Korean Job Discussion Forums

Murph · Joined: 31 Dec 2006

Earlier today I replied to a thread in the general discussion forum regarding a passport question. Then it occurred to me that my situation could be problematic for me. To make a long story short I renewed my passport within the last year. I was able to keep my old passport with a void stamp on it. My working visa is in my old, now ineffective passport. Since my new passport has a different ID number in it, and my visa is linked to another passport ID I am wondering if this will cause any sort of rift with immigration? To be honest it had not even crossed my mind to notify immigration. At the time I figured that as long as I kept my old passport everything would be alright. So now I am wondering what will happen when I try to leave, or apply for my next visa, and immigration notices that I have a visa but it's not in my passport. I am aware that this could go either of both ways. It could go without notice, or it could be a big deal, and end up as one of those scary illogical immigration horror stories that people talk about. So that's my situation, what can you tell me on the matter?

Join Me · Joined: 14 Jan 2008

I think I would contact immigration on that one. Common sense would lead you to believe that if you have all the documentation on hand to explain what occurred you should be fine....but we all know how that goes. What if you go on vacation? Do you want to deal with the stress of wondering if you will be allowed back into the country? I would get things straightened out with immigration now rather than later.

cruisemonkey · Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2008 2:18 pm Post subject:

You're supposed to notify K-Immigration within two weeks if you get a new passport.

cdninkorea · Joined: 27 Jan 2006 Location: Seoul

This is one of those rules they expect you to know but don't tell you: you're supposed to inform immigration about your new passport within a month (if I'm not mistaken). I've heard stories of people being fined not insignificant amounts of money for failing to do so.

cruisemonkey · Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2008 4:20 pm Post subject:

Benicio · Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:36 pm Post subject:

It's actually not a big deal.
I was a bit worried when I had the same situation a few years ago.

You may want to make a trip to immigration to make a change to your passport # in their records. If you do that, you're kosher.

What I did was just make sure I had both passports on me to show the visa and my valid passport. I only had to do this once and it was no problem at all.

Careful lest you get an immigration employee on a bad day. There are sometimes where one can be in a bad mood or really not know what to do, so they take it out on the unsuspecting waygook.

Anyway, you'll be fine. Just have both passports on you when you need to- that will be a rare occasion.