Application Documents: Or...you know forget those trees.
- nerdplusinternet
- Aug 13, 2019
- 9 min read
**This is a generalized list. Note that some programs and hagwons (academies) may require additional documents or fewer documents for your particular situation.**
Required Documents: Or...ALL the paperwork
Passport
Passport Sized Photos x 1-2
Application
Any Supplementary Forms (i.e. SMOE application)
Apostilled Bachelor’s Degree/University Diploma*
Official,Sealed College/ University Transcripts
Official,Signed, Sealed Letters of Recommendation x 2
TEFL/TESOL/CELTA certificate**
Apostilled National Level Criminal Background Check
Visa
*Not required by the Teach and Learn in Korea program (TaLK)*
**Not required by certain programs, namely TaLK. Also it is not a requirement for all hagwons. However, having one will give you a competitive edge for both.**
Additional Documents: Or... of course there's more
Teaching license/certificate(s)
Proof of full time teaching experience
Copy of Masters or PhD
Apostilled Birth Certificate (UK and Australia)
Proof of English Education (Quebec and South Africa)
Certificate of Residency (Canadians are not eligible. Irish candidates in a non-university position are not eligible)
One PDF or JPEG file with pictures of your tattoos (for EPIK)
Required Documents: Or... novel sized recap 1) Passport
Have a valid passport from the US, Canada, South Africa, UK, Ireland, Australia, or New Zealand that will NOT expire within the next year. (For Korean descendants applying for the F-4 visa, your passport might need to be valid for longer than that, but do double check.) For all applicants, your passport should also have several blank pages remaining. One will be for your Visa and the others are just in case you want to travel abroad often during your vacations without having to worry about having pages added anytime soon.
2) Passport Sized Photographs
Keep these as professional and recent as possible. Employers will judge your appearance.
"But wait, I thought it wasn't legal to ask for photos in applications there anymore?"
You would be correct, but in reality, employers still ask for it.
3) Application Form
Complete all essays, the personal statement, and the lesson plan. The essays tend to be questions, such as "Why Korea?", "What is your teaching philosophy?", and so forth. Concerning personal statements, hagwons typically do not ask for one, but it can happen. As for the lesson plan, EPIK and TaLK offer several examples online. (However, the formats do differ slightly between the two programs.) Even if you have prior teaching experience and are accustomed to a different teaching style, follow their format as closely as you can but with as much originality and fun as you can.
4) Complete and attach any supplementary applications.
For example, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (SMOE) program asks for you to attach their application to the EPIK application.
5) Apostilled Bachelor’s Degree
Provide an apostilled copy. (Essentially, an apostille allows for foreign governments to officially recognize your documents.) However, do NOT send your diploma to Korea. For American applicants, you can have your documents notarized at your bank and then send them to be apostilled at the State Department. You can also use an apostille service, which is a company that will obtain the apostille for you for a fee. Notarizing documents are you bank should be free.
6) University Transcripts
Order at least one set of official, sealed transcripts from each of the colleges or universities you listed on your application. I say order an extra set, especially if your university provides transcripts for free. That way you can open one set and scan it.
7) Letters of Recommendation
Request at least one sealed and signed letter from two different professional references. You're free to gather more, but usually two is enough. Again, I recommend asking for an extra copy so that you can open it and scan it. (Or, ask your references to send you a scanned copy, so that you have their signature.) EPIK and TALK in particular have been known to request that letters be re-sent with signatures from the references; so make sure whoever you asks signs it!
8) Teaching English as a Foreign Language Certificate
Provide copies of your certificate and bring the original with you to Korea. For some programs, such as EPIK, and for some Hagwons, they will waive the TESOL/TEFL certificate if you have an education degree. (However, it never hurts to send an extra copy of something if you feel particularly unsure or anxious.)
As for certifications, there are several you can earn for teaching English as a foreign language:
TEFL: Teaching English as a Foreign Language
TESL: Teaching English as a Second Language
TESOL: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
CELTA: Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults
An ESL or English as a Second Language Certificate also looks good. There are many organizations that offer certificates, but careful with the occasional scam. Some companies offer certificates and courses that hold no weight and will be a waste of your money.
Hagwons may or may not list the certificate as a requirement and TaLK does NOT list this as a requirement. But, having one, especially with in-class hours, does make you more competitive for all positions. Having a 100 or 120 hour course is one of the more competitive options, especially if you can have at least 20 of these hours as an in-class component. (Having 50 in-class hours looks even better.) Yet, keep in mind that some locations, perhaps just Busan, require 50 in-class hours for public school positions. If you have full-time teaching experience that can count. If you have at least one year of TaLK experience, then that is considered equivalent to a TEFL/TESOL certificate with more than 50 in-class hours. Yet, it is NOT equivalent to full time teaching experience. (So, no pay bump. Cue EPIK payscale.)
There are always exceptions to the norm, so yes you will hear about people who never earned the certificate and were accepted to EPIK or a great hagwon or a university position or or or... But, if you can, do try to earn a certificate. It opens up more options for you and makes you more competitive. Unfortunately, it may also require you to save up money to take a course. For instance, for American applicants, these courses can range from a few hundred U.S. dollars or less to $1,000-$2,000 or more. The ones with an especially good reputation are the Oxford TEFL,TESL, and TESOL Courses and the CELTA course from the Cambridge English Assessment. (Sometimes you can receive funding assistance!) Also, you don't need to pay for the best and most expensive courses to find employment in South Korea. They never hurt, but it's not a high necessity, especially if you really can't afford it. Definitely shop around. Sometimes people even get by with just the Groupon ones. However, careful with those. You get what you pay for and some employers might not consider it enough to meet their standards.
