I went into the language institute at my school to inquire about changing my 30 day visa here to a D-4 student visa as described on the website of the school. I had all the paperwork I thought I would need in the form of pictures, school admission and enrollment letters, tuition receipt and bank statement.
“Oh you have that stamp in your passport. Hmm…you’ll need to go to Japan twice and come back since you don’t have the short-term stay visa.”
What? I have to what? Leave the country, once or maybe twice in three months? I was supposed to have applied for a special tourist visa before I came? What…are you serious? What the…
This is a pretty good summary of my first 20 minutes of conversation with the administrator. My friend Craig and I both seem to have missed this whole C-3 visa application thing and came to Korea thinking the stamp we get on arrival is a standard tourist visa.
I was not happy about further complicating my already crazy travel schedule this summer and dishing out hundreds more dollars to go to Busan, hop on a boat to Fukuoka, Japan and either apply for a C-3 visa there or go to Japan twice.
This would not have been an issue if I simply used my Norwegian passport and I could always go to Japan once and come back to Korea on the Norwegian passport. Norwegians get 90 days in Korea, along with most of the developed world. Canada gets 180. Why does the US get 30? To put it simply, it is because we treat the world like shit. To be specific, we probably give Koreans 30 days so that is what they give us. Serves us right.
That’s it, I’m no longer traveling on my US passport by default when I go anywhere outside the US. Gone are the days when Imperial Citizenship provided the most convenient way to travel. For example, I have discovered that traveling as a Norwegian saves me money on visa applications to China, gets me into Chile for free (instead of $70 or something), and probably slightly lowers my chances of being shot or blown up.
When will this whole nation-state madness end? Probably not in my lifetime but we can all do our part in contributing to its peaceful and gradual destruction. For now it is mostly selfish traveling bourgeois types such as myself who complain about it on the practical side. Now let me tell you about my adventures at the Seoul Immigration Office…
So I go to the Seoul immigration office to figure out if there is any alternative to going to Japan and, say, coming back as a Norwegian. The Seoul Immigration Office is located at Omokgyo station on the purple line 5. The map provided by the immigration office is completely useless. There is a better map in this PDF. Directions: Go out exit 7 and keep walking in the direction you emerge (there is a Skylark family restaurant across the street to your left). Keep going in that direction for about 10 minutes and the large road will branch off and curve to the right and you’ll see a sign for the immigration office (150m) and as you continue to walk you’ll see an old five floor or so building off to the left as you approach the next intersection.
Outside, venders were selling world flags and international telephone cards. Inside, there was no air conditioning on…that is a really bad sign. One thing that definitely contributes to the crankiness of bureaucrats in places like immigration offices is a lack of air conditioning.
The first interesting thing I notice about the Seoul Immigration Office is that despite the fact it services mostly foreigners, there are almost no signs in any language but Korean. In fact, the guy at the information desk on the first floor speaks no English or any other of the Asian languages that I speak. For that matter, he didn’t seem to have much information either, even when I spoke in Korean. We proceeded to the 2nd floor which was helpfully marked, “Visa” on the map.
There you will find five or six windows labeled “China” and two for “Other” and you can take a ticket for your country. America is under “Other.” After waiting an hour and finally getting to speak to someone, I decided (Shock!) to be completely honest with the guy and tell the whole story. I asked if I could renew and at first he seemed to indicate that this was fine and I should go to the first floor, then he said I could only renew for 7-15 days and then he explained that I should go to Japan and apply for a C-3 visa there. What is this? Is the whole country trying to support Fukuoka tourism or the Busan ferry industry?
We were about to leave but I could have sworn that I had seen on some website that Americans could extend not just 15 days but up to 90. When I managed to annoy the information guy on the first floor enough with my bad Korean, and displayed my complete dissatisfaction that he seemed have no “information” about the visa extension process, he grumpily took me into the “Residences” office on the first floor and asked how long a tourist visa could be extend. 60 more days, for a total of 90! Excellent, I made up with the nice “information” guy, thanked him, and let him return to his chatting with the janitor.
Then I took a ticket for “Applications” and waited another 2 hours in this second waiting room for my turn to come, again a hot room without air conditioning. They had two TVs in the room and I managed to finish all my remaining Korean homework and watch more American pro-wrestling than I have ever watched in one sitting. The rest was easy, I simply handed in an application, 30,000 won in “revenue stamps” (purchased in the basement at a candy stand), and showed the officer my airplane ticket to leave the country in August and all was well…the passport was stamped and processed within 20 minutes of handing in the application.
So the lessons learned and recorded here should future Seoul National University Korean language students stumble upon this posting: 1) If you have a choice, don’t be American. 2) You need to apply for a special visa before going to Korea if you want to stay more than 30 days as an American, it is called C-3, and has apparently a fast 24 hour turnaround at Korean embassies. 3) If you don’t and come to Korea anyways, you can extend your visa by an additional 60 days from the original 30 if you pay 30,000 and are willing to brave the immigration office.
But…! We had great mandu ramyon on the way.
Somebody needs to write a paper on the practice of writing an elipses […] followed by an exclamation point [!]–which many Koreans do. Does that indicate a gap between dazed apprehension and astonished comprehension?
Canadians get 180 days because Koreans can travel to Canada without visas for 180 days. Canada. Cool. Connected.
