slow roast

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Verbatim Email From L. Kim, our recruiters Assistant in Seoul.
Subject: From Korea regarindg your visa procedure
Hi Aaron and Shauna,
My name is L. Kim and I am a coworker of Asia Son.
Asia Son on the way to Korea so I am emailing you on behalf of her.
I am sorry to hear that you so much trouble for visa so far.
Because of big time differences, it has been difficult to contact the Korean consulate in Vancouver.
I will call them tonight in Korea time and figure out what it is going on.
And also I understand what you are worried about one year commitment and not being provided with full benefit.
I suggest that you use your vacation at the end of one year contract.
In that case, even if you leave earlier you can finish one year contract successfully.
I will have a talk with GEV later.
Please keep me updated regarding your visa procedure.

Thanks.

Eun Young Kim

This is why we are using a recruiter

The other good part of our day came from Mike, who is the Teacher Coordinator at GEV.
GEV = Gyeonggi English Village

Hi Shauna & Aaron
Your actual contract start date is usually the next day after you arrive. And it goes for 1 full year.
Below are some options that could facilitate your July 15th need.
1. Save your vacation days to use all together at the end of your contract (you have 10 work days that are required Korean holidays, but 10 that are "your choice" and with weekend is 16 calendar days)
2. Shift exchange with others to build up a "bank" of extra days (ie- you work for them one day and they work for you on a later date)
3. A combination of 1&2
4. Resignation before finishing the contract. (This would result in the loss of the severance payment and return flight). *NOTE: GEV will purchase your "return flight" to anywhere (as in Perth) as long as it is the same cost of sending you home.

Hope that helps provide you some information.


Basically
We have been at ends of what the heck is going on with the processing of the visa for Shauna ever since receiving the Issuance Number (golden ticket of hope) which would allow us to get to Korea to start teaching!

Ironically, this wasn't the final hoop we needed to jump through in order to receive the Coveted Teaching Visa! Shauna still had to face the Korean Consulate in Vancouver. We've been hearing stories about people giving up on teaching in Korea due to the nastiness of the people in Vancouver! Literally, they get fed up with the actions of the Korean Consulate and withdraw their application after being in the process for weeks on end because they cannot handle the run-around from the Consulate Staff.
** update **
I just got off the phone with Carry at the Korean Consulate and the current problem is verifing the graduation date at Griffith University for her Master's Degree Program! The dates don't coexist on her official transcripts with the dates on her diploma. Because she graduated in 2004 and finished paying off the degree in 2006. The smart people at Griffith, didn't put her graduation date on her transcripts as 2004 therefore screwing up the verification of her degree! Good freaking god!

So, she must fax, today her transcripts from her Bachelor's degree, so the woman at the consulate can verify her education and finish processing the teaching visa! And we can head out to SF, this weekend!

Our concern up to this point has been that WE need to be in Perth, Western Australia by July 15th, 2011
to ensure we can find a place to live and Shauna can attend the week long Orientation at the University.
We were originally aiming to have a couple of weeks prior to the start date, so we can make a leisure trip down-under and get ourselves acquainted with the area! Now because of all the delays in getting to Seoul, we are going to end up crashing into Perth almost on the day of, orientation.

The good in all this, is that once we reach San Francisco, it should take literally a day to process my visa and get us on the plane headed for Incheon International Airport!

We will have to profusely thank and give gifts of praise to her parents for letting us run amuck around their daily life routine since we crashed waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay longer on the acreage then thought possible!

Gotta love this life!

By the time we reach Seoul, we will be all smiles... but for now we are just taking care of the melancholy in our mind, bodies and souls until the day we land in South Korea

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