I left off on about 17 June 2009, where I had sent in some electronic documents to secure the first job offer. I still had some time before I could send in the physical documents, and I believed I could continue to entertain job offers in the meantime. I let the other recruiters work on procuring alternate offers, while I worked on procuring the necessary documents.
Taking any kind of paid position overseas requires a work visa; in this case, an E–2 visa. This is a visa issued by the Republic of Korea to Native English Speaking Teachers (NESTs) who have been sponsored by an employer. The visa term is one year in length, and can be renewed any number of times if the requirements are met.
In order for an employer to sponsor my visa, they have to submit an application to the South Korean Bureau of Immigration. This application packet must include several documents to verify my eligibility for the E–2 visa. The signed contract is proof of employment, but other documents are required as well. These include proof of a clean criminal history, proof of academic eligibility for employment as a NEST, and passport-sized photographs. Procuring all these items took me some time.
For one thing, I was required to submit my college diploma (in my case, both of them), either the originals or specially certified copies. My diplomas were at my parents' house in Brentwood, almost two hours' drive from where I live. My parents would be visiting me for my birthday on the 26th, and I asked them to bring the diplomas at that time, which they did.
I also needed officially sealed copies of my academic transcripts. These were easily procured by faxing requests to SPU, where I earned my B.S. in Computer Science, and SSU, where I earned a B.S. in Mathematics, with Distinction. The SSU transcripts arrived first, followed at length by the SPU transcripts.
For proof of a clean criminal history, I needed a certified copy of a recent criminal background check (CBC). That required making an appointment to be fingerprinted at a local electronic fingerprinting business. The hardest part was figuring out the process required by the state Department of Justice to request a CBC for this purpose. They did have instructions on their website for requesting a background clearance for the purposes of visa issuance. I went to the fingerprinting place, paid my money, got fingerprinted, and waited for the CBC to arrive, which it did in due course, sometime before the 26th of June.
Since I planned to retain the original documents, I needed to get properly certified copies. There is a type of document called an apostille, which is attached to an official document in one country to verify the authenticity of a signature to parties in another country. Only parties in countries that are both signatories of the relevant treaty can use the apostille process. South Korea and the U.S.A. are both signatories. Canada is not. This simplified my job a little bit, relative to a Canadian applicant, but the process was still fairly involved, as you will see. The most difficult problem was making sure that I was not agreeing to a year of hell on earth, with an unscrupulous employer and an impossible work assignment. My first line of defense was the contract itself.
This contract, as mentioned before, is in Korean, with an English translation for convenience. The English translation has no legal force. So, I was legally agreeing to a contract that I could not read. Obviously, I was not perfectly sanguine about this prospect. Moreover, from my understanding, in Korea the legal contract is generally considered a starting point, open to further informal negotiation. In addition, it would be difficult for me to hold my employer to the terms of the contract, if the employer wast trying to cheat me. (This much I learned from reading the posts of NESTs on Dave's ESL Café, while I waited for my required documents to arrive.) This meant that the most important thing to determine was the moral character of the employer.
I therefore asked my recruiter for more information about the job, the employer, the housing, everything. She provided some information, but not all that I asked for. She was just about fed up with me, and told me that if I did not accept this position, after sending an electronic copy of the signed document, I could not get another public school position anywhere in that province.
Just then, by Providence, another one of my research efforts paid off. A few days earlier, I had posted a question on Dave's ESL Café, asking about Samsoong Elementary, the school at which the recruiter had offered me a position. On the 23rd of June, I got an e-mail with the subject line, "I work at Samsoong Elementary!" from someone I'll call "J".
J wrote in fluent and grammatically correct (informal) American English, using up-to-date idioms native to electronic media. She described the school, the students, the principal, and everything else in glowing terms. She mentioned some minor adjustments that I would need to expect, such as the need for cash to live on while I waited for the settlement allowance. It was almost too good to be true.