9) Apostilled Criminal Background Check
Have this done at the national level. Even if you see some older posts online about just doing a state or provincial level check...I would recommend doing one at the national level. No one is going to contest it and it holds more weight. Also, be sure to include professionally taken fingerprints. (A police station is a good place to do it.)
*I will publish a separate blog post specifically about obtaining your apostilled criminal background check.*
10) Visa
You need a visa that allows for you to teach BEFORE you arrive in Korea, or else you cannot legally work there or legally be paid. DON'T trust hagwons that would let you come work for them without a visa. You don't need them threatening to tattle on you to immigration or threaten to have you deported. It's a really good way to end up in a bad situation.
For most English teachers, the visa you'll end up applying for is the E-2 teaching visa. However, this visa does NOT allow you to teach at international schools, foreign schools, or universities. (That's a different E visa.)
For Korean descendants who are not currently Korean citizens, you have the option of applying for an E-2 visa or an F-4 visa. The F-4 is specifically for Korean descendants and allows you more freedom in your job choices. You can teach, but you can also do other jobs. Also, it is valid for three years and not tied to your employer. Basically, this visa is so much better. (Below this section I posted links to the E-2 visa application. Obviously, I didn't go through the F-4 visa process, so I don't have any personal information about that, but I did try to find some links to get you started.)
As for applying for the E-2 visa, you must mail your visa application form and payment, signed contract, notice of appointment (which you receive in the mail with your contract), passport, and self-addressed return envelope to your local Korean embassy. (For applicants from the US, make sure to use the United States Postal Service and not another service.) The processing and return time typically takes about 3-5 business days. Concerning costs, as of the time of this post, fees are about $45USD, $72CAD, 780Rands,154GBP, 48EUR, $140AUD, and $84NZD. These fees do NOT include shipping costs.
Note that it's not unusual for many applicants to receive their contract extremely last minute and have to cancel flights, change flights, or buy a last minute flight. (By last minute, I mean less than a month or even less than two weeks before you are expected to arrive in Korea.) Applying earlier can help avoid this, but do not be surprised if you encounter this situation. So, be sure to save funds for those "break in case of emergency" moments. The plane ticket likely will be your biggest expense, or at least one of your biggest expenses.
Some of the Work Visa Categories for South Korea (Includes E and F series)
Additional/Optional Documents: Or... almost at the end of the post 1) Proof of full-time teaching experience
If you have teaching experience, especially for more than one year, obtain a document stating this.
Have your previous employer(s) provide a written document stating that you worked for them for Pokemon XYZ amount of time. For several programs, this can change your pay level. For TaLK, it does not. All TaLK scholars earn the same base salary regardless of experience, credentials, or location.
2) Teaching certificate(s)/ license(s)
This makes you more competitive and for some positions, it may be a requirement. For most positions, being a certified teacher in your home country is NOT a requirement. You will find that many, if not most teachers in Korea were not teachers in their home country. Many of them have never taught before and for some, teaching in Korea is, basically, their first job. But, there are still quite a few actual teachers and quite a few older teachers.
Again, do NOT provide originals, only copies. However, you might want to bring the originals with you to Korea, or if that thought makes you nervous, double check if you even need to bother packing them.
3) Copy of Masters or PhD
Having a graduate level degree, especially something related to Education, TEFL/TESL/TESOL/CELTA/ESL give you the edgiest of edges. Even having the degree in something not related to those subjects can help you teach something other than English at an international or foreign school. Honestly speaking, these aren't absolutely necessary to gaining employment. Nor will they give you a huge pay increase. But they do help with pay negotiations and finding higher quality jobs, especially if you want to stay in South Korea long(er) term, so flaunt it. It also helps if you want the elusive English professor position at a university. Either way, remember to notarize and apostille the copy of your diploma. Again DON'T send the actual original diploma and check if you need to bring your diploma(s) with you.
4) Apostilled Birth Certificate (UK and Australia)
Obtain an apostille of your birth certificate. This requirement is listed on EPIK’s website. If you are applying for another program or hagwon, it may or may not be a requirement.
5) Proof of English Education (Quebec and South Africa)
Obtain written proof that your education from year seven and upwards was completed in English. This can be as simple as requesting a written statement from the administrative team of each school and university you attended stating that courses were taught in English. For good measure, also have it completed on official letterhead, and have the school sign and seal it. Again, EPIK requests this but other programs and hagwons may or may not.
6) Certificate of Residency
This document allows for you to be exempt from Korean income taxes for, at most, two years in a PUBLIC school position.
7) Tattoos
EPIK recently added another requirement asking for photos of any tattoos you might have. Obviously if they are in a place that no one but you, your doctor, and your deity see, then don't worry about it; but if it's somewhere easily visible then snap away. If you need help on how to save something as a PDF or a JPEG then click on the links in this sentence.
At the time of this post, applicants from the US, South Africa, UK, Australia, and New Zealand are eligible to receive this exemption. Canadians are NOT. Irish applicants are exempt ONLY at the university level. Additionally, you cannot use this agreement once you have worked in South Korea for more than two years. (I will also make another post specifically about this document.)
The End: Or...you're the real MVP for reading all of this!
That's all for now! Next time I'll post...posts about obtaining a Criminal Background Check and the Certificate of Residency. (Don't worry, these posts will be shorter.) As always, you can contact me on this website or on my YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr, or Facebook @nerdplusinternet or Twitter @nerdplusnet. I hope you'll subscribe and follow! Thank you so much for reading and best of luck with applying!