How to get an E-2 visa to teach english in Korea.

Ah the paperwork of it all. Eeeek !!! Wouldn't it be much easier if we could just get on a plane, scale the big wide blue skies, sample the ( hopefully ) delicious airline food, sleep on those airline seats ( especially emirates first class hehe ), wake up nice and refreshed, step off the plane all nice and chirpy, get through to immigration, produce a visa-less passport, be waved through customs, get your baggage, exchange your cash, get into the terminal, get out into the car park into a vehicle and be on your way ??? Yeh that would all be sweet indeed......

......in your dreams that is !!!!!

Diiing Doooong !!! Wake up everyone !! The alarm clock is sounding and its time to venture back into the real world .... D'OH !!!! ( I fell out of bed and hit my head ... and damn I thought the paperwork was bad enough .... Hmph !!)

And it only gets worse. Just as you have to get up, clean up, tidy up and get ready for your day, you have to get a visa to come into Korea. Too bad so sad I know, but thats how it goes.

So here is the deal. Yes you must get a visa in order to enter Korea in most capacities. I wont push a heap of detail on you here, as I am not 100 percent up dated on the various visa possibilities and their requirements. I will however direct you over to www.hikorea.co.kr where you can peruse the different visa types and their individual requirements. You can see those here...... http://www.hikorea.go.kr/pt/InfoDetailR_en.pt

The one that is generally seen as the most common mode of entry for foreigners into Korea, and the one that I am most familiar with, is the E-2 visa that is distributed to most of the english teachers that arrive on the Korean Peninsula. I will debrief you further on it...

Lets set a little scene here shall we ( and this is before you experience all of the plane stuff - minus the free passing through immigration - that I went into above ).

You have been through Daves ( hint hint plug here ..... www.eslcafe.com) site, found the teaching job of your dreams, applied for the position, had a chat to the important people involved with the position, and voila.. you see that lovely little email telling you have the job. You start going " Assa !! Assa !! ( Quick korean tip- it means Great ! ) and clapping your hands with joy and bounce. You then scan the email for further info on what comes next. Well, usually, its this -

You will generally have to send a few documents to your employer-to-be. These will generally include your academic transcripts, your degree/diploma parchment, passport pics, any references, maybe even the ID page of your passport, your visa application, your health questionaire ( and if need be, an actual report from a doctor declaring your true and current health status ) and a Police Criminal Background Check. These are pretty much the standard required documents for Korean Immigration to go ahead with your visa application.

This may indeed seem like a lot to do, but the Koreans do have good reasons for it. As a national body, it is the responsibility of the Korean Government and immigration to ensure that solid standards are met and kept regarding the foreigners that come into the country, and therefore into contact with the customs and culture, and particularly into contact with the environs generally related to contact with children. They are rightfully seeking to weed out those who fake qualifications, are involved in the use, sale, and movement of illicit drugs; have contaminable, dangerous, and contractable STDs/Is, conditions, and diseases, and those who have questionable character and history, particularly where potential for predatorship and paedophilia may indeed be present.

Harsh I know, but too bad so sad. And as we know, when in Rome...

So yeh thats the basic paperwork needed.

What happens then is that your employer-to-be will contact immigration, and you will be issued with an application number for you to deal with when you sit for your interview with a representative of the nearest Korean embassy or consulate where you will discuss matters pertaining to your application and decisions made on your suitability to be given the visa.

One of the most important documents that will play a role here is of course your Police Clearance. Basically, be as good a boy or girl as possible and have it as clean as possible. And also, you will have to get your clearance Apostilled by the appropriate people in your country to do so. I know in Australia you can do it through DFAT ( Foreign Affairs and Trade ), and from what I know, you can do it through similar bodies in NZ, South Africa, USA, Ireland, and the UK. I think the Canadian government has a different way for doing this.

I think I have covered everything here. I have also attached the link to the relevant website that will explain things both in English and in more appropriate detail. If not, then the next best thing would be to give the relevant Korean embassy or consulate in your country a call and you can talk about things with them from there.

Not long to go now

Yep the time has indeed come team. For me, its going to be Korea Mark 2 time POINT 0. Or this time around. Or simply going back for seconds. Or whatever it is you simply wish to call it. Of course it would be easier for me to just say that I am on my way back for another stint in the land of the morning calm, but meh, I am a creative type so just using a simple sentence such as the easier one aforementioned may not so much as indeed suffice.

But yes, I am going back to Korea. Back to the land of the morning calm, and this time back to the city that never sleeps - well..... supposedly. I think I would add a little addendum to that notion. I think it should read " the city that never FULLY sleeps ".... as it never fully wakes up either. Seoul is a kind of slumber city. You can slumber your way through it and still get by, you can make your own comotion and trek your own trak, or you can indeed just follow the masses and navigate the river with whatever rows your boat. Theres surely something there to tickle your fancy.

This will be my second time in Seoul and I think I come back to the place with a fresher perspect on it all. My last venture into Seoul pretty much saw me coming straight over from Osaka, Japan; and I feel that this may have indeed tinged my outlook on the city towards the negative somewhat. I was judging Seoul comparatively with Osaka and not on its own merits. I look forward to giving things a fresh outlook this time. Spending 5 wonderful months at home in Adelaide, Australia, with my wonderful family has really helped me to get fresh ( I had spent 7.5 years living in Japan and Korea before that...damn... it can tax you hehe ), mentally cleansed, and willing to give this city a second chance. So to all the fun in Hongdae, the suave of Apkujeong, the www.iluvkorea.ning.com-seoulcircle-seoulstyle meetups in sincheon, the Outback Steakhouses, Hard Rock Cafes, and Hooters of Seoul, Daegu, and Busan; the baseball, the soccer, the namdaemun gates, the winter iceskating outside city hall in Seoul, the little orphans in YeungdeungPo, and all those other little pleasures and prods of interest that reawait me..... your wait will not be for much longer.

And it will also be well worth the effort.