A friend and former colleague who is now working at a university in Daejeon, went to an immigration meeting today and has this to report about new E-2 visa regulations:
Q: For people RENEWING their visas, what do they need?
A: Same as before, plus criminal check and medical check (and letter of release if necessary)
Q: What kind of criminal check? National, provincial, or local?
A: I don’t know. Right now there is no set specified regulation, so anything is acceptable for now.
Q: Many countries’ criminal checks require 4-5 months to receive back. What happens to our renewal in February?
A: We will accept your visa on a provisional basis and you can submit the check when you get it.
Q: How often do we have to submit this criminal check? EVERY time we apply for a new visa?
A: No. Once you submit it once, that’s all you do. After that we check your Korean record. We are Immigration, so it is our responsibility to keep track of your criminal record of Korea. That’s our job, but we have no access to your home country, so you just have to give it to us once.
Q: Do we have to leave Korea to renew our visas?
A: No. Even if you are getting a new visa with a new school, we will not require you to leave Korea IF (a) you have the criminal/medicals checks and (b) you have completed at least 80% of your contract. If you have 80% minimum completed, then we will just transfer your visa to your new school, and you don’t have to leave Korea (ie. no visa run)
* I specifically asked why these points had changed, and she said because the regulations are so tough now, they are afraid that it will be very difficult for the necessary teachers to stay here. They don’t want to have a teacher crisis, so they are making it more flexible for teachers already here.
Q: Do we still need to submit sealed transcripts?
A: You only need to submit them once. After that, you don’t need to submit them again.
Q: What kinds of documents must be notarized/apostilled?
A: I don’t know the regulation. Email me and I will get you that answer.
Q: For the medical check, can we have it done in Korea, or do we have to go back home to get it done?
A: You can have it done in Korea. You don’t have to go back home. As long as you go to a government-run hospital for the check, you will be okay.
Q: What must we have checked by the doctor?
A: drugs and HIV.
I will email her and get more info on the apostille and the medical.
You can see the rest of the post HERE.
November 27th, 2007 at November 27, 2007 - 9:55 am
They’re meeting again today and I was planning on heading over. Any follow-up questions people want asked?
Oh, and Lao Ocean Girl, I will be linking here from our page.
Cheers-
November 27th, 2007 at November 27, 2007 - 10:06 am
[...] Ocean Girl’s friend returned from an Immigration meeting. She posted the “answers” to some [...]
November 27th, 2007 at November 27, 2007 - 10:07 am
Thanks! We need info like this.
November 27th, 2007 at November 27, 2007 - 2:37 pm
This is great news… I went to the consular outreach in Busan Nov 24th.. the rep from immigration said that the criminal check had to be resubmitted everytime anything was done with your visa (renewal, transfer, new)
Guess it will take some time before the various offices get insync with each other. Maybe I should switch to a school within the daejeon district? hmmmm
November 28th, 2007 at November 28, 2007 - 1:23 pm
Q: Who foots the bill for the medical check?
Q: If am employee under contract fails a medical check done in Korea or a criminal record check, six months after working for their employer in Korea, who will incure the cost of the airfare when the employee lose their job and is sent home?
Q:What if the employee fails the medical check done in Korea before serving six months of their contract, will they have to reimburse the airfare from their homeland to Korea plus pay their own way home? What if they don’t have the funds ?
Q: Will these tougher regulations mean the government will be allowing teachers who are here and fully qualified, to then teach private lessons to make up for any shortage ?
November 28th, 2007 at November 28, 2007 - 1:42 pm
I’m pretty sure the answers to those questions will be you, you, no, doesn’t matter, and no.
November 28th, 2007 at November 28, 2007 - 2:22 pm
Yeah, I agree. The teacher would pay for all costs.
November 29th, 2007 at November 29, 2007 - 1:38 pm
It seem precarious for the employers to risk paying airfare to get a teacher into Korea, and “hope” that they pass a drug test when they get here. I imagine what will happen is teachers will have to pay for their own airfare, and only be reimbursed once they pass the medical. So if they can get lost in the paperwork for a few months before someone finds out they have yet to submit a clean bill of health, they can teach until delays are no longer accepted, which really means the employer will not have to re-imburse airfare, so the employers are going to be quite supportive of any and all delays in the process.
Unless there are regular drug tests, one only need “stay clean” long enough to pass one, and then the coast is clear so to speak. Can’t imagine this working very well at all.
An interesting situation: if regular testing is done, and a teacher travels to a country where certain drugs are legal ( not even sure where or if this is likely) and decides to indulge, why then would they be culpable once they returned to Korea for trace amounts still in their system ?
Also, a teacher could end up with a criminal record outside Korea, (anywhere, even their home country)after having submitted a clean criminal record for the initial visa application, and still be able to renew their Korean visa indefinately. Good news for all those perverts who want to come to Korea for an Asian sex holiday/ teaching job as long as they have not yet been caught.
November 29th, 2007 at November 29, 2007 - 1:52 pm
There was a case this past year of Korean men traveling outside of Korea and smoking pot. One of them talked about it on his personal site, and everyone involved got charged with illegal drug use. So South Korea’s drug jurisdiction applies even if you leave the country.
Yeah, and there is that small loophole of the one-time criminal check. Keep in mind that the pedophile who made the news here had a clean criminal record, and a criminal background check would not have prevented him from entering the country.
December 11th, 2007 at December 11, 2007 - 4:22 am
haha so if you have HIV you cant teach english???
koreans never cease to amaze with their bigoted outlook on everyone and everything foreign!
December 12th, 2007 at December 12, 2007 - 3:30 pm
[...] & A A Q & A session held recently at Woosong University in Daejon and lifted from Lao Ocean Girl’s Blog (thank you!): Q: For people RENEWING their visas, what do they need? A: Same as before, plus [...]