Step One Upon receipt of your resume, scanned photos, and application form, Either I or my assistant will contact you if you meet the requirements listed in this Employment section of the site (menu to the left) and have submitted the appropriate documents. I may meet you face-to-face or conduct a telephone interview with you, depending on where you live. Phone calls are always pre-arranged by e-mail, so there are no surprise calls from people you've never heard of.
Step Two Once I have agreed to try to place you in Korea, I contact one of my Korean recruiting partners, and/or one or more of the schools I work with directly. I try to match your preferences with the jobs available as closely as possible. When a school is interested, they often request a telephone interview. Once again, this will be arranged with you in advance. The interview is usually quite informal and fairly short; however, this entirely depends on who conducts it. I usually hear back from my partner, or from the school directly, within 24 hours of the telephone interview and a formal offer of employment is made.
Step Three If a school has agreed to hire you, I put you in direct contact with current teachers at the school so that you can verify the working conditions and ask any specific questions you like. I will also go through the contract with you and respond to any of your concerns. You normally have only 24-72 hours to accept or reject the position. School owners don't want to lose other applicants while you are making up your mind. When you've accepted a position, you send the required documents, along with your signed contract, to the school in Korea. You must use an international courier company (like FedEx or DHL) that is "trackable" online. APC's receipt of this tracking number, showing that your documents have been sent, constitutes your official acceptance of the job on offer.
Step Four When the school receives your documents, they are taken to the immigration office nearest the school and an application is made for an employment visa on your behalf. Visa processing time varies from five to ten days, depending on the immigration office. The school pays the visa processing fees directly to the immigration office. Note that some Korean and other government websites list the procedures for obtaining the visa on your own. Through APC, the school always applies for the visa on your behalf, thus saving you a series of cumbersome (and redundant) procedures.
Step Five The Immigration office in Korea issues a Visa Number, which we'll send to you by e-mail. Once you receive it, you need to take or send this number to a Korean consulate or embassy, along with your passport and a completed, signed Visa Application Form, and an official set of university transcripts. Your visa will be inserted into your passport and you will then have a legal employment visa for Korea. See Visa Issuance for more details about this.
Step Six You will receive a pre-paid plane ticket from your point of departure to Seoul, or the airport nearest your school, about a week before you leave. Note that if you are not leaving from North America, you'll probably have to buy this ticket yourself. You will be refunded within 7 days of arriving in Korea. A few days before you leave, We'll let you know who is going to meet you at the airport when you arrive, and give you this person's mobile telephone number.
Step Seven Upon arrival in Korea, you will be met at the airport by someone from your school and taken to your apartment. If your apartment is not ready, you'll be accommodated in a spare room in another teacher's apartment, or provided with a hotel room near the school. These temporary accommodation arrangements don't normally last for more than a few days. Teachers are usually given between two and five working days of orientation time. During this time you will observe classes and meet with your academic director in preparation for teaching. If you have previous experience in Korea, this orientation time may be reduced to one day.
Step Eight Within a few weeks of your arrival, you'll be taken to an immigration center, where you will be issued an Alien Resident Card. This will serve as your in-country I.D. At this time, the school will also apply for your medical insurance card, if applicable. Also within a few weeks of arrival, your employer will help you open a bank account at a local Korean bank. Normally, your salary will be directly deposited into your account and you can use an ATM card to withdraw cash as you wish. Note that some schools still pay in cash, in which case, you can deposit the money in your bank account yourself. Money can easily be transferred from your Korean bank account to an account in your home country.
The process, from initial application to arrival in Korea, can take as little as three weeks. We accept applications as far in advance as you like; however, it is usually not possible to secure a position on your behalf more than 60-90 days in advance as schools don't know their precise teaching needs further ahead than that. The only costs to applicants are couriers used to send documents, and the visa fee (currently US$50/C$70).
Of course, I am available to help you throughout this process, and once you're in Korea. Also, one of my partners in Korea will be available throughout the term of your contract to help out in the event of any problem that requires our intervention.
In Korea, your accommodation is provided directly. A furnished apartment (or room in an apartment) is provided. There are no costs to you, aside from monthly utilities (heat, telephone, etc.).
