Trying to get a team

[eujin]

Actually legally it doesn't matter if you get paid or not for something it's still illegal.

Are you claiming it's actually illegal for foreigners to play organised football in Korea? Colour me skeptical...

[SteveW]

I guess it depends what you mean by 'organised' and it would be pretty much up to the immigration office to decide if they wanted to pursue it but it could well be. My point was that whether or not you get paid is immaterial to immigration laws. I probably shouldn't say it's illegal to do it, but rather that you would require permission from your visa sponsor and immigration to do it, and it would be illegal to do it without that permission.

For example, if you wanted to volunteer your time to teach poor kids English you would still need immigration permission to do it. Technically.

For football, it really depends at what point immigration would regard the setup as organised enough to be of interest to them rather than just kicking a ball around with your mates. I'm not sure if it's written down anywhere as I've never had any reason to check.

I'm also talking about the letter of the law rather than the practicalities of it. We all know loads of things that happen everyday and it's never an issue. So as I said I doubt anyone would care about a Sunday league but at K3 level they probably would.

And another edit to add: full-time students are a different kettle of fish as I believe they can work part-time as part of their visas anyway.

[eujin]

By organised I mean something with a pitch hired, goal nets, a referee, a fixture list, online organisation, like this: http://www.ssflkorea.org/

If someone's employer kicked up a fuss about someone participating in that, I'd very much like to see them push that through the courts. Maybe I'm naive and underestimate the power of employers in the Korean immigration system, but there are limits, even in Korea.

[Alex43]

Actually legally it doesn't matter if you get paid or not for something it's still illegal.

If you play in a Sunday amateur league it's unlikely anyone will care but I'd imagine at K3 level it would be noticed.

Students I believe are legally allowed to work part time on their visas. So you could play on a student visa. Would need to check though.

pretty sure students have to wait 6 months before they can legal work.

[SteveW]

It's not up to the employer if something is prosecuted eujin it's up to immigration. The rules keep changing all the time anyway so its difficult to keep up to date with everything.

I doubt immigration would see Sunday league football as any kind of 'work' but if you played with teams where players were getting paid then the fact that you weren't I don't think would make any difference.

[eujin]

I probably shouldn't say it's illegal to do it, but rather that you would require permission from your visa sponsor and immigration to do it, and it would be illegal to do it without that permission.

So if any of those guys playing in the Sunday leagues are doing so without the permission of their visa sponsor or immigration (and I'm guessing there might be one or two), you think they're doing something technically illegal? Meaning somebody could dob them in to immigration and if immigration were so inclined they could pursue the case and do whatever it is they do to people who violate the conditions of their visas?

For playing football? In a Sunday league?

Once it's detached from people being paid, it seems you could put the bar "of interest to immigration" anywhere you wanted to.

[SteveW]

I think I've said two or three times that I think Sunday League would probably be fine. I didn't get the impression our Spanish friend was looking at that level though.

I'm not an immigration lawyer either and even if I was I doubt I would be able to get a straight answer on Korean immigration law since it seems to come down to 'whatever the guy in the office thinks on the day'

I would imagine that if you had to register as a player with the KFA then that's potentially when you would get into paperwork issues. So whatever level requires that is probably where the 'organised' is organised enough. It has nothing to do with whether you get paid or not though. You can't volunteer to do a Korean's job for free to get around immigration laws. There have been a number of specific volunteering exceptions included in the law, and actually teaching refugees English might be one of them, but playing football isn't.

[SpainGuy]

Yes SteveW is right, I'm not interested on Sunday League at all. So, for a foreigner player is non-viable to play in K3 League, since I guess you can't survive with K3 salary, right?

[SteveW]

From what I understand one or two of the foreign K3 signings have been provided with housing and a salary which you could survive on. To be honest there have been so few that every one is probably a special case. Teams like Hwaseong are K-League teams in all but name and pay their players reasonably well, teams like Goyang Citizen are pretty much amateur.

We had the tale of Sweatysocks who came on here and had a trial with Seoul Utd and almost got picked up but couldn't get his visa worked out.

The system isn't really set up for foreign players to come in and play at that level though so the odds are against you.

[SpainGuy]

Yes, thats exactly what I'm looking for, housing+salary. And actually I was interested in Seoul surroundings, so does anyone know which teams would be willing to sign someone with this conditions? Or which teams have the capacity to do it?
I already thought about Seoul Utd. What do you think? I don't think they're going to check my e-mail or video, I just should go to Korea and go to the Seoul Utd center? Surprising like that?

I've never gone to a test/trial like this, so If someone could help me or advice me.. thank you.

[MipoFanatic]

Not only will you need to impress a club, but they will need to successfully submit the visa paperwork that is sufficient for the government. Which club has the ability/interest/energy to do that?

As SteveW noted, it sounds like Seoul United previously had trouble getting a visa. Was that because their application was incomplete? Or is there some sort of requirement that the Korean government has for granting football visas to foreign players, that "Sweatysocks" personally didn't meet?

Might be worth checking out which K3-League clubs have/had foreign players, and starting with them, as they assumedly were successful with the visa application process in the past.

[SpainGuy]

Sorry I do not know so much about this topic, the visa is something the team has to get to the player? Or the player must get it by himself?

[daeguowl]

Sorry I do not know so much about this topic, the visa is something the team has to get to the player? Or the player must get it by himself?

The team would have to sponsor the player for the visa i think...

[SpainGuy]

So the first step would be getting the team, and then the team would get my visa?. I dont need to get it in my country?

I will call later to the embassy to be sure

[MipoFanatic]

So the first step would be getting the team, and then the team would get my visa?. I dont need to get it in my country?

I will call later to the embassy to be sure

I think both the employee (you) and the employer (a football club) would be part of the application process. You would probably need to sign some documents, and I assume the club would submit them to the immigration department. But I could be mistaken.

Assuming the club would want to see you play first, you would need to get the visa while you are in South Korea. You might then have to go on a "visa run" (such as a flight to Japan) to get the visa outside of Korea.

You might want to be careful with what kind of visa you have when you go for your trial. Tourist visas probably aren't meant for going on trial, but if you don't mention it to people at the immigration office at the airport when you arrive, you might be okay. Others could probably give better advice about this point...

It looks like Spanish citizens aren't required to get a visa for stays of 90 days or less in Korea, but it might best not to say you're going for football trials, I would think?