Waygooks Wandering

The residency certificates have arrived. The E2 visas have been obtained. The plane tickets have been booked. So...WE'RE READY TO GO!

Gianni and I are both very excited to be leaving for Korea in just about a month! All that is left to do is pack and complete the mandatory online pre-orientation course, which, FYI, is not very challenging. It's 17 modules, and you have to spend at least 15 minutes per module or it doesn't count. At the end of each module is a set of 4 simple questions, and then at the end of course is a longer quiz you have to pass, containing mostly the questions from the end of each module. I've completed it, but Gianni still needs to do his.

Gianni and I both got our residency certificates in the mail today. It was basically just a certified form from the IRS that says our name and that the IRS certifies that we will continue to be US residents in the year we requested. Pretty simple, one-sentence pieces of paper. So apparently this will make it so we avoid double-taxation.

I finally got my NOA package in the mail today, and I submitted everything to the consulate for my visa. Once we both have our visas, we should be all set to go to South Korea!

Gianni received his Notice of Appointment package in the mail from EPIK/Korvia on Friday, which is excellent. In the Notice of Appointment package:

- application for visa, partially filled out by Korvia for him

- information with regards to getting a visa from the Korean consulate closest to us

- the actual Notice of Appointment, which looks like a certificate and basically says that he has been accepted into EPIK and will be teaching in Daegu

- a preliminary teaching contract, which also needs to go to the consulate as part of the visa application. You get a final contract when you arrive that you get to keep. The contract is very comprehensive, and it's written in both Korean and English. Everything was spelled out very clearly for us regarding benefits, health insurance, vacation time, etc. It makes me confident in our decision to go the government route in getting teaching placement. Another thing to note: because it is the preliminary contract, your pay scale might not be accurate. This is fine! They may have printed the contract prior to receiving your final documents, as in Gianni's case. The pay scale will change on the final contract when you get to Korea, once they have had time to process the new documents you sent in.

I haven't received my package yet, but we both received tracking numbers, so I know mine is on the way.

Today, Gianni went to the consulate to apply for the visa. We're lucky because we live right near the consulate in Boston, which is not a very busy consulate. Sometimes visas can take up to three weeks to get, depending on the consulate and how busy it is. The only things he had to bring were his NOA, his contract, his application, 2 passport photos, his passport, and the application fee ($45). But, as my recruiter mentioned to us, please make sure to call the consulate you will be going to first because some require you to bring in more documents in order to get the visa. The woman at the consulate told him to come back at the end of the day on Wednesday to get pick up his passport, so it will only take 2 days! Very speedy consulate over here in Boston!

We also went to AAA today to get our international drivers' permits. The process took about 15 minutes, and we left AAA with the actual document. We went in, filled out forms with our driver's license numbers, gave them 2 passport photos (or they will take them for you for a fee, but pretty cheap if you're already a member), and paid $15 on a credit card each. The documents is the size of a passport with multiple pages and your picture on it. It's translated into almost 10 languages. Apparently, it's becoming more and more common for rental car companies to ask to see an international drivers' license in other countries. It's also just another form of ID for us, so I thought it was a good thing to get, and for $15 I'd just as rather get it.

Along with the package, we were also informed that we are supposed to arrive in South Korea on August 19th. Korvia will be providing us with free cell phones when we get to the airport. In addition, as long as we arrive before 7pm that day, EPIK has shuttles that will take us to our orientation site free of charge. There were 2 orientation groups depending on your placement location. Because we are going to Daegu, Gianni and I are in group 2, doing orientation at Jeonju University.

One thing I didn't realize during the application process is that we won't actually know our specific placement until orientation. As of right now, we are still in the dark about what schools we're going to be teaching at, how old our students are, and where we will be living within Daegu. It won't get much more specific until orientation, which is kind of a bummer if you're someone like me who wants to plan everything out beforehand. Oh well!

I'll be buying plane tickets today. The contract mentions at 1,300,000 win stipend for travel and settling in to Korea. That's about $1,160, so that's how much we have to spend on flights. I actually had a lot of difficulty finding an affordable flight that didn't take 34 hours to arrive in Korea, so make sure before you book a flight that you're set to arrive on the correct day! I did manage to find one flight that is an easy 17 hours long total, including 1 layover, so that's the flight I'm going with.

 Still waiting for:
- Abbi's NOA package (should have that tomorrow)
- both Visa's (should have those by the end of the week)
- Gianni's original TEFL certificate in the mail (should be on the way through I-to-I TEFL)
- both residency certificates (which have supposedly been printed and are on the way to us)

So our final contracts have been mailed out and should come some time in the next week. The next step will be to sign the contract and go apply for an E2 visa at the consulate nearest to me, which is Boston. They say it can take up to 3 weeks to get, and I need mine by August 10th. I also found out that I am expected to be in Korea by August 19th, so I am going to start looking for flights now. In addition, Gianni and I got emailed about doing a pre-orientation course. I haven't started yet, but it's only like 4 and half hours long. It seems like its about culture and specific things about teaching in Korea. Also, I called the IRS to check the status of my tax exemption application, and they said it will be arriving in the next 2 weeks. I mailed in Gianni's diploma with apostille and final transcript, and he finished his TEFL course, so we emailed a copy of the certificate. He's all set!

Everything seems to be coming together nicely. Now to get a visa, book a flight, shop, and PACK!

So right now we are waiting for the email to tell us when we are headed to South Korea and exactly which school in Daegu we are going to be placed in. I can't wait to find out, but in the mean time I'm trying to think about packing.

