Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Tiger Beer]

[OiGirl]

Returning to JFK from Casablanca, I was extensively questioned by Customs on why I had only one carry-on bag and no checked bags. Also, why I had so many stamps in my passport. I was good and calm but really wanted to say, "It's none of your business!!! And don't you think lots of experience travelling might teach me to travel light?!?"

I have seen Koreans questioned on arrival at Atlanta as to why they didn't have any checked luggage.

[ZUL]

i agree with the majority of the posters here that entering the states is where the trouble is. i've never been hasseled more than returning to the states in february from korea.

they tore everything of mine apart including all my neatly rapped gifts and my well packed suitcases, asking me stupid questions and just begging me to be defiant.

of course i didnt give them that satisfaction, instead i just asked them to handle my stuff with a little more respect, which they didn't like much, but it felt pretty good eventhough it didn't do any good.

[HamuHamu]

Drove across the Ontario-NY State border one afternoon skipping university classes, just because my friend had never been into the Sates before. I lived in a border town so day-trips were common when the Cdn dollar was strong (ahhh the days) and I tell him "It's sooo not a big deal, let's go!".

My friend had a Scottish passport, but was a Cdn permanent resident, drivers licence and plates from Quebec (lived permanently in Montreal, only in university in Ontario...and as if you ever change your "permanent address" when you're only going to uni 8 months a year....).

SO what's a Scottish-born Quebecer doing driving into the States on a day-trip "just to see what it looks like across the river" with an Ontario girl and claiming he played mini-golf and only bought one pack of ciggies the whole time? (It was true)

Get checked. They search my school backpack....no problem, it's only got books from the library. Oh ya, and the little tupperware container of SUGAR that I had in my backpack (they were always out of sugar in the Master's Students coffee lounge...!!! I just kept in in there permanently and never thought about it.)

The whole thing sent them NUTS!! And come ON, sugar does NOT look like ANY sort of drug! When I told them to taste it, they went INSANELY NUTS instead of just the previous NUTS and we ended up with both sets of parents on the phone to confirm stories (I think that was to make sure my friend's car was not stolen) and all my mom cared about was why I was not at home studying for summer-school exams and was I cheating on my boyfriend by spending the day with another guy...

They tore apart the inside of the car and in typical customs fashion, left us standing beside it attempting to put the seats back in so we could get home.....broke the seatbelt and it wouldn't work.

OPP stopped us 2 kms up the road and fined us for not having a proper working seabelt for all passengers.

[uberscheisse]

what really bugged me about customs at incheon is that i was in line... they had all this stuff you're not supposed to bring on the plane.

anyways, they had this thing that talked about shoe bombs, complete with diagrams of said shoe bombs, detonator and all.

if you don't want people bringing shoe bombs on the plane, why the hell would you explain HOW TO MAKE ONE?

right after that i saw a midget ajushi though so i was cheered up and thought korea was a cool place after all. midgushi.

[Derrek]

[desultude]

[uberscheisse]

you're all missing the point.

MIDGET AJUSHIS!!! MIDJUSHIS!!!

[batman]

I always thought that Korean immigration was the easiest to go through. Never had a problem leaving the country either. Never had my bags checked or searched. Even had a few "Welcome back to Korea" from the guys at customs.

Going through customs and immigration for Japan is another story though. Though polite, the officers always make it seem like they are only reluctantly letting me into their country. (Best part about going through Japanese customs is the sign (Do you have any of these things? Gun? no. Knife? no. Drugs? no. I always feel like I should be shopping when they show me the poster. "Wow, nice gun", I would like to say, "Do you have it in black?"

The employees that I have had experience with at Canada customs have always been friendly and polite. "Welcome home! Wow! You were teaching in Korea? Wow! Do you think I could get a job there?" "Sure, give me your email and I will help you find something."

American custom officers should all just quit their jobs and let someone who enjoys working take over for them.

Never a problem in all of my travels in any country. Guess I am just to clean cut for them to bother with.

As for travelling with a baby. It does get you through a lot of line-ups alot quicker. The only exception, of course, is Korea where we were always made to stand in the lineup with everyone else. Of course there was one time when we were standing in line, waiting. A custom employee came over to us and we thought "great we get to go to the front of the line!". But the woman just said "baby name". We said his name. She again said "baby name" (I can't say that she asked a question because she uttered only these two words and her voice remained monotone). So, again, we said his name. She kept repeating "baby name" and we kept repeating our answer. Guess she the name was just not clicking with her. So we showed her our son's passport and she made that usual Korean noise of "Aaaah! No-aaaaaaah! Aaaaah!". Guess she thought we were just saying "no" everytime had asked us for his name. After that she just turned, walked away and we were left in the line.

[funplanet]

The best has got to be Switzerland....of maybe a dozen or so flights into Zurich they have never once even OPENED my passport (US)...just flash it, they nod, and you're in

[batman]

[schwa]

I was boarding in Seattle to go to Canada a couple weeks ago & they made an announcement that no one needed to show a passport, just a boarding pass.

[jaebea]

Haven't had any real big issues, nothing compared to some of the rather interesting stories you can read in the thread.

Sydney outbound has always been very pleasant, very friendly. I usually fly out to Seoul on flights which depart in the morning. You'd think they'd be grumpier but they see the passport, boarding pass and it's all smiles.

"Have a good one, don't get into too much trouble" etc etc.

Into Korea, there's a bit of a wait with the non-Korean passports, but no big deal. Customs and immigration was a wave through, though I did get a bit of attention in case I'd jumped the army.

Haneda airport was frustrating, because the majority of flyers seem to be Korean tourists entering Japan, but they have half the processing areas for non Japanese passport holders. I was dead last to leave due to some paperwork issues that were sorted out, customs gave me a cursory check, pointing at this and that in my luggage, but waved me through after a few minutes and some questions..

Gimpo return was easy as pie. I'm about to roll out with my trolley when the customs officer decides to ask me about one of my bags.

"What's in there?"
"A scarf."
"Ok. Move along."

Sydney return was a friggin nightmare. As an Australian passport holder, there's a separate processing queue, like most other international airports. I must have been told about 6 times that the queue I was standing in was for "Australian passport holders". Really? I was about to pull some smart comment about thinking before telling people some bloody obvious things, but I held my tongue. It gets rather annoying when you're talked to like a deaf/mute with a learning disability.. "AUS-TRA-LI-AN PASS-PORT??".

Customs and quarantine was a mess too. They scan everything going out, and if you have things to declare, you get the whole search thing happening. They have blokes loading bags onto the X-ray machines OUT of the terminal. I thought I'd be helpful and load some onto the machine for him.

Wrong move.

The bloke had a nutter and was about to fly off his handle completely when I apologised and told him I won't lift a goddamned thing to help.

He seemed to relax a bit after that.

jae.

[skindleshanks]

On our honeymoon, we transited through Chicago en route to Bali. My wife had a transfer without visa paper, which the travel agent said would be no problem. When we got to Chicago, we were escorted by an agent from terminal to terminal, and after checking in at Chicago, I was told that my wife would have to wait in a different area, and there was no way I could go with her. For three and a half hours she sat in a tiny, hot room. When she had to use the bathroom, an armed guard stood outside her stall. When we got on the plane, she refused to speak to me for the entire flight, she was so angry.

I'm a dual citizen (Canada/US), and my sister lives in the US. However, my wife has told me there is no way she will ever set foot in the USA again, and three years later, it doesn't look like she will be changing her mind anytime soon.

[Tiger Beer]