimate tourists, so they assume you must be here teaching illegally. |
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capebretoncanadian
Joined: 20 Feb 2005
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| Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 7:35 am Post subject: |
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| nautilus wrote: |
Times have changed though....there have been multiple clampdowns, mass expulsions, media coverage etc since then. Korea doesn't attract many legitimate tourists, so they assume you must be here teaching illegally. |
Point taken...but have times changed THAT much in the year and a half since I've done this? |
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canuckistan
Mod Team
Joined: 17 Jun 2003
Location: Training future GS competitors.....
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| Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 7:38 am Post subject: |
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I'd say by now you have enough E-2 stamps in your passport for immigration to know you haven't been just mucking around in Korea sort of thing!
I suppose if you're going to hang out not working, keep some proof (receipts, names etc) of what you've been legitimately doing just in case. |
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captain kirk
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 7:55 am Post subject: |
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Yeah, keep receipts. Like, he had a chilli Whopper every day for a week then changed to the Garlic Steakhouse burger for an equally long time. Then tried the Mushroom steakhouse, but didn't like it....and the staff could say, yes, we saw him. He eats too many hamburgers, it's sick.
Yeah, that was weird. The Immi official wanted me to fax him a statement about what I had done during that time. Which I did. Then he wanted it, not typed, but neatly hand printed. Which is totally bizarre. Then he wanted to schedule an interview but that never happened and by that time I was in on another E2 working at a haggie. And having talked to the head monk sort of stumped them; end of scrutinization.
So I'm gonna keep receipts this time as I skulk about Seoul, at every step potentially guilty of meeting privates. And drinking too much coffee and getting more receipts.... |
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ontheway
Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Location: Somewhere under the rainbow...
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| Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 8:37 am Post subject: |
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Be careful.
A teacher came to our hogwan looking for a job. He had been an E2 teacher in Korea for many years in the past. Then he spent several tours on a tourist visa. He was teaching privates and working illegally at some hogwans. The next time he tried to get off his tourist visa and get a legal E2 visa, Immigration said no way.
The teacher had never been caught. Immigration just suspected he was teaching illegally. (And, they were right.) We refused to hire him without an E2. Last I heard, he was going to Taiwan. |
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Manner of Speaking
Joined: 09 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 3:44 pm Post subject: |
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| ontheway wrote: |
A teacher came to our hogwan looking for a job. He had been an E2 teacher in Korea for many years in the past. Then he spent several tours on a tourist visa. He was teaching privates and working illegally at some hogwans. The next time he tried to get off his tourist visa and get a legal E2 visa, Immigration said no way.
The teacher had never been caught. Immigration just suspected he was teaching illegally. (And, they were right.) We refused to hire him without an E2. Last I heard, he was going to Taiwan. |
Good. It's about time Immigration did that with EVERY one skanking around on a tourist visa. If you think you're too good to follow the rules like everbody else, screw you if you end up getting tossed.
Just means there will be more jobs for the legal teachers. And better salaries, IMHO.
Last year I took Korean classes in Seoul for three months full-time, on a tourist visa. Before I went over to Japan to get my visa, I paid up my school fees for three months and got a letter from the school stating I was enrolled in their program. I also made a budget and got copies of my bank statements, showing that there would be no reason for me to work illegally because I had more than enough money to cover my school and living expenses. Getting the tourist visa - and an E2 afterwards - was a breeze. |
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peppermint
Joined: 13 May 2003
Location: traversing the minefields of caddishness.
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| Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 4:10 pm Post subject: |
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| Manner of Speaking wrote: |
Good. It's about time Immigration did that with EVERY one skanking around on a tourist visa. If you think you're too good to follow the rules like everbody else, screw you if you end up getting tossed.
Just means there will be more jobs for the legal teachers. And better salaries, IMHO.
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yeah, that will really help the tourism industry they're trying to start up here. . |
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paperbag princess
Joined: 07 Mar 2004
Location: veggie hell
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| Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 4:37 pm Post subject: |
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the gov't could go tp english spectrum and worknplay and simply call up and the recruiters who make money off the teachers and shut them down. get rid of sketchy recruiters that one of the main problem with illegal teaching. samsung doesn't pay illegals directly, they pay redruiters who promise the teachers are legal, when they aren't.
harassing people on tourist visas is stupid. |
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JongnoGuru
Joined: 25 May 2004
Location: peeing on your doorstep
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| Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 5:32 pm Post subject: |
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Hey, I had posts on Captain Kirk's other "Ever been scrutified by the man" threads (he had three at one point) and now they're all gone. They're just... gone. Didn't show up for work this morning. Like they've been "disappeared", like they were political opponents of Jorge Videla and Galtieri. Is this post next? That's what I want to know. Will this one be be taken out and just "disappeared" like his brothers were??? 
I think people skanking around on ANY visa should be summarily .... annoyed. I hate skanks. |
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nautilus
Joined: 26 Nov 2005
Location: Je jump, Tu jump, oui jump!
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| Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2006 1:51 am Post subject: |
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| Manner of Speaking wrote: |
Good. It's about time Immigration did that with EVERY one skanking around on a tourist visa.
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Hold on. Some people do genuinely come to Korea and have a holiday without teaching. Get to know the country better than they could when they were working. They don't always do stuff that can be proven- hiking various mountains, scuba diving around jeju, or even just hanging out with the g/f.
And then you say they should be denied another E2?
I agree with your basic premise that people hanging out for 6 months time and again, accumulating privates could well be cut off...and it would seem fairly obvious that someone here for this length of time is more than a sightseer. But have to be careful not to penalise the innocent too. |
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Manner of Speaking
Joined: 09 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2006 3:33 pm Post subject: |
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| peppermint wrote: |
| yeah, that will really help the tourism industry they're trying to start up here. . |
| ...and nautilus wrote: |
Hold on. Some people do genuinely come to Korea and have a holiday without teaching. Get to know the country better than they could when they were working. They don't always do stuff that can be proven- hiking various mountains, scuba diving around jeju, or even just hanging out with the g/f.
And then you say they should be denied another E2?
I agree with your basic premise that people hanging out for 6 months time and again, accumulating privates could well be cut off...and it would seem fairly obvious that someone here for this length of time is more than a sightseer. |
Well like I said, everyone skanking around on a tourist visa working illegally should be turfed. If you're here on a tourist visa for three months, doing the tourist thing, it should be pretty easy for you to demonstrate what you were doing...photos, receipts of parks & places you've visited, etc., so it shouldn't be a problem.
| Quote: |
| But have to be careful not to penalise the innocent too. |
But this is the problem, isn't it. The a$$ missiles who come here and work illegally are now making things difficult for real tourists as well as legal teachers. And the average Immigration officer isn't going to care if you're really innocent or not, if he/she thinks you might have been working illegally before applying for an E2. It's no skin off their nose if they deny your visa, they have the right to do it for no reason at all.
princess is right that the recruiters who solicit illegal workers should be busted as well, they're as much a part of the problem, if not the biggest part.
But I think from now on, if you're gonna be here on a tourist visa prior to starting a teaching job, you'd better be able to demonstrate you REALLY were here as a tourist, for your own insurance. |
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