Step 1 to Korea: Gathering Materials

In just 3 weeks and 3 days, we will be in Korea.

Whoa.

It feels as though I’ve been working towards this for years, and really, I have. I returned to the USA from Korea in midsummer of 2004. My goal was to get my Bachelor’s degree and head back, teaching English, writing and traveling as I had done in China the year before. It is now 2009, with my goal only one year off. In the last five years, my live has changed to become far, far different from how I imagined it would be.

I had imagined having a boyfriend or two during college, but nothing serious. I imagined being nearly fluent in Korean. I imagined getting a job in Seoul and living alone, traveling and writing and perhaps finishing that novel I’ve had laying around for years. However, I managed to get married, study harder than I ever thought I would, switch schools once, get a full-time job and have a baby. Life is moving fast!

Getting a job in Korea is typically somewhat of a last-minute affair. Jobs are rarely posted more than 2 or three months out, and, depending on how prepared you are for the process, it can take that whole time just to interview, get the job, fetch the required documents, apply for visa, and obtain visa before your flight. Then you’ll get on your flight, and the day after you arrive will be your first day of work. Can we say “ouch!”?

Therefore, if you are considering moving to Korea in the near future (6 months~1year), it’s best to have a few things ready before you apply, and to have a few more things ready as you are applying. This is especially true if you are bringing any accompanying family members, or if you are considering leaving quickly.

1. Before even applying for a job in Korea, have a valid passport in your hand.
If you don’t do this, you may end up needing to rush order one, which can get costly. Since neither I nor my infant son had valid passports (mine was still in my maiden name), I had to rush order both of them. Rush ordering a U.S. passport slaps an extra $60 of fees onto the bill. Getting an infant passport also costs extra, because both parents/legal guardians/whatever have to be present and take an oath when you turn in your application (this is a measure to prevent one parent from kidnapping the child from the other). In total, it cost $135 in fees for my son’s passport, not including postage.

2. Once you have decided you are going to apply for a job in Korea – whether or not you are in a hurry to do so – it’s best to get your college transcripts together.
Because the way the transcripts were to be delivered were not completely spelled out to me from the beginning, I ended up having to order transcripts 2~3 times. I have attended three post-secondary institutions (one of them was just for one class I took for work, but still…), and so that added up to quite a sum of money in the end. Take the following extra precautions when ordering transcripts:

a) Get 3 sets of sealed transcripts for every post-secondary institution you have attended.

b) Make sure each set of transcripts is in its own envelope. Some schools will do this automatically when you request multiple sets of transcripts, while other’s won’t. Thus, it’s best to just go ahead and request it that way. I didn’t, and it cost me.
c) Also request that the seal of the transcript envelope be stamped by the school. Once again, some schools do this automatically, while other’s don’t, so it’s best to be on the safe side and request it as an extra measure.

3. Have your original diploma handy. You will need to submit the original diploma in order to get your visa. A lot of people are uncomfortable with this. Ask your school if a notarized copy of your diploma will suffice. Some schools may be more stringent about this than others.

4. Obtain two copies of your criminal background check. For married ladies: make sure you get this done in your maiden name AND your married name. They only did this in my maiden name and so when I submitted it to Immigration, it was denied. I had to go through the whole process of obtaining it, getting it apostille stamped, and mailing it again, plus 2 extra weeks of waiting. It was expensive and time-inefficient.

5. Find out where you can get your criminal background check apostille-stamped.
As for me, I got it done at the Secretary of State’s office in the state capital, but it might be different in other states and communities. This might be such a hassle for you that it’s not worth doing until the process is moving along, but it’s still good information to know.

6. Get passport-sized photos—about a dozen of them.
Seriously, you can’t have too many. Remember: you have to send these in with your application to Korean Immigration, to the nearest Korean Consulate for your visa, and you will also need them for your Alien Registration Card (ARC) when you get to Korea. I misplaced mine a bunch of times and ended up spending a load of money on these things. Plus, I needed them for my passport applications. Make sure you have these not only for yourself, but also for anyone who’ll be accompanying you and who will need a visa and/or an ARC. Accompanying family members, unless they are also applying for an E-2 visa, will probably need half as many photos as you do – but still make sure they have about half a dozen at least. You can get these taken cheaply at Walgreens (in the U.S.—$7.99/2) and at some Post Offices. Many places (except for Post Offices, probably) might give you a discount because the photos are so expensive.

7. Patience
Really, you can never have enough of this. The school is not in nearly as much of a hurry to get your stuff processed as you are. You may be running near the end of your lease, have already sold your car and have no way to get to work (or have already quit your job and have no way to pay your bills), but this is not a huge concern of the school. It’s not costing them anything if you can’t pay your bills and have no roof over your head for a couple of days before you fly out of the country. Some schools may be more sympathetic than others, but really they are concerned with the money you will be making them. Take it easy and go with the flow as much as you can. You will need this patience in dealing with a new culture and working in a different environment than you may have ever been before.

8. A really, truly, sincerely open mind
Things are going to be different. It may drive you mad some days and have you in love with life on others, while most days will probably be somewhere in between. Hold fast to your values, but be willing to take a critical look at everything, including yourself, giving equal evaluation to everything. If you can’t do this—that is, if you can only see through the lens you’ve got now in your comfort zone—you will have a very difficult time in Korea. The pace of life is different, human sociocultural interactions are different, the food is different, housing is different—heck, even the air is different! Try and evaluate how comfortable you currently are, how many of those comforts you could afford to give up and still be happy, and think critically about whether or not Korea is right specifically for you, and particularly at this point in your life.