The Arrival Store is something I found myself and had several other people refer me to as well. They have various packages that can be ready for you when you get to Korea, so you don't have to find the stores that sell the things you need right when you get off the plane. They have all kinds of things from bedding to carpets to towels. The prices don't seem extravagant either. In addition, you can get a cell phone through them, and you parents could send you care packages with food from home through them as well. It looks pretty great. I haven't decided yet whether I'm going to take them up on it or not, but we'll see.

Here is what the things I have seen so far say about what to pack for Korea:

- If you are a larger person (height or weight) you need to bring shirts, pants, and shoes to fit you. In the case of ladies, that means bras too.

- water purifier

- deodorant!!!! and lots of it. Because it's apparently a legitimate thing that Asian people don't smell and have no use for deodorant. This means that it's only the foreigners who are looking for deodorant. You can find deodorant apparently, but it's like a black market, very expensive item.

- clothes for warm and cold weather

- professional clothes for teaching

- your shade of cosmetics

- board games, if you like them

- comfort food from home

- spices and vanilla extract are apparently hard to find

-vitamins (they are less potent in Korea than they are in the US apparently)

- Gifts for your recruiter (if you went through that method), co-teacher(s), head teacher, vice principal, and principal. Make sure that the gifts are hierarchical, meaning that the principal gets the most important/expensive gift descending to the co-teacher or co-teachers. Some suggestions include wine or other alcohol from your home country, food stuffs particular to your country like candy or maple syrup. I've even heard of getting the vice principal big containers of vitamins like from Costco because Korean vitamins aren't as strong as North American ones. I'm probably going to go with a basket of candies from the US for the co-teachers because I don't know how many there will be. Then I'll get alcohol for the vice principal and principal. I haven't finalized though. I'll let you know when I figure it out.

I'll post more to this as things start to take shape, and I actually start packing!

So about a month ago Korvia posted a status on their facebook page telling people to fill this form out, but I put it off for way too long. I didn't see until later that it can take like 3 months to get, and it is something we need to take with us to Korea. Ugh. Paperwork is so frustrating sometimes. Just when you think it's all set, there's more!

So here's the deal. In Korea, teachers are offered a 2 year tax exemption, meaning that for 2 years, if you are teaching, you don't have to pay Korean taxes. This IRS form 8802 is, as far as a I understand, to make it so you don't have to pay taxes in the US on the money you make in South Korea either. So no taxes! WOOT!

Here is the form: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8802.pdf

Here are the complicated instructions for the form: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i8802.pdf

This person has a really good blog post about how to fill out the form: http://shimmeringseoul.wordpress.com/2013/05/28/how-to-fill-out-irs-form-8802-aka-us-residency-certificate/

Here are a few of my own notes about it. The tax payer ID number is your social security number. An appointee is someone the IRS can talk to in the United States regarding your financial info if you are abroad, usually that should be a parent. In line 4, check off that you are an individual and a US citizen. I found most of the other stuff very straightforward except line 7 to 10. I called the IRS to make sure I had it right, so this is the information I got straight from the IRS.

Line 7: The calendar year for which you request certification is the year you are going to be leaving in. I am leaving in August 2013, so I wrote 2013. I am mostly sure that I need to fill out this form again for the 2014 tax year once my 2013 taxes are done next spring.

Line 8: the tax period on which certification will be based is a 6 digit number. The first four digits are the last year you submitted your taxes, which for me was 2012. The last two digits are the last month of the last tax year you submitted, so December (12). So for me the 6 digit number was 201212. There's other information floating around on the internet, but again, I asked the IRS people, so I'm sincerely hoping this is correct.

Line 9: check off income tax.

Line 10: There is a specific statement you need to write here. Just copy this:
"This certification is given under penalty of perjury and to the best of my knowledge and belief are true, correct, and complete. YOUR FULL NAME (YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER) is a resident of the United States of America and will continue to be throughout the current tax year (THE CURRENT YEAR)." There is a apparently another statement for teachers, but you don't have to write that if you don't know when you're leaving. You should probably have filled this out before you know when you're leaving anyway, so it's fine to just copy my statement above. Again, the person at the IRS read me the statement, and I copied what she told me to write.

Line 11: Next to the South Korea box, write 3 to request 3 copies of the exemption form. Just in case you need extra copies.

Read the instructions to find out how to submit the form and how to pay online if you want to. I paid online and faxed all the paperwork in because it seemed like the fastest route. Please make sure you include a cover letter if you fax the paperwork in. The cover letter has to at least include how many pages total are being faxed. I also included all my tracking numbers from the online payment and all my contact information, just to be formal.

I did not receive a confirmation or anything from the IRS, so I called just to be sure they got it. I was informed that they don't even process requests until two weeks after you submit, so they can't tell me if they got it or not. Since then, I've called back once, and it is still not in their system. They said to call back Friday, and they should be able to tell me what's up. I'll update this post when I hear more. Hoping everything is alright.

The IRS told me that you fill out form 8802 to get form 6166, which is the US tax residency certificate. You won't have to do anything with "form" 6166, but that's the part you need to bring to Korea with you. Just in case you have any other questions that I didn't answer, you can leave comments, but you might also want to call the IRS directly. The number you should call for questions pertaining to this form is: 267-941-1000. You'll speak to an actual person, but this number was really hard for me to dig up.

Hope this clarifies the annoyance of paperwork for people :)

Look at the post labeled "Residency Certificate Form 6166" for information on what the residency certificate looks like. I got mine in the mail on 7/16/13, which is about a month from when I requested it I believe. But at least you know these instructions got my the final paperwork!