E2 Visa Documents for Korea

There's a lot of confusion and misinformation floating around about the required documents for obtaining an E2 teaching visa in South Korea.  Let's clear it up.

What you need:
- college diploma
- FBI background check (or equivalent if not American)
- official transcripts (3)
- passport
- passport-size photos (4)
- health assessment form
- your employment contract
- visa issuance number
- a money order for $45, made payable to the appropriate Korean embassy or consulate


Now for the details.

College Diploma
This sounds self-explanatory.  It's not.  It was, in fact, the single most difficult item on the list for me.  But it doesn't have to be!  You can send in an original, which is easy to obtain but often expensive.  Some schools also offer an official document (not a diploma) that confirms a student's graduated status.  If you can get either of these, skip to step 3.

In my case, my diploma is about 18x24 inches (my school doesn't make a smaller size) and my university didn't offer me any alternative documents.  That meant I needed a notarized and apostilled copy.  If you are so unfortunate as to be in my shoes, here's what you gotta do.

1) Find a notary public.  DO NOT go to the local copy shop, those people are idiots with stamps.  They will stamp your copy, and you will waste ten bucks.  Find a real notary, preferably in a law firm or public office.

**Pro tip: 'notarization' is the process whereby a signature is authorized, in order to prevent people from forging signatures.  If you didn't sign something, it's not a notarization.

2) Take the original document and the copy (or have them make a copy there) to the notary public.  Tell them that you need a certified copy of your diploma.  This means that your copy needs something along the lines of "I certify this to be a true, complete, and unaltered copy of the original document" with a date and your signature on it.  Everything but the signature needs to be typed.  (Yes, typewriters still exist!  I'm as shocked as you are.)  Once that's typed on, you can sign it and get it notarized.  It'll cost about ten bucks.

3) Get it apostilled!  Figure out where to get documents apostilled/authorized in your state; a simple google search should do the trick.  For most Americans, just go to your nearest Secretary of State or Department of State or whatever your state has that has document authorization services.  Wait in the line, bring a few dollars, and they'll do it right there.  It's just a gold stamp.  You're done!

**Pro tip: not all branches of your SOS/DOS/whatever of state will have document authorization services.  Check online or call before you go.


FBI Background Check
**Pro tip: background checks are good for 6 months.  Get it early!  It takes a bare minimum of 2 months to complete the check and get it apostilled--and that's if you're lucky.  GET IT EARLY!!!

1) Get your fingerprints printed.  A lot of police stations do this, as well as private companies.  Just do a search for 'fingerprint services near [my house]' on google maps.  It usually costs about $20.  Make sure to get it on a standard fingerprint form, which is a piece of cardstock; I've never seen anything else, but hey, pays to be sure.

2) Fill out the application form.  You can download it from the official FBI background check request website, along with instructions for obtaining the background check.

3) If your bank does them for free, get a money order or cashier's check for $18, made payable to the Treasure of the United States.  If not, their website has a credit card payment form that you can download and print off as well.  Both are fine.  NO CASH OR CHECKS.

4) Mail that sucker in!  Make sure you've got and signed all the important bits.  Mail it to: 
FBI CJIS Division – Record Request
1000 Custer Hollow Road
Clarksburg, WV 26306

5) Wait 6 weeks.  After 4 weeks you can call to make sure they have it.  If you don't have it back after 6 weeks, keep calling.  It took over two months for mine; for 3 weeks they kept telling me that they'd mailed it to me, and on the fourth week they realized it was still sitting on a desk.  Ugh.

6) Apostille time!  Your background check needs to get to the Department of State's Office of Authentications.  It costs $8 per document.  If you live near Washington, D.C., go there between 8-9am any weekday and drop it off; you can pick it up in a few days.  You can pay by money order, check, credit card, or cash (but they don't make change).  They used to offer walk-in hours, but this changed; they now also take appointments by phone, see their website here.  

If you're not in the area, no problemo.  You can mail it, but you MUST use a tracked mail service.  USPS regular mail is NOT OKAY and will seriously delay your document.  You must include a check or money order (no cash or cards) for $8, and a prepaid return envelope.  No return envelope means it ain't gettin' returned.  Don't forget it.

