Moving Home: A Leaving Korea Checklist for English Teachers

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Moving to South Korea was a blast, but what about when it comes time to return home? Here’s a handy guide that outlines everything you should do before leaving South Korea.

When I was making moves to leave Korea, I was overwhelmed by how much I had to do! The list of administrative chores felt endless, and many of the tasks were actually a little complicated. Endless stacks of paperwork, bureaucracy, and getting my life set up in Korea took careful planning and research. If you’re preparing to leave South Korea and move home, you may not realize that leaving the country requires the same level of careful planning.

So, if you’re coming to the end of your EPIK contract and want to make sure you’ve got everything covered, here’s my own personal leaving Korea checklist in hopes it helps you with your own move home. Straight from someone who’s done it herself!

A Leaving South Korea Checklist for Teachers Moving Home

Here’s everything EPIK English teachers and expats need to do when leaving Korea.

Extend Your Korean Visa (if necessary)

Teachers in Korea on the E-2 Visa are given 13 months in the country. This is to cover the 12-month school year, and provide an additional month for leaving if necessary.

However, sometimes tying up loose ends can take a bit longer than expected, so if you find yourself needing more than the provided 13 months on your E-2 Visa, you can apply for an extension. With more time, you can focus on moving out of the country without working about encounter issues at the immigration desk when you fly out of Korea.

Be sure to contact the local immigration office well in advance if you believe you’ll need to extend your visa.

Cancel Phone Plan

Chances are you have a phone plan or contract or maybe even a wifi egg. The details for cancellation all varies depending on your exact contract and your carrier, but it’s still a chore that needs to be done! If you have a wifi egg, you may need to return it to the store per your agreement.

I personally had a year long contract with KT Olleh Mobile. I was able to cancel over the phone no problem. They just charged me for my last month and current month charges plus the cancellation fee for cancelling before the completion of the contract date.

The cancellation fee is based on how early you terminated the contract. My cancellation fee was about 67,000 won to cancel a full month and a half early.

If you have KT Olleh as well, their international / English services can be reached by calling the number 1583.

Settle Your Utilities in Korea: Gas, Electric, Internet, Cable etc.

Settling your various utilities also depends on your school as well as specific apartment building. For example, I was only personally responsible for gas and electric while friends of mine are also responsible for an internet bill and water.

Make sure to discuss what you need to do with your co-teacher, landlord and utility providers. You’ll also need to figure out how to settle your last month’s bills after you leave the country.

It’s common for NETs to leave cash with their co-teacher to cover their last bills that may come in after they’ve left the country. My school offered to just take the charges from my last paycheck/the money they owe me for leaving, which is super convenient for me.

If you’re set up for monthly auto-pay for your bills, make sure to contact your utility providers to take your card / autopay information off of the account. You don’t want to be charged for the next tennant’s bills!

Sell & Donate Furniture and Clothing

You can make a good deal of money back from the investment you made into furniture and other household goods to turn your apartment into a home while living in Korea.

The market for used items here is actually pretty good and since there is always constant turn around of new expats moving to Korea, especially in the big cities, selling is actually quite easy.

There are flea market Facebook groups for most major cities in Korea for people to buy and sell their items. I was able to sell everything I wanted within a few days of posting. I sold my bike, oven, air mattress and air purifier.

Other common things on the pages are couches, beds, cars, TVs, etc. It’s all on there and totally possible to make good money back from selling your household goods!

For any clothes or shoes you’d like to donate, the cities typically have clothing collection bins dispersed throughout the neighborhoods for you to place your gently used clothes. Other good options are to donate them to one of the following organizations: Goodwill, Korean Unwed Mothers Families Assocation (KUMFA) or the Salvation Army, although they may only be available in Seoul. You can read more about it here.

Clean and Move Out of Your Apartment

Before leaving, as you do in any apartment, you’ll want to make sure you clean and scrub thoroughly. As an EPIK teacher, your school provides the apartment free of charge for you as well as furniture. When I moved in, the previous teacher actually left a lot of items for me outside of what the contract promises, which was really nice!

