Korean Job Discussion Forums

poet13 · Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2006 10:28 pm Post subject:

thank you. five years would be great. I have had them for one year before, and it really sucks. two weeks is fantastic too.

highland01 · Joined: 07 Aug 2004 Location: Tokyo

Just went through this back in Nov/Dec. In early 2005, I had to get a new passport to go to China as they required 3 empty pages for a one page tourist visa (that's what I was told at least).

I had vacation plans for Dec, and needed a new passport as I had less than 6 months left on my one year passport. The reason for a one year passport (early 2005) was that I didn't have my Ontario Birth Certificate, so they would only issue a one year.

Now, I think you can apply for (Ontario) birth certs on line with 15 day service... this was not the case in Sept. 2005.

I applied for my one year through Busan and got a new passport issued from the embassy in Seoul in about 2 weeks.

For my latest (5 year) passport I applied via Seoul to save on time. This time all I had to show was my birth cert, and 1 year passport, then pay an additional 10 000. They simply made an observation on page 5 that my passport was now good for 5 years.

***** NOTE *******
For those of you who travel a lot and tend to use up passport pages...
make sure you ask for the 48 PAGE passport (extra cost $5 I think). They will not tell you about this. You must ask for it specifically!! For those of you with a one year passport, you are stuck with whatever pages are in that one. I thought I would get a NEW passport in Dec, and could get the 48 page version then. No joy.
******************
Also, they did my 5 year passport in 2 days as I was scheduled to fly out in less than a week and all of the other paperwork had been filed previously.

Finally, not sure if this matters to most, but my passport is NOT machine readable. I have had no problems travelling through USA, China or any other country in the past year. This may be somewhat inconvienent if you use automated check-in to fly.

Things are costantly changing and perhaps some of my info is out of date, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it! Wink

demianamar · Joined: 08 Sep 2005

The most helpful website where you'll get guaranteed official information is :
http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/world/embassies/korea/passportservices-en.asp

It even has the PPT132 form which you'll have to fill out if you don't have a guarantor in Korea. It's 127,000 Won for a 24 page passport if you don't have a guarantor. MAKE sure you fill this paper out before you go to the consulate. There's also a map and subway directions as well as a form in Korean to take to your photographer to ensure you get the right size photos. Other than that, I found the consular officials quite helpful and friendly...I was told as long as there are no unexpected delays it takes 3 weeks to get the new one.

by the way, my Alien Registration Card actually expires with my old passport, so make sure you check your ARC if your passport expires before your contract!

fiveeagles · Joined: 19 May 2005 Location: Vancouver

Hey Mods, I think this should be a sticky! Thanks.

jajdude · Joined: 18 Jan 2003

I recently got a new CDN passport through the consulate in Busan. It was easy enough. They sent it to Seoul, over to Canada, back from Canada to Seoul, and delivered to my door in Gumi city (near Daegu).

I visited the embassy in Seoul and did not have the right (size?) photos. Strangely the people in the embassy in Seoul seemed rude to me. But in Busan I was the only customer and they were fine. Beauracracy is a formality. Addresses and phone numbers could just as well be invented I think. And the 48 page passport cost about $5 more. (I ran out of pages on the 24 page passport over a year before its expiry date.)

Lizara · Joined: 14 Apr 2004 Location: Seoul

I just got mine renewed in Seoul, no problem. I thought I then had to go to immigration for... something or other... to register or fill out some forms or something, but the woman at immigration told me I didn't have to do anything. Is she right or do I need some kind of magic password (i.e. the exact name of the form I need to fill out) to get this settled?

crazylemongirl · Joined: 23 Mar 2003 Location: almost there...

pocariboy73 · Joined: 23 Jan 2003

delete

Lizara · Joined: 14 Apr 2004 Location: Seoul

You can mail it as long as you have a guarantor. If you need them to do the Declaration in Lieu of Guarantor then you have to go in person.