By contrast, Korean nationals going to the US seem to require a visa/interview, even for tourism purposes. So they’re actually being quite nice giving you 30 days.
Welcome to the world of immigration offices and visa problems! All of the above rings a giant bell with me – as you know, I’ve had more than my share of experiences with such offices in various parts of the world, and that was using a Norwegian passport!
Glad it all got resolved in the end.
mom
Hey George – figured as much (as I indicated in my posting).
Remember getting off the boat in Ireland and how everyone else got to go through and you and I, with our Norwegian passports, had to wait in line? When we ask the immigration guy why that was he said “You should have joined the EU while you could.”
sis
Hey sis, ya – that was funny and sad, same with museum lines in Spain. But US didn’t the EU and even the EU seems like it is hanging on by a thread…
Ah, good old days :-)
Kjære Muninn, kan jeg gi deg et godt råd? Har du noe slags konfliktsituasjon på gata i Korea, trøbbel med koreanerne osv, vennligst bare si at du er fra Norge, uten noe omtale om USA-forhold. USA har jo et stort imageproblem overalt, men p.g.a. Bushies gale politikk overfor N-Korea og mange andre grunn ser Korea ut som et spesielt tilfelle. Det betyr selvfølgelig ikke at man eksploder når han/nun hører om USA, men jeg opplever det på den måten at følelsene blir forskjellige – du er virkelig anerkjent som en “andre”.
Mvh,
Vladimir
Takk for rådet! Noen ganger hjelper det å være en “Imperial Citizen” men som du sa, det er ofte best å bare si at man er fra Norge. Det kommer litt an på hvem du snakker med, og hvilken generasjon de er.
Thank you for your clear and funny introduction! I am a Chinese working in Seoul. Your blog helps me to get my Alien Card done. Wish you a good day!^_^
No problem vesta! I’m glad you have gotten that alien card procedure through with. I wish you the best working in Seoul!
I just arrived in Seoul a month ago and have been trying to get my alien registration car, and I’m running into similar problems. Nothing as bad as yours, thank God, but I keep them in mind to keep my spirits up. Thanks for the helpful tips.
Been here 3 years, and personally haven’t had any of these problems… yet. Headed to immigration in a few minutes to try and convert my soon to expire E-2 into a D-4, as I’m also a registered student. Wish me luck, sounds like I’ll need it.
this is great! i happened to enter ur blog by googling “seoul immigration office” n this entry is SO much more helpful than any other website. thanks a bunch!!
when I was in korea , the first time, I had a diploma which was accepted in south korea.
All i need was one more course to get my diploma turned into a degree from my college for I had taken all my required course for the degree ,just need one, but at that time diploma was accepted in korea so my friend said complete your degree latter. I use my diploma and got my E2 visa in Ulsan.
Then the rules in korea changed,
The koreans wanted a degree, so my friend said you can take a course online and get a degree.
from any university instead of flying back to canada , so I took a online course and got my Toronto degree.
Then I came back to canada joined the military , the military does they own check up.
Online degrees are not accepted in korea and in canada ,No lawyer will nortorized it.
When i was in canada on vacation 2003 I think , I took my one course to finish my degree from my college.
That the canadian lawyers did nortorize for they check before nortorizing it.
I explained that to the bussan immigration . They were okay with my explanation
But now I applied in ulsan they say my degree is fake
cause I got the 2 degree. I keep telling them one is on line and I got conned by one site saying they were part of the toronto university. The other one is from Canada going to the university. Bussan was okay but not ulsan. Any advice !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dear Sir,
Attention : Kim Sung-Hwan
May I have apply short stay visa here in Korea Embassy Islamabad Pakistan.
Receipt : No 11-3243
Dated : 18-10-2011
Name : Muhammad Yousaf Khan
Passport : CL 4103273
Dear Officer Immigration department R.Korea.
Dear Sir,
I would like to inform you that I am running my business in the name and style of M/S KHAN TRADERS GUJRANWALA
based in Pakistan ,
I am involved in textile machinery business since 1994 and I have lot of experience in international market of import and
export of textile machines.
Recently I have been invited by the Organization office from the KORTEX 2011 , this is very good opportunity for me to
promote my business in the textile machinery ,
for participating in this forum I in need to get visa for Korea , the KORTEX 2011 has sanded me the official invitation letter
which I have presented to the Korea embassy Islamabad along with the following documents.
1. original invitation and grunts letter
2. original passport and pictures
3. via fee
4. bank statement of my business and my personal bank status.
5. my company Tex documents.
6. my company Registration certificates.
7. travel ticket and insurance
8. international travel history
9. my company undertaking letter
after submission of my visa application to the embassy with all documents I get receipt from the embassy and I was informed by the
visa officer that I will collect my passport after 3 days. When I was received my passport from embassy I was shocked that there
is no visa on my passport , when I request to embassy what is the reason to not grant visa , the visa officer ask me no any reason tell
me regarding this matter ,
I would like to request you that please check the matter and inform me what is the reason why the Korea embassy has not issued me
visa for participating in the forum KORTEX 2011.
thanks with regards
Khan Muhammad Yousaf
Proprietor
KHAN TRADERS GUJRANWALA
PAKISTAN
PHONE 0092 554442050-2088
FAX 0092 554442040
EMAIL : info@khan traders.org
web : http://www.khan traders.org