Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Metsuke]

Ok... heres the situation.

I'm flying to Korea this Monday, and today I went to get my passport stamped with my work visa and all that stuff. Today is Thursday, and tommorow is good Friday so the consulate is closed on Friday through to Monday.

Essentially I phoned the Consulate in Toronto... asked them what I needed to do. They told me... I showed up. They didn't process my work visa. Its a much longer story... but essentially they messed me around pretty good and would not admit their mistake.

So now I got a one way ticket ready to go, non refundable... and I don't know what to do. Can I get through immigration with a one way ticket without having my work visa in order?

I mean everything is legit... I got a contract, I got confirmation and approval from immigration in Korea and all the paper work to back it up. I have my degree, my transcripts, everything... its all lined up.
I need answers... if I fly regardless will I get shipped back to Canada or what?

You have no idea how pissed I am at the Consulate in Toronto right now. They gave me misinformation twice and then screwed me over.

Thanks so much for the help all...

T

[No L]

Phone the airline and try to change your ticket because you can fly to Korea on the one-way ticket, but then you'll have to leave to Japan to get your visa. Your boss won't likely be pleased at that; it'll cost him more money and time without a teacher.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Did you pay for the ticket? If not, you're not exactly at a loss even in the worst case scenario. I'd get in touch with your agent and boss, and not leave Canada until it's fixed. All parties involved will probably be very angry, but at the end of the day it's not you're duty to come over here with dodgy paperwork you have to scramble to fix.

[Metsuke]

Have been trying to get ahold of my hiring contact at the school... no luck yet.

People being angry... I already knew that one. At this point I don't think anybody is more angry than me.

I'm the one who paid for the ticket... to get reimbursed upon my arrival.

Heres the problem... if I change my flight now it will cost me $400.

So maybe it might be better to cancel the ticket and reschedule the flight for next week... and then I can go back to the consulate and give them their 24 hours to stamp my passport. Would that be cheaper than an additonal visa run to Japan... I'm thinking it might be.

But... to get back to the original question... what happens if I fly on Monday with a one way ticket but no work visa stamp in my passport? What could I realisticly expect to happen if I do that?

[crazylemongirl]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[HamuHamu]

As others have said, the problem isn't getting IN to Korea, the problem is getting past the Air Canada ticketing window (assuming you're flying AC).

Should you get past Air Canada, you'll have to pay about $400 for your visa run to Japan, so for ease of worry, stress, etc at the check-in desk, you might want to postpone the flight, if possible. If you wait until check-in and find that they won't let you on the flight without proof of return travel, then it will be too late to change the date on your ticket.

Should you decide to try it anyway and book the visa-run flight as your proof of onward travel, you should know that the RT ticket from Seoul-Osaka, when booked in Canada runs between $700-900 dollars Cdn. (I know this because I had an almost identical situation just last week). When you book the visa run ticket here in Seoul you can get it for about 350,000 won. About half of the price.

You can try to contact a travel agent in Korea and have them book the flight for you, and email you the confirmation of (paid) reservation, that will be enough to get through Air Canada check-in, and it's cheaper than booking it from Canada. Then, you will still need to do that visa-run trip and most likely your boss will make you pay for it yourself, but double check with him.

Good luck - I know I had 3 sleepless nights last week worrying about the same thing..........

[RobotTeacher]

Okay...just did pretty much this. Ended up buying a one way out of Korea before Korean Air would let me recieve my ticket from the school.

OTOH, used my Mastercard and then refunded the thing when the bill came. NOTE: Korean Air wants at least a month for a refund.

No problems at Immigration, even though I clearly wrote "Profession -teacher" and "purpose for visit - Visit friends"

The address I gave was my hagwon. *chuckles*

[Metsuke]

Ok... heres the update.

Everything is cool now... and my hiring director is cool with everything as well. We have both decided that once I get to Korea we are going to pursue some type of action to expose what happened at the Korean Consulate in Toronto.

What I'm going to do is cancel my ticket, and post pone my flight. Next week I'm going to go back to the Consulate in Toronto and give them my package again, and allow them thier 24 to 48 hour processing time.

I figure its better, cheaper, and safer to take the hit on the ticket cancellation and get everythign done in Canada than risk flying down.

I just wanted to say thanks to all for posting helpful advice so quickly.

Its very much appreciated!

[CustomX]

why not just buy one of those ferry tickets to japan that leave from busan? arent those pretty cheap? that can be your exit ticket from the country and from what i've read should work with the airlines