There are many benefits to teaching English as a Second language in South Korea, it comes
with a great salary, and great employee benefits such as free accommodation, free medical
insurance and airplane ticket reimbursement. You’ll also get to experience a whole new
culture, make new friends and visit the many tourist attraction sites in the country. So how do
you go about obtaining a visa to go teach English in Korea? In order to teach English in
Korea you need to apply for a Korea E2 visa.
To be issued with this visa, you must first be offered a job at a Korean educational institution,
either public, private or a university. These are institutions which will sponsor your Korea E2
visa application. The school will have to issue you with a contract offering you a job, and
from there your Korea E2 visa application will start. Below is the Korea E2 visa application
guide for South Africans.
Steps to apply for a Korea E2 visa
Step 1: Sign your contract
You should sign your contract, but before you sign it make sure that you have read it and
understand it. You can ask people to help you review it, to make sure that you are paid fairly
for the hour you work. Most contracts offer employee benefits such as free health insurance,
free accommodation closer to the school you’ll be working for and airplane ticket
reimbursement once you complete your contract.
Step 2: Gather your documents
Gather all necessary documents needed, which are your university degree, police clearance
certificate, medical certificate, passport scan, resume, passport photos, visa application form
and your signed contract.
Step 3: Send your documents to Korea
Take all your documents and send them to Korea, to the school you signed your contract
with. The school will then send your documents to the immigration office in South Korea, in
order to get your assuance/E2 number, which will be used later to complete your application.
Step 4: Receive your E2 number
Once your documents arrive in Korea, the school will check and verify that everything is
accurate and submit your documents to the local immigration office to apply for your visa
assurance number or E2 number. This takes about 5 to 10 days. Once they receive your
assuance/E2 number, they will then send it to you via email.
Step 5: Documents to submit to the embassy of Korea once you receive your E2
number
After you receive your assuance/E2 number, it’s now time to prepare your next set of
documents to send to the embassy of Korea in South Africa, in order to complete your visa
application. These are the documents needed: Visa application form (where there’ll be a
section where you’ll have to fill in your E2 number), two passport photos, your original
passport, passport scan and visa fee (visa fee changes from time to time contact the
embassy to find how much it cost).
Step 6: Book your flight ticket
You’ll receive a call from the embassy to collect your visa, once you do you can book your
flight to Korea.
All your documents need to be apostilled so that they can be used in South Korea.
Apostillling is the authentication of official documents so that they can be validly used in
other countries, who are signatories to the Apostille Convention. South Korea is a member of
the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961. Countries who are signatories to this convention
use a single legalisation process of apostilling documents, instead of the old tedious and
costly way. In South Africa, you can get your documents apostilled either at the South
African High Court or the Department of International Relations and Cooperations (DIRCO)
or use an Apostilling agency such as Frenchside, to fast process your documents.
Frenchside
Frenchside is an authentication and legalisation company located in Johannesburg, Cape
Town, Pretoria and Durban, and we can help you with apostilling your documents. We
apostille various types of travel documents, such as your birth certificate, diplomas, degrees,
transcripts, police clearance and more. Our agency works hand in hand with the South
African High Court and the Department of International Relations and Cooperations (DIRCO)
to get your documents apostilled and ready for your departure. We don’t only apostille your
documents we also offer translation services if you are in need of them.
Call us at 012-348-3134 or 081-347-6060 for more information about our business and our
apostille services. Alternatively, you can visit our website at www.frenchside.co.za or send
us an email at info@frenchside.co.za. We are eager to talk to you and address any
questions you may have.
