Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jurassic82]

I had a quick question about doing runners. I have been told by two people now that if you do a runner then you are banned from working in Korea for 5 years. To me this sounds like a load of crap and I tried to say they were wrong but they were very adament. Is this true? I was under the impression that you just had to wait until your VISA ended and then you could come back.

[cdninkorea]

I strongly doubt this is true. So much of what I hear is based on rumour passed down so many hands that I have to wonder whether any of it is true.

Part of this might be from inconsistencies in immigration law enforcement and punishments, but I don't know.

[spliff]

Big load of steaming dungski...

[ttompatz]

[Homer]

As Tom said.

If you fly into te night you are prevented from getting work in Korea until your current visa is cancelled or expires (whichever happens first).

Also, in rare cases your former employer can flag your passeport number (say if you ran and you owe him, or he thinks you owe him, a significant amount of money). This can lead to consequences when you try to re-enter the country (if you do). This would be a rare occurence.

[denistron]

Yes, you can get a 5 year ban. You can get blacklisted if your director complains to imigration. It happend to someone I know. She had troubles at her hogwan getting paid. Instead of trying to solve the problem the safe way, she went on a tirade at work. She eventually quit and subsequently got blacklisted for 5 years.

She managed to get off the blacklist later on but it wasn't easy.

But I think 99% of howans wont blacklist you for just quiting. It would take to much time and effort on their parts.

[Peter Jackson]

As several immigration officers have said to me and others about runners, illegal privates, etc is: IT'S CASE BY CASE. This is, in fact, their favorite saying. Every case is indeed different. If your previous school/hagwon has a very "close" relationship with immigration than trouble can be expected. Also, some money may indeed change hands.

In my personal experience with a similar matter the three relevent offices (Ministry of Education, Department of Labour, and Immigration) in which a typical native speaking English teacher will have dealt with will NOT often have much contact. As well, A Korean embassy in any other country will have no knowledge of whether or not a person is on a blacklist or not. More often than not, you will be directed to that next to useless Q&A section on the Ministry of Justice Website where you will be given (after an extensive wait) a shaky unsure answer which very likely will include the words: "case by case".

In short: there is no way to know if a 5 year ban, or two year ban or no ban at all would be in place. With a runner: it is likely that a runner's previous employer would not even bother with a complaint. But the runner may just have to give it a try.

All the best,

[Demonicat]

God, just what someone coming back from a runner wants to hear. Then again, considering the amount of people working here who have done a runner at least once...it must not be 5 years.