So feel free to leave kitchen plates, pots and pans, bedding and anything you think could be helpful for the next new tenant. Just be respectful and don’t leave garbage or a mess behind. That’s not a fun thing for the next new teacher to deal with when they’re trying to get settled in a new place.

Check that You’ve Received Your EPIK Security Deposit + Renewal Bonus

If you only taught in Korea for a year, your 600,000 won security deposit will be refunded to you during the last month of your contract pending the apartment doesn’t require any repairs. They have the right to deduct any money from your deposit if your apartment warrants it.

If you taught in Korea for longer than one year, you should have already gotten your security deposit back at the end your first contract. They use part of your renewal bonus as your security deposit for those who stay longer than one year. You can expect 700,000 back pending no damages were made to the apartment.

Apply for Your Korea Pension Payment

One of the best perks of working for EPIK is the pension we accrue while employed and the refund we get when we leave. Sadly, this applies only to Americans, Canadians and Australians – all others are not eligible to have their pension refunded to them when they leave the country.

To receive your pension contributions back, you must visit a pension office in person up to a month before you leave to apply. Although you’re eligible to apply a month before you leave, you actually receive the pension after your contract ends, typically a few weeks after.

To apply for your refund, you must bring these required documents:

• Passport
• Alien Registration Card
• Flight Ticket (departure date must be indicated) – flight confirmation/itinerary printed from the internet is acceptable.
• Bank Account Number for an account that is in your name domestic or international – international may require your bank’s swift code

For more information, visit the National Pension website.

Look out for your EPIK Severance Pay + Exit Allowance

After we complete our contracts, we receive severance pay for our time of employment as well as an exit allowance per our employment contract. The exit allowance is 1,300,000 KRW to act as reimbursement for any flight or travel costs back home. It’s a flat 1.3 mil won that is given regardless of the actual amount spent on your journey home.

The severance pay we receive is equivalent to one month’s’ salary x the number of years / contracts completed with EPIK. Since I worked with EPIK for two years, I will receive severance of two months’ pay: 2.1 mil x 2 = 4.2 mil won in severance.

Both of these bonuses are paid to you after your contract leaves and typically after you’ve already left the country. Your school will deposit these amounts automotically into your Korean account. You may be able to work with the school admin office to have them deposit it into your account at home if that suits you better, if they have the ability or care to do so.

Renew Your Mobile Banking / Banking Certificate

Since most of our bonuses and our remaining paycheck is paid right after we’ve left Korea, that means the money is stuck somewhere you’re not. So – what’s the best way to get it home?

The easiest way to transfer the money after you’ve left Korea is through your bank’s mobile banking app or on a computer. But you’ll have to do some prep before you’re able to do it.

Before you leave, you’ll want to make sure your Korean banking security certificate is up to date on your phone or your computer and that you have all the info you need to send money home.

Often these certificates expire after a year, so it may be set to expire right as you’re getting ready to leave the country. Try to renew it before leaving with the assistance of a Korean speaker so it’s not a headache you have to deal with from abroad.

If for whatever reason this isn’t an option for you, contact your local bank to see how they can assist you once you’ve left the country.

Sign EPIK’s Confidentiality Agreement

Before leaving Korea, your co-teacher will have you sign a confidentiality agreement that states you won’t share any specific information about your school, teachers, employment etc. with the outside world.

Return Your Korean ARC: Alien Registration Card

The very last thing on your to-do list, is to turn in your ARC card. You can turn it in to your local immigration office before you leave, but you’ll need to hold onto the ‘receipt’ they give you for when you go through passport control at the airport.

The easier option is to turn it in directly to passport control when flying out of Korea. If you don’t turn it in, you may be slapped with a $100 fine, although how they find you and charge you after you’ve left I’m not entirely sure!

There you have it! Your leaving Korea checklist. I hope you have loved your time in Korea as much as I have. Good luck on your next chapter in life!

Any other recommendations for what should be on a leaving Korea checklist? Share below!