@Angela: This is great news and thanks! Also, there’s been an update to this– Please check here: Good News for First-Year NETs : Clarification on Korean Visa Extensions

@tbonetylr: To a degree you’re correct about the KCUE, but if you read the DMOE’s letter to us, they pretty much said that the KCUE is booked and is no longer taking applications. So that information is great, but doesn’t do a whole bunch of us any good. Also, I think the KCUE is in Seoul? I have to double check but if that’s the case, they probably wouldn’t be open on the weekends for a walk-in visit (as I’m in Daegu). Although @Newfie in Korea did suggest a great idea of taking a sick day leave to get out there. But I do appreciate your comment– it may be helpful for others.
@Patricia: Just emailed my DMOE about what your co-teach said about getting a criminal check from the Korean police station. But they still haven’t gotten back to me with my first email.
@Jaim: You’re not alone. Many of us are frustrated with the way things are being handled right now as we’re all going back and forth about how we can go about getting these things in time. The DMOE hasn’t given us sufficient time or information. The FBI check requires fingerprints for application and processing takes time before it can get to apostilling. If I hear any word, I’ll be sure to post.

You may or may not have to pay the fee at KCUE, you probably will and the fee is about 60 dollars. The bad thing is that I’m SURE employers and recruiters will exploit employees by holding their diploma as ransom as a safety net so the employee doesn’t go elsewhere for a job. Recruiters have been known to do this in the past without this NEW diploma apostile rule and I’m SURE it will get worse. The positive thing(supposedly) is that KIS will keep it on file. We’ll see how that goes???

@Newfie in Korea: Wow! Mahalos for all this wonderful information! Thanks for leaving your tips on the deskwarming process and I totally agree with you on all of those points. As for the visa process- excellent idea I never thought of …if the doubling up offer doesn’t work, then the sick day just might!

So now it looks like I’ll have to mail two different (and expensive) diplomas home to get them apostilled. (As an American citizen, I’ve heard the US embassy in Seoul will not provide this service.)

Not to mention the criminal background check from the FBI.

However, I’m not sure how much I believe her on that one, as I haven’t had an FBI criminal record check previously…

You’re completely right about the situation but here’s some additional info.
Deskwarming died last November. This order came down from the people who rule over the EPIK program. ‘Good schools’ may let you stay home anyways if they like you but for anyone who recieves this treatment, be quiet about it (esp on the web) or else your school could get into trouble. Also changed last year were the camps. Up until summer 2009 you used to get paid for ‘vacation teaching’. As part of the changes they rolled out last Nov. Vacation classes became unpaid, or as they Ministry that controls EPIK like to put it, ‘teaching during vacation up to 22 hours’ is part of the normal schedule. The other big change last November (I don’t know if this came from the ministry or from the Daejeon MOE) is that teachers are now supposed to teach at least 40 classes during the school break. If Daegu also has the 40 class rule we can infer that 40 classes also came from the Ministry bureaucrats.

Anyways, one of the big tricks to dealing with your school has to do with approach. As for desk warming, live with your schools decision & don’t bother to try and fight it. Just say it’s too bad and it would have been nice to work from home. You may get lucky and find that your school might just let you stay home on the days near your vacation which could mean a full two week break as opposed to coming to desk warm for two days before the weekend.

Regarding the visa stuff, the relationship with your school is the most important thing here. I offered to double up my teaching schedule on a couple of days to free up the time to take care of getting my embassy in Seoul to stamp a copy of my degree. Our document states that extension of current visas will require the new documents, they don’t mention differing rules for differing extension lengths. Our document was also the same as the one posted on the immigration site. To be on the safe side I’d have the criminal record check and degree verification document handy just in case. For Canadians, get it down ASAP. RCMP filnger print CRC will take AT LEAST FOUR MONTHS to process. The embassy in Seoul has the form and can provide directions to a nearby police station where you can get it done (a 15 minute walk from the embassy!).

I hope the info is at least a little helpful. I’ve found my schools willing to allow me early leave to take care of things like this in the past. But as I said, I work hard to maintain a good relationship with the people involved. If your school is unwilling to switch around a few classes or let you leave early to take care of these things just take a sick day. You get up to 3 of them without having to provide proof in form of a doctor’s note.