U.S. Grantee Handbook: Leaving Korea
Leaving Korea
A. Preparing for Departure
When sorting belongings in preparation for leaving Korea, please note the following:
- Toss – Please reference the section on Garbage & Recycling when cleaning out your residence prior to departure. As a reminder, if an item is too big to fit in a garbage bag, it is more than likely a “large waste item” that needs to be disposed of specially. To dispose of large waste items, you will typically need to contact your local government, or a contracted company, to come pick up the item. Usually, you would receive a sticker/label to put on the item before leaving it outside for pick up. Example: If living in Mapo-gu, the district where the Fulbright Building is located, you must complete the following reservation form to reserve pick-up of a large item: https://www.mapo.go.kr/CmsWeb/bigclean/bcOrder/bcOrder.jsp
- Donate – If you have gently used clothing, books, household items, etc. to donate, some possible organizations to consider include:
- Sell – The same social networking pages and apps used to buy items in Korea can also be used to sell them back. Please see a list of such pages/apps in the section on Finding Furnishings.
Common plans and accounts that may need to be closed/canceled before leaving Korea include:
- Cellphone Plan
- Internet Plan
- T-Money (or other transportation payment linked to bank account)
- Bank Account
- Memberships (gym, library, etc.)
Cellphone Plan
Please do not simply abandon your cell phone service without fully paying for and canceling your service plan contract. Unpaid bills for items such as cellphone plans may be included in your Immigration records, and having unfavorable information in your Immigration records may prevent you from being able to receive a visa to visit Korea again.
When closing/canceling your cellphone plan, be sure you to bring your passport and Residence Card (ARC) with you. If you have already closed your Korean bank account when canceling your cellphone, be sure to have another payment method (e.g., cash, U.S. credit card) available for any outstanding fees left.
Internet Plan
Similarly, if you independently established a contract with an internet service provider, your internet service provider should be contacted in advance to close your service plan.
T-Money (or other transportation payment linked to bank account)
If you have T-Money, or another transportation payment system, linked to your bank account through your credit/debit card, it is recommended to stop using your debit/credit card for transportation at least a couple weeks before you intend to close your Korean bank account. Typically, transportation payments are deducted from a linked bank account about twice a month. You will want to reference when these deductions are made from your account each month in order to determine when you must stop using your debit/credit card for transportation payments, so as not to have any outstanding transportation fees,
Bank Account
Grantees have two options when it comes to bank accounts.
1) Close your bank account by visiting your bank:
- This is strongly recommended if you do not have plans to return to Korea or plans to need a Korean bank account should you return.
- You will not be able to re-access your closed account in the future.
- There are no fees associated with closing an account.
- If you want to close your bank account, you should do so BEFORE the expiration date printed on the back of your Residence Card has passed. If you wait until after the expiration date has passed, the bank may refuse to close your account.
2) Leave your account open after withdrawing the majority of your money:
- If the account is not used for transactions, it will eventually become “inactive”, and only you as the account holder will be able to access it. This means, for example, that if someone else tries to transfer money to your inactive account, they will receive an error notice, and they will not be able to complete the transfer.
- Banks typically check for activity on an account twice a year. If you plan to leave your account open, it is best to check with your bank:
- when they will check for activity
- how long an unused account can stay open before it is considered inactive
- If you are leaving your account open, make sure to have online banking set up or you will not be able to access your account from abroad.
- In order to maintain online access to your account you MUST keep your online banking certificate up to date. If you do not do so, you will lose access to the account, and you will only be able to regain access by returning to Korea in person. Online banking certificates typically have to be renewed once a year. Again, do not miss the online certificate renewal deadline or you will lose all access to your bank account, and the only way to regain access will be to come to Korea.
- Your account is connected to either 1) your passport number or 2) your Residence Card/ARC number, depending on how you set up your account. To reactivate an account after returning to Korea, you will need to present the same ID/number connected to your account. If you are unable to do so, you may need to open a new account.
- Although there no fees associated with an inactive account, please note that you cannot close a Korean bank account from abroad. To prevent having an open account in a foreign country indefinitely (which you should keep track of as it is never a good idea to simply leave an account unattended), please be sure to close your Korean bank account unless you have specific intentions to return to Korea and to use the account.
If you are no longer using a debit/check card associated with your Korean bank account, please be sure to either destroy the card completely (e.g., cut it up into pieces) or to call the bank and report the card “lost”. If you report a card as lost, the bank will deactivate the card so no one can use it ever again.
After sorting and determining what you wish to take with you, you have the option of either shipping excess items to your home or taking them with you as accompanied baggage on your flight.
It is highly recommended that you check with your local post office what mailing options are available before packing all of your items for shipping. You may also wish to look into using an independent shipping option, such as the Hyundai Dream Bag or Dream Box or the SendmyBag luggage shipment.
