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[trevormars]

Hello everyone!  I am curious about the viability of my mission.

1 - Go to Seoul in late February/early March 2012
2 - Find a job in approximately 2 weeks
3 - Stay in Korea for a year or so

I've been working in the world of ESL for about 10 years in every capacity but teaching.  I've done sales, marketing, recruitment, administration, and worked at an educational agency and several ESL schools here in Canada.

I am not fluent in Korean, but I can get by.  I have been to Korea about 5 times in the past for work, but I am now thinking of coming over for a longer period of time.

I know it's not possible to work as a teacher or be recruited from Canada without a degree, but I am wondering if I would have any luck by heading over to Seoul on a tourist visa and trying to find something once I arrive. 

Has anyone done this and succeeded?  Any tips?  I know many former students in Seoul and I will be contacting them ahead of my trip to see if anyone can help me out with an interview or job suggestions. 

Anything you can offer would be a big help!  Thanks in advance and Happy Holidays!

[Zonath]

Is it possible?  Yes.

Is it legal?  Nope.  You can't get an E-2 visa without a degree of some sort (at least, that's how it was when I was in Korea, and I don't imagine they've loosened that).  You'll get a 6-month stamp in your passport as a Canadian on visa waiver, but you're not supposed to work, and if you violate your status, you're deportable.

This isn't to say that there are no opportunities for someone who's willing to bend the law for work, but unless you're pretty comfortable with being an illegal alien, you might want to take a pass and find an ESL job in a country where you don't need the degree.

[palladium]

Part 2 of your mission is not realistic. Even with a university degree - which is a legal requirement to get a visa for teaching -you will find that competition is getting tougher by the day. Getting a job within 2 weeks might not happen even for those with a degree AND teaching experience! Without a degree - why would employers even bother looking at your application when they have stacks of other applications that can get legal visas, and many will have some experience, either abroad or in Korea (which is preferred, generally).

If you have some other qualifications you could apply for some other type of visa. I'm not sure what the various categories are apart from the business investment category which would require a 100mill won investment which I guess you don't have!

You could try your luck on a tourist visa. However, I'd say the odds are stacked against you. I think "get by in Korean" is not enough to land many jobs in EFL besides teaching - they want bilingual generally or if not, your qualifications would need to be pretty impressive but as you haven't graduated from university, that is not looked upon favorably by most Korean employers - they'll think you weren't smart enough or too lazy to study hard, or else, will feel uncomfortable hiring someone to work with others who all have at least a university undergrad degree. In  this field too, there's lots of very "qualified" educated competition and they probably get some applicants who speak both languages extremely fluently. So you wouldn't be an attractive option really, I'm afraid. And it will be equally difficult to find illegal, private work mainly because there's a lot of competition from perfectly legal workers here. No reason for potential employers to take that risk (of being fined).

Bottom line - try your luck, be willing to spend a fair bit of money on staying here for some time without very good odds of finding work, and be happy either way, getting work or not. OR try a different country.