Working in Korea한국에서 일하기
Visa & paperwork15
See all 15 →E-2, F-visas, apostille, criminal record check — what to get, in what order.
Your Passport Decides How Long the E-2 Paperwork Actually Takes
The criminal record check, the apostille, and the overall timeline for E-2 paperwork depend heavily on your home country. Americans use the FBI, Canadians gained apostille access only in 2024, and each route can run six to twelve weeks before you touch a contract.
09-14Your E-2 Visa Issuance Number Isn't a Visa Yet
A visa issuance number means Korean immigration approved your E-2 paperwork, but you still don't have a visa — you take that number, your passport, and a consulate application to a Korean embassy in your home country to get the actual visa sticker.
09-11Your Visa Application and Your School's Hiring File Need Different Paperwork
The apostilled diploma, sealed transcript and criminal record check that E-2 applicants dread are immigration requirements, not universal ones — F-visa holders skip most of them but usually still need a background check for the school itself.
09-09What It Actually Takes to Change Hagwons on an E-2 Visa
You can't simply quit one hagwon and start another on the same E-2 visa. Immigration requires a workplace change report, a release confirmation from your current employer, and a signed contract from the new school before you can legally work again.
09-07How Long Your E-2 Documents Stay Valid Before You Have to Start Over
Most E-2 paperwork isn't valid forever. The criminal record check is generally good for around six months from issue, not from when you started your job search, and once it expires you redo the whole thing — fee, apostille, wait time and all.
09-05Moving From E-2 to F-2-7 or F-6 Doesn't Carry Your Old Paperwork With It
Changing from an E-2 to an F-series visa (F-2-7 points system, F-5 permanent residency, or F-6 marriage visa) requires a separate document set filed through your local immigration office, and your original E-2 apostilles, criminal check, and degree file do not automatically transfer.
09-03
Contracts & pay15
See all 15 →What a Korean hagwon contract really says, and what lands in your bank account.
How Overtime Pay Actually Works at a Korean Hagwon
Most hagwons pay overtime as a flat per-hour rate for classes beyond your contracted hours, worked out from your monthly salary — but the formula, the camp rate, and what even counts as "extra" differ by school, so check the actual clause before you sign.
09-15How a Split Pay Structure Quietly Shrinks Your Hagwon Severance
When a hagwon lists your salary as a base amount plus separate allowances, only the base usually counts toward severance and pension, so your payout at the end of a year can be smaller than the total monthly figure suggests.
09-12Comparing Two Hagwon Job Offers That Don't Use the Same Pay Structure
You compare two hagwon offers by putting the same categories side by side for each one: base salary, housing arrangement, overtime rate, pension contribution, and severance, because schools quote pay differently and a bigger monthly number does not always mean more take-home money.
09-10The Year-End Tax Refund Most Hagwon Teachers Never Claim
Yeonmal jeongsan is Korea's annual payroll tax settlement, done every January and February, and it applies to E-2 teachers the same as it applies to Korean staff — but many hagwons never process it for foreign employees, quietly leaving a refund unclaimed.
09-06Housing Allowance or Provided Apartment: Which One Actually Leaves You With More Money
A provided apartment usually leaves you with more money than a housing allowance, because most Korean housing allowances (often 300,000–500,000 won a month) don't fully cover rent in Seoul or Gyeonggi, and the gap comes out of your salary.
09-04The Tax Treaty That Can Wipe Out Your Korean Income Tax for Two Years
Teachers from certain countries, most notably the US, can claim a tax treaty exemption on Korean teaching income for up to two years — but hagwon eligibility is murkier than university eligibility, and you have to ask for it in writing, in time.
09-02
Living in Korea15
See all 15 →Banking, phones, hospitals, where teachers actually hang out — the first-month list.
What a Normal Week Actually Costs a Foreign Teacher in Korea
Groceries, coffee, gym, transport, and the odd delivery order run a single teacher roughly 350,000–500,000 won a week outside rent, once the move-in costs are behind you and you're just living your ordinary Tuesday-to-Tuesday life.
09-16Cooking in a Korean Apartment When There's No Oven
Most Korean studio apartments have a two-burner electric or gas cooktop, a small fridge, and no oven at all — teachers manage with a rice cooker, a toaster oven, and grocery apps like Coupang, plus a weekly trip to the local market or Homeplus.
09-13T-money Cards, Transfers, and the 30-Minute Rule Every Foreign Teacher Should Know
A T-money card is a rechargeable transit card that works on every bus and subway system in Korea, cuts your fare when you transfer, and can be bought at any convenience store for about 3,000 won before you load cash onto it.
09-11The 24-Hour Convenience Store Solves More Problems Than You'd Expect in Korea
A CU, GS25, or Emart24 near your building can withdraw foreign cash, sell basic medicine after the pharmacy shuts, pay your bills, and hold your parcels — it functions as an informal branch office for banking, health, and mail when nothing else is open.
09-10What Actually Shows Up on Your Korean Apartment's Monthly Bill
Most apartments given to foreign teachers carry three separate charges — building maintenance fee (관리비 — gwalli-bi), electricity, and gas — plus water every two months, and only the maintenance fee stays roughly the same amount from one month to the next.
09-08Korea's Trash Bag System, and Why Nobody Explains It to Foreign Teachers
Korean apartments sort waste into paid volume bags, a separate food-waste bin, and strict recycling categories — and almost nobody, not your landlord or your hagwon, walks you through it before your first collection day.
09-05
Where to teach7
See all 7 →City by city, with real numbers from our own listings.
Cheonan for English Teachers: What the KTX City an Hour From Seoul Actually Costs
Cheonan is a mid-sized Chungcheongnam-do city about 40 minutes from Seoul by KTX, with lower rent than the capital, a steady mix of hagwon and public school jobs, and a subway line if you want to skip the train fare entirely.
09-12Suwon Has Gyeonggi's Biggest Teaching Market, and Samsung Money to Match
Suwon is Gyeonggi Province's largest city, built around Samsung Electronics' headquarters in Yeongtong, and it offers Seoul-adjacent pay with lower rent, a real subway line into Gangnam, and one of the country's densest concentrations of private English academies.
09-06- Adult
Why Ulsan Pays More Than Seoul But Has a Fraction of the Foreign Teachers
Ulsan is Korea's industrial capital — Hyundai Heavy Industries, Hyundai Motor, SK Energy — and that means real demand for business English at wages that often beat Seoul, but a foreign teacher scene so small you'll know everyone within a month.
09-03 Incheon for English teachers: airport city wages, Seoul commute math, and who actually stays
Incheon pays 2.2–2.5 million won for hagwon work, sits 40–90 minutes from central Seoul depending on where you land, and suits teachers who want lower rent and sea air more than they want nightlife within walking distance.
08-25Busan for English teachers: what the second city actually costs and who it suits
Busan offers lower rent and a beach commute, but fewer jobs and tighter foreigner circles than Seoul. Here's what teaching in Korea's port city looks like in 2025, including real monthly costs and the visa quirk that trips people up.
08-23Daegu, Daejeon and Gwangju: what a second-city posting looks like
Korea has several cities of a million or more people that most incoming teachers never consider. Postings there are less competitive, living costs are lower, and the trade-off is a smaller foreign community and a shorter list of schools.
07-24