For both submission methods, you'll need to fill out the DS-4194 form, found here.  You must fill it out on the internet before printing, as it creates a special barcode for your order.  

Mail it to:

U.S. Department of State
Authentications Office
518 23rd Street, NW SA-1
Columbia Plaza
Washington, DC 20520

Then wait.  It should take about 2 weeks to get back to you.  All done with that!  It gets easier from here.

Official Transcripts

You need three, and they MUST be official, sealed in the envelope (unopened!) copies.  It can take a few days to a few weeks for them to reach you.  If you're still in school or live near your university, you can request them in person, often for free.  TWO will be sent to Korea, and ONE will be sent to the embassy or consulate.  (Reports vary on whether you need to send a transcript to the consulate or embassy, but better safe than sorry.)

Passport

You need a bare minimum of 1 year left on your passport.  You now need to photocopy the front page, the one with your photo and information.  Heads up, many copy shops will not allow you to photocopy legal documents, because they are idiots.  Photocopying legal documents is only illegal if the copy is intended to be passed off as the real thing.  Nobody is going to buy that your black-and-white low-quality photocopy is a real passport.  

Passport-Sized Photos (4)

You will need 4 passport-size photos.  You can get these taken at most convenience stores, or you can take them yourself--just make sure that your selfies are within the limitations of passport photos.  Print them on photo paper or regular paper, it doesn't really matter.  Cut them out and paperclip them together.

Health Assessment Form

There's a few of these floating around the internet.  They all say the same things, they just look a bit different.  It doesn't matter which one you print off, just pick one.  Here's one.  Once you get to Korea you'll have to undergo a blood and urine test to make sure you're not using drugs and carrying HIV.  (So you should probably clean up your act before you get here.  Korea is extremely uncool with drugs.)

Employment Contract

This will be given to you by your employer.  You need to print it and sign it.  (Keep in mind that, in Korea, contracts are more like "guidelines" than actual rules.  Don't be surprised if it changes unexpectedly once you get here. )

Visa Issuance Number

Now that you've got everything else taken care of, it's time to mail it all to Korea.  

1) Like with the Health Assessment Form, there's a few versions of the Visa Issuance Number application floating around.  Here's one, or pick your own.  Print it and fill it out. 

2) Put all the documents listed up to this point into an envelope and mail it to your employer.  (NOT your passport, just the copy!)  USPS ain't gonna work for this, you need an international courier service.  DHL and FedEx are the main options.  A normal office store will probably cost you $120 to mail it.  A shipping store might hook you up with a discount, maybe save you $40.  It's wicked expensive, even for the slow options. Complain, moan, pity yourself, and then go get an ice cream and forget about it.  You're going to Korea, after all.

3) Wait until your employer gets it.  Once they receive the documents, it will take about two weeks for the local government to give you a VIN.  Your employer will mail it back to you; they keep all the other documents.

The Final Mailing

Now that you've got your visa issuance number, it's time to actually get that visa.  If you live near a Korean consulate or embassy, you can go in person.  If not, put your passport (yes, the real one), one sealed official transcript, one prepaid return envelope, the paper with your VIN, and one money order for $45 made payable to the appropriate Korean embassy or consulate into an envelope.  USPS tracked mail is fine for this, but you can do DHL or FedEx if you feel safer.  MAKE SURE there is a prepaid return envelope in there, because you'll have a hard time getting out of the country if they never mail you back the passport.  

**Pro tip: walk-in visa applications don't get processed any faster, so if you drop it off in-person without a return envelope, you'll be waiting for several days.

Call every day or every few days to check on the application.  Your nearest Korean consulate may or may not have an English-speaker.  The different consulates have different turn-around times as well, usually listed on their websites.  For me, the Chicago embassy was closer but their return time (6-8 days) was twice as long as Boston's (2-3), so I sent it to Boston and got it back within a week.  My employer insisted that I go in person, but it just wasn't possible; fortunately I didn't have any problems. 

Within a week or two, you should have your passport back and a fresh E2 visa stamped inside!  Good luck, future teacher!

Cheers,
Ashton