I've been saying that I would love a career in immigrant services so I guess I'm gaining first hand experience in how complicated, time-consuming, frustrating, and stressful these processes can be. And I'm only trying to get a 3-week work permit!
A month or so ago, I saw an ad for English teachers an very well-paid winter break English camp and realized that it was at BUFS! But they only wanted to hire school teachers from other countries who are on their summer holidays.
It inspired me to look into it further and I found several camp jobs listed around Korea, including a lucrative 2-week one on Jeju Island that was interested in hiring me! At the university they said I just needed a permission letter to work there! But when the camp contacted immigration, it turned out I would also need a criminal record check and a copy of my degree apostilled by the Korean Consulate in Vancouver.
I was going to give up when told it would take 12 weeks to get a CRC, but the Jeju recruiter said I didn't need the finger print one and that it should only take a week. Well, that turned out to be true, but meanwhile it took me a week just to request it after complications with emailing and faxing documents back and forth with the RCMP in Nelson.
Finally last week, my mom's friend was able to gather all the required documents for me since my parents were out of the country and sent my CRC and degree to the consulate. It seemed they would arrive here in Korea the week before the camp started (on Dec. 25), which was worry-some because when I called immigration I was told it would take 2 weeks to process a work permit. But the Jeju recruiter said maybe (always maybe) I could get permission during or after the camp.
Meanwhile, I had been looking into several camps and this Friday, I received a contract from a 3-week, well-paid camp in Naju, Jeollanamdo that starts on Jan. 2, allowing me more time to get the documents :)
So I made another call to immigration to ask again what documents I needed for the application and, apparently, we all missed a minor detail (yes, that's sarcastic) - the fact that although my student visa is valid until the end of March, the scholarship period was cut short and I finish studying Dec. 22 then I have to leave the country within 30 days after the last day of classes or I will have over-stayed my visa... sinking feeling...
Reassessment: I wondered if I could go home to Canada for a couple days, but when I called the Korean Consulate, the visa officer said that she couldn't guarantee that she could process my visa (I need a short-term emplyment visa to work at the camp) in the amount of time I would have, especially because it's busy during the holiday season and they are closed for 2 days during that time.
So there's the infamous "visa run" to Fukuoka, Japan once I've finished classes. Normally I would be excited for a couple-days trip to Japan if it wasn't so expensive and I didn't already have plans to go there for two weeks in March. Meanwhile my passport is running out of pages and is still valid for two more years...
Well, that's the story. Hopefully it will all work out and I will be working at the camp in Naju starting in the new year - experiencing, for a few weeks, what it is like to be an English teacher in Korea!
Jimjilbang = Sauna/ Sauna
