Korean Job Discussion Forums

[dulouz]

Why aren't visa run-couriers used? What is the real reason we don't use them? Is it really necessary to do a run to Japan?

My first E2 came via Fedex. It was processed in Chicago and sent to Seattle where I picked it up and that worked fine.

Tourist places like Khao San Road has visa couriers but they are within one country.

I think the only problem is that if I send a visa request and it gets approved while I'm in Korea on a tourist visa is that my current status will be tourist since that was the arrangement I had when I entered. Even if a working visa were applied, I'd still be a tourist. I'd have to leave and enter the country to start the working visa.

There is plenty of money involved, I think someone would move on if the idea had value.

[J.B. Clamence]

I believe your new visa needs to be stamped by immigration as you re-enter the country. The only way to do that is if you are physically accompanying your passport. I'm not sure what your local immigration office would say if you went there to apply for your new Alien Registration Card and they saw that your new visa was not stamped by the immigration officer at the airport. My guess is that that would be a big problem.

[kat2]

I have done both (the visa run and the get it before you come thing). THe previous poster is right. You have to enter the country on the visa you will be staying under. So to activate/validate your work visa you have to enter the coutnry under it. I was really glad that I got my work visa processed at the local embassy before I came to Korea so that I didn't have to go to Japan after arriving. Saved a lot of trouble if you ask me.

[plattwaz]

The couriers used in Thailand are illegal...but of course illegal in Thailand means that as long as everyone along the way is making a little bit of money, then there's no one to report the illegal activity. Or, for that matter, if the person who it is reported to can get a little money out of it, he doesn't really care either.

As corrupt as Korea is, it's not that corrupt (or, rahter, the corruption lies in different areas).

Sending your passport from Chicago to Seattle to the embassy is one thing - that's simply getting a visa put in your passport. Nothing illegal about that; it's simply saving you a trip within your own country to do the trivial act of getting a sticker put in your passport. The courier services that you are talking about would need someone to actually take your passport to stamp you into the country at Incheon airport....that's going to take a lot more than a few thousand Baht bribe to get done.

In every country in the world, you need to ENTER the country, by crossing a port-of-entry to have the visa activated.