If only certain mailing options are available, it may be less expensive to take another piece of luggage with you on the plane than to ship a box of the equivalent size and weight.
The Travel Allowance (formerly the Baggage Allowance) is provided to offset some of the costs associated with any shipping/accompanied baggage required.
B. Before You Board
All grantees are required to submit to Fulbright Korea a Certificate of Entry & Exit (출입국에 관한 사실증명) for themselves and all accompanying dependents before leaving Korea at the end of their award period. The Certificate(s) must be issued within two weeks of the grantee’s official award end date, as established in consultation with Fulbright Korea.
Per its name, the Certificate of Entry & Exit (sample form here) lists the dates of an individual’s exit and entry from Korea during the requested period of time. The Certificate is used to certify grantee adherence to the international travel policy and to certify that accompanying dependents have remained in Korea for 80% of the grantee’s official award period, as required to qualify for dependent benefits.
The Certificate is issued through:
- local community centers (동/면/읍주민센터)
- immigration offices (출입국/외국인사무소 or 출입국/외국인청)
To apply for the Certificate, grantees should take their passport and residence card with them to their local community center or immigration office, along with KRW 2,000 for the form fee.
When requesting the form, the Reference Period (조회 기간) must extend from one day before the grantee’s arrival date in Korea to begin their Fulbright award until one day before the Certificate’s issuance, or it will not be accepted.
Per Korean Immigration law, all Residence Cards (commonly known as RCs, formerly ARCs) must be returned to Immigration authorities when you and/or your dependents leave Korea at the end of your grant/visa period. Failure to return a Residence Card may result in a fine.
To return your Residence Card, you must give the card(s) to Immigration officers at the airport as you leave.
To do so, when going through Immigration/Customs, please tell the immigration officer that you will be leaving Korea and not returning. If they do not understand, just show them the expiration date on your Residence Card. That should do it, but if not, you can also say in Korean “저는 한국을 떠나며 돌아오지 않을 것입니다” (In romanization, “Cheo-neun han-guk-eul deo-na-myeo dol-a-o-jee an-eul geo-sheem-nee-da”). The immigration officer should then collect the card. They may or may not also ask you to complete/sign a brief document before you exit Immigration.
C. Reporting Requirements
There are two required final reports for U.S. Scholars, and one optional opportunity for publication of their Fulbright experience.
- REQUIRED – IIE Report: IIE will directly email all U.S. Scholars instructions for completing their final report , which is in the form of an online survey.
- REQUIRED – KAEC Report: KAEC will also directly email U.S. Scholars instructions for completing our final report. This report is shorter than the IIE report, but it is also accessed via an online survey. The KAEC report is due within one month of a Scholar’s grant end date.
- OPTIONAL – KAEC Website Submission: If a Scholar would like a written account of some aspect of their Fulbright experience published on our website, we welcome submissions. Website submissions are completely optional, but written accounts should be at least 300 words in length. They are accepted on a rolling basis, so even months down the road, U.S. Scholars can submit experiences for publication. Please contact your program officer for more information.
Project report and deliverable expectations for U.S. Students can be broken down into three parts:
1) Periodic Reports: Due at the end of each month, except for the first and last months.
2) IIE Final & Midterm Reports: IIE directly sends U.S. Students links to their mandatory midterm and final report surveys.
3) Final Project Deliverable: Approximately two months before the end of your grant, KAEC will follow up with you regarding your Final Project Deliverable, to be submitted no later than 30 days after your official grant end date. In the past, such deliverables were always requested in the form of a final paper. However, as the results of each grant project vary widely, we have since expanded the deliverable criteria to include any media/multimedia format. Final Project Deliverables will be posted on our website, or otherwise showcased in a manner appropriate to the deliverable’s format, in order to highlight the accomplishments of grantees.
Examples of potential Final Project Deliverables include:
- A video
- A sound file (music, podcast, etc.)
- A collection of photos
- A website (see example from past grantee: HISTORY – hanbok heroes (wordpress.com)
- An excerpt from or piece of literary work (prose, poetry, etc.)
- Tangible artwork
- A research paper or article
- Etcetera (What do you expect the results of your project to be?)
Like the Periodic Reports, Final Project Deliverables are kept purposefully open-ended as they are designed to reflect the nature of a grantee’s specific project. Deliverables are not intended to be an element grantees must complete in addition to their project; they are intended to be the natural outgrowth of a project.
Two other notes:
- For multimedia project deliverables, unless they are self-explanatory, they will need to be accompanied by a brief written description/explanation.
- If your deliverable is a research paper or article that cannot be shared publicly due to the sensitivity of the topic or plans for eventual, formal publication which would make it inadvisable to share content currently, you will be asked to submit the paper/article for internal review and provide a short summary/post regarding your research and/or research experience to be included on our website instead.
Please address any questions regarding reports or your final project deliverable to your program officer.