I would be working at a school with another NEST, I would get the age group I wanted, and my future co-teacher was really cool. In answer to my questions, she affirmed that she was paid fairly, treated kindly, used creatively, and that her work was meaningful and full of integrity. Given those four essentials, and the authenticity of her writing, all my worries were laid to rest. She could not possibly be a paid shill, as any trickery would be unmasked as soon as I arrived at the school. There could not possibly be better assignment in all of Korea than the job I had lined up.
That same day, 23 June 2009, I e-mailed the recruiter and told her not to worry. I told her about finding J, and that J's positive attitude meant that I was very likely to arrive as planned. Having laid those issues to rest, I eagerly lapped up all of J's e-mails, and prepared for assembling the packet to send to the recruiter.
Having assured myself that the assignment was a good one, I prepared for my next big day, Monday, 29 June 2009, which was the first business day when I would have all the documents I needed. I analyzed my options, taking into account the time and money required for each. With this analysis, I decided on the following procedure, and planned my day accordingly.
First, I had to have copies made of my diplomas and CRC, and sign an affidavit for each copy, affirming its authenticity, under penalty of perjury. My signature on each affidavit had to be notarized, and my credit union offered three signatures notarized per month for free, which was exactly what I needed. On Monday morning I went to Redwood Credit Union (RCU), had my two diplomas and my CRC photocopied, and I signed affidavits of authenticity, which were attached to these copies. My signatures were notarized, and I was off on the next stage of my quest, the apostille stage.
The party responsible for providing an apostille in California is the California Secretary of State. This can be done by mail order, for $20 per signature certified, with a turnaround time of about two weeks. Or, for an additional $6, I could drive to the State Building in Sacramento and submit the documents for expedited processing, with a maximum one-hour turnaround time. Based on the time required for subsequent steps, and my desire to leave in September, this was the option I chose. So, I filled up my gas tank at Costco, and then drove to Sacramento. The drive was rather uneventful, and not entirely novel, as I had recently driven to Sacramento to take my real estate licensing test. This time, however, I had to pay for parking in a garage, $1.25 per 20 minutes.
Sacramento was hot, but the building was air conditioned. I paid $66, and and my documents were processed immediately. After taking some digital photos of the building, I was out of the parking garage within 40 minutes.
(Here are some of the photos I took. The first two were taken in an interior courtyard of the State Building, a monument to the values enshrined in the State's founding documents. I also took a picture of the front of the State Building, and of the Archive Building, with a block of granite engraved with the year the foundation was laid.)
Another drive of almost two hours, interrupted only by one phone call, and I was back in Santa Rosa. At that point, I had some more work to do. I had to print out three copies of my 15-page contract, sign each page, and assemble the documents, making sure I had everything that was required.
The recruiter required three signed copies of the contract. Since I was using high-quality paper (having run out of the standard grade), I decided to print them double-sided to save shipping weight, which turned out to be a wise choice. I had some problems with the page order, but I managed to get all three copies printed in duplex, and signed. I assembled all the other documents, except for the photos (which I did not have yet), and weighed the packet on a postal scale on loan from my parents. The packet was about 15 ounces in weight. An analysis of prices indicated that UPS was the most economical way to send the packet. However, FedEx had an onsite photo station. By that time, the UPS office was closed, so I decided to leave off until the morning.
The next morning, Tuesday, 30 June 2009, I went to FedEx Office downtown and had my picture taken. I had two pairs printed up, and took them to the UPS office nearest my home. This UPS office is right across the parking lot from RCU, where I had my copies notarized. It would have been very convenient if I hadn't had two other places to visit, and a contract to print, between notarization and sending.
At UPS, the hardest part was figuring out how to format the Korean address using UPS addressing software. Finally it was done to my satisfaction, and a copy of the address as given to me by the recruiter was taped onto the package as well. I paid about $53, and received a promise that the documents would arrive by noon on Friday, Korean time. I went home, and sent the tracking number to the recruiter. Now, I had to wait for the document to arrive in Korea, be sent to the school district, then the Bureau of Immigration, and my visa number to be issued. Meanwhile I had other things to do, including preparations for my travels. But, that's the subject of another post.
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