The majority of schools in Korea will have your get your visa done in your home country (read about the Korean visa process), but there are some certain circumstances that will require you to do a visa run to Japan from Korea which are listed below. If you are in the northern part of Korea, you will be flying to Osaka, but if you are in the southern end, you can either fly or take the ferry to Fukuoka.

*Note that visas can be completed in one day in Osaka but rumor has it that this will change to at least a 2 day wait as of September 2007

3 Reasons for the Japan visa run

1) If a school has a teacher that needs to leave the position immediately, they will find themselves without a teacher to teach their classes. In this case, the school will not have time to go through the visa process, so they will opt to fly the teacher to Korea and then send them to Japan a week or so after they have arrived in Korea. The cost of the flight will be covered by the school, but make sure that you get this in writing as you can never be too careful with contracts in Korea.

2) If you have finished your contract at one school but would like to begin working for another. The cost of this should be covered by your school as a replacement for your airplane ticket from your home country that they would have otherwise paid for.

3) If you are quitting your job before your contract is finished and want to work for another school. This situation can get a little tricky, so be careful. Most employers will do their very best to keep you at their school no matter what the problems might be, as they will be left without a teacher otherwise. If your situation at your current school is really bad but you want to continue to work in Korea, you will have little choice but to take this option. In order to make sure that you will have no problems with your new job, you will need to have your school sign a letter of release which will allow you to continue to work in Korea with another employer. Try and leave your school on good terms though, as directors have the power to put you on a blacklist, making it impossible to return to Korea for an entire year.

Tips and directions to the consulates

Be sure to check out the Korean national holidays as well as the Japanese national holidays so that you don’t get to the office on a day when no one is there.

Here are the addresses as well as the directions to both the Osaka and the Fukuoka Korean Embassies:

Osaka Korean Embassy

2-3-4 Nishi-Sinsaibashi, Chuoku, Osaka, Japan
Postal Code: 542-0086
Phone number: (06) 6213-1401-3
Time difference with Korea : 0
Documents: Visa letter and one picture plus fee
Office Hours: 9:00-12:00, 1:30-17:00 (Monday to Friday) No Saturdays.

** In order to get your visa processed in one day you should submit your documents before 2pm and you will be able to pick them up after 4pm

Instructions of how to get to the Osaka consulate from the airport

1) From the Kansai International Airport, take a train called ‘Rapit’, which is on the Nankai line. Get off at the last stop called ‘Namba Station’ and take exit 25

2) Ask for the ‘Holdiay Inn Nankai Hotel’, which is about a10 to 15 minute walk from the station. The consulate is right across from the hotel

Fukuoka Korean Embassy

Fukuoka 1-1-3 Chuo-Ku Fukuokas Jigyohama
Postal code: 810-0065
Phone number: 81 92 771-0461/3
email: mailto:fukuoka@mofat.go.kr
Office Hours: 9:00-12:00, 1:30-17:00 (Monday to Friday) No Saturdays.
Time difference with Korea: 0
Documents: Visa letter and one picture plus fee

**The minimum time for getting a E-2 visa here is two days.
If you hand your documents before 3pm, you will be able to pick up your visa the next day anytime after 10am.

Instructions of how to get to the Fukuoka consulate

1) From the Airport
Take the subway take it to the brown vase stop, Tojin Machi (the 9th stop from the airport). It will be right after Ohori Koen, which is a park. From Tojin Machi, go out exit #1, which will say Korean Consulate on it. Walk straight out of the exit towards the traffic lights, where you will turn right and walk straight for about 10 minutes. You will have to cross over to the other side of the street to get to the consulate which has a Korean style roof and a Korean flag hanging from it.

2) From the Ferry
Take a bus to Tenjin (#80 or the #84 both of which should say Tenjin on them). Change buses and take a bus to the Fukuoka Dome and the consulate will be right around the corner from here.