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The Supreme Irony

Just a reminder, folks. If you’re here on an E-2 visa, it is indeed illegal for you to do editing work on the side.

And from what I’m told, you don’t even need to be paid for it to be illegal enough for you to get into trouble: doing things on a volunteer basis still requires you to register with the local immigration office. (I had it direct from the Jeonju Immigration Office bigwig: even if you choose to volunteer at an orphanage, you need permission from your employer and you need to register with the Ministry of Justice — which encompasses the Immigration Office.)

It may not be enforced; it very rarely is. But then again it may be, and if you offend the wrong person, don’t be surprised if it does. Either way, doing work other than whatever’s in the contract of your primary employer — the one who is “responsible” for you in terms of your visa —  is illegal…

… and yet this will not prevent people, even people whose job it is to uphold the law — and I don’t mean mere beat cops — from asking around for someone like you to edit something for them, offering it as a paying gig.

Such as someone from the Chief Prosecutor’s office, for, oh, hypothetical example.

Who, incidentally, seems unconcerned with the fact that it’s illegal for me to take this small, simple editing job. If indeed he even knows the fact.

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