Leaving Korea and a bit flustered? Not sure what the procedure is with your school? Or with immigration? Or how to tie all the lose ends with your apartment, phone, bills etc....? Here's a breakdown of what most people want to know.
- Sell it. There are a lot of different websites to sell your stuff. If you want to find people that can pick-up or meet you the area you live in then you can probably find a facebook group. For example, if you live in Incheon then a lot of people use this group to sell and buy things: https://www.facebook.com/groups/229578370430310/
- Sending home. Sending things from Korea isn't that expensive. It's a lot more to send things to Korea. First you need to get some boxes. If you go to the post office after school then you can buy boxes there. They'll be a stack of sample boxes showing the different sizes available. They'll have a number on it. That's the number you use to refer to that size box. 1 is the smallest and 6 is the biggest.
- Give it to charity. If you'd prefer to give it to someone who would need it more, there are charity donation bins around Korea. They look like the big green bins you see behind restaurants and in alleyways. You can put your old clothes and household items like couches and kitchen utensils in them and they will be given to charity. Like I said, they are scattered all over Korea. They're on the streets so you'll just have to find one near you and you'll be able to donate your things.
- Giveaway party. It's also common for people to hold some kind of party or pot luck at their apartment before leaving so that friends and friends of friends can come and socialise and then leave with things you don't want. It's a good way to say goodbye to people and get rid of your things in one go. Killing two birds with one stone.
Finishing off work and other formalities
If you're with IMOE then I'd highly recommend using this website http://imoe.wikispaces.com/ and if your answers aren't answered then ask Sarah. If not then I'm sure the website can still be helpful and there's probably a website that's for your specific region of Korea, and you should contact whoever is the head of your programme directly. A lot of people talk and pass gossip and theories about our contract details and protocols but at the end of the day, none of that is very useful until you have definite evidence and confirmation. So I think it's best to check and ask for answers straight away. You'll probably have to check this way either way as most people don't actually have a clue about our contract formalities and so forth. I'll summarise the main things that need to be done.
Please note the time this post was written and that I don't work for the English Program in Korea. So please do as I suggest and double-check using the website or asking someone that works for EPIK.
- Pension refund. To get a refund on your pension, if you are eligible for one, you have to fill in a form. More details are on this link: http://imoe.wikispaces.com/Pension. After it has been processed your refund will be transferred to your home account.
- Bonus pay. There's a form for your severance pay, but not for your exit allowance. Your exit allowance is a total of 1,300,000 Korean Won and is automatically transferred to you after you leave Korea. Your teacher should already have the form for your severance pay (the amount will depend on your current salary. It's basically an extra month's pay check). Please note that if you don't leave Korea and simply change your job to another one in Korea then you don't receive an exit allowance.
- Tax. There are two things about tax. First, if you're paying tax in Korea and you haven't paid for the tax year yet then your school should be able to sort that out for you. You need to talk to them. The admin department should know what to do and how to sort it out. They'll need you there for your ARC number and so forth, but they should be able to sort it. If you want extra information or help then this is the website you need to do everything on and it'll have an English PDF guide as well: http://www.nts.go.kr/eng/. Secondly, if you need some reference to sort out your taxes when you return home then you can print off how much you paid for the tax year in Korea from the NTS website, too. Also, you should ask your school (again, the admin department are the ones to help you) for copies of your wage slips and your tax payments. They should be able to provide this information for you using the school system. It's recommended to get both of these documents before leaving Korea.
- Bank account. This is easy. Your bank account is automatically closed after you hand-in your ARC card to immigration at the airport before departing Korea. Your bank account is connected to your ARC card. So once your ARC card has been returned, your money will automatically be transferred to your home bank account (the one you put down during orientation). Be sure to hand in your ARC card. My friend didn't so her money never got sent home so it took much longer than it should have.
- Phone contract. Before leaving you do need to cancel your phone contract and/or get someone to take over your contract. If your contract hasn't finished then you will have to pay a fine. I'm not entirely sure about this next bit of information so don't quote me on it, but I believe if you don't do this then your phone bill will keep going up and then you might be black-listed for not paying your debt. They can't charge you because your bank account will be closed but you will have an outstanding debt in your name. I know someone who keeps getting text messages about her phone bill but she hasn't tried returning to Korea yet so we're not sure what the result would be.
- Leaving school. Obviously you leave on the last school day before/when your contract is set to end. How you leave school is up to you really. Just remember to tidy and clear out your desk and classroom (if you have one) and get anything from your school before you leave. For example your tax summary, a copy of your wage slips and/or a reference letter if you want or need them.You also have to move out of your apartment on the last day of your contract whether it's a school day or not.
- Leaving your apartment. You have to leave on the last day of your contract, whether it's a school day or not. Yes you still have to work on that day if it's not on the weekend or holiday. However, it can be possible to get the day off. Before using all of your holidays you can talk to your co-teacher and negotiate to save one of the days for your last day. They must agree with it before and make it absolutely clear that that's what you intend to do. They can say no so it's vital you make it very clear that you want to use that holiday for that day and you both agree. Of course you need to clean and clear out all of your things. Remember to pay all of your bills. It's possible to leave money for with your co-teacher if you know roughly how much the bills will be and another Native English teacher's moving in after you.
- Proof of Employment. If you need a proof of employment for your own reference then you need to e-mail the head of your programme with the following details:
- Name:
- Date of Birth:
- Nationality:
- Place of Employment:
- Term of Employment:
- Passport number:
- ARC number:
- Contact number:
- E-mail address:
I will keep updating this post every time I hear something new, however, I want to repeat that this is not an official post and you may want to double-check some details with officials.
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