Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Darkness]

If you break your contract with an E2 visa (I think) do you haveto leave the country, and you cant get back in for 5years? Someone was telling me this...

Just wondering how hard it would be to break a contract, and move to another city where there is more work...

[ChuckECheese]

Sweet talk a release letter from your boss then you'll be set. Give them 30 day notice.

[Darkness]

They'll want reimbursment for the plane ticket, and I have no idea how mcuh it was so they might try to take all my money.

But that's a good idea, I'm in the process of thinking about breaking the contract...it's not a for sure yet.

There just doesnt seem to be much work whereI am, and now I'm getting into the swing of teaching, i would like to work more...so I can hit my goal and go home.

[plokiju]

I broke my contract last year. My boss and I went down to immigration and had my visa cancelled. I was then given an exit order and ordered to leave the Republic of Korea. You have up to 14 days to leave the country once it's cancelled. There's nothing to prevent you from coming right back to Korea the next day on a tourist visa. So long as you get a letter of release you could get a new job right away.

This is with everything going well though. I don't know what happens when you don't get the release letter.

[Benbby]

I had a job in a hogwan but I recently lost my job, but I got my release letter. Does a hogwan need to give me 30 days notice or pay me for 30 days? I did not get any notice at all.

[Pak Yu Man]

Even if this were true...at the max you'd have a new passport in 4 years.
New passport # =no black marks.

[da_moler]

What about if your don't get a release letter? Is it true you can't renter Korea for 5 years?? Even as a tourist???

[sock]

I broke my contract less than a month ago--technically before the contract even came into effect, since I wasn't supposed to begin working until March.

Principal of the school was *really* pissed at me. He gave me a release letter, but only because after getting tired of being endlessly lied to & jerked around, I finally told him I wouldn't leave his office until he gave me one. He gave me the letter, but refuses to go to immigration to cancel my visa, as required by immigration. Immi is supposedly going to fine the school heavily, but his priority right now is getting his vengance so it seems he doesn't care.

Anyway, according to one person down at immigration (sometimes seems impossible to know what is REALLY the truth until after you experience it), I have to leave the country and hand in my ARC card, and explain that I want to cancel my visa. Don't know if that will actually work. I already took a visa run to Japan last week that was entirely pointless due to my multiple reentry stamp (which I mentioned to my new school but they didn't listen, so now I have to go again, at my own expense).

Anyway, that's my sly attempt at hijacking ... back on topic. NO, it's not true that you can't reenter for 5 years. If you get deported, maybe, but you won't get deported for breaking a contract. If you're caught teaching privates, you MAY or may not be deported. It's more likely that you would be deported if you are caught doing something actually detrimental to society at large, such as something drug-related, or a criminal offense.

If you have a single-entry stamp on the visa, it's possible to find another school before you even leave, sign with them, and then they (usually) pay for your trip out and back. Otherwise, just leave, come back as a tourist, and find something decent. If you have a multiple-entry visa, leaving the country won't cancel it, only time, your boss, or the powers that hold your life by a thread down at immigration will be able to do that.

Ideally the process is supposed to work as plokiju said: have the boss cancel your visa in person, get an exit order to leave within 14 days, leave, and come back whenever you please.

I'm going to go out on a limb and assume you're not in Seoul. If you were, you wouldn't be unable to find extra work right now. I've heard that immigration really doesn't have the resources to deal with privates outside of the larger cities. Depending on your moral stance on the seedy, underground, corrupt world of privates, ( ) you might consider doing that until the work picks up in March.

[Darkness]

Thanks for the input!

So things stay pretty slow until about March? Including the underworld of privates?