Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Alexander]

As the title suggests, I'm getting a new passport. My current one is completely full (and I can't travel with it again without having pages added, which is not an option).

I'll be getting my new passport soonish. The difficulty is, it's from a different country (I'm a dual national, but neither is Korean).

I plan to travel soon. I'll have to use the new passport for the trip. I ASSUME (dangerous, I know) that I will need to transfer my Visa over in order to avoid unpleasant encounters with Immigration. I also assume that I'll need a new ARC because of this. I'm not sure I have time to wait for all of this to be done, or I'll miss my travel window.

Can anyone confirm the above? Would it be possible to travel on my new passport (for the sake of stamps, etc.) but show my other passport as evidence of my visa? N.B. The 'old' one is still perfectly valid, it's just full.

If you've managed to pull this off successfully, please enlighten me!

[CentralCali]

Your old passport is still current and that's the one used to get your visa, as in that's the nationality you stated for obtaining your current visa. You must use that passport for your entry to and exit from South Korea. You can use the passport for your other nationality to enter and exit other countries.

That's a quick sum-up of the way things were when I was a military passport and visa agent about ten years ago. Your best bet is to check with the citizen services section of both of your countries' embassies in Korea and also with Korean Immigration.

By the way, why is getting additional pages not an option? If the passport is maxed out on pages, apply for a new passport, take the new passport to Immigration with your ARC and your old passport (yes, you get that back when you get a new passport), and have Immigration transfer your visa information into the new passport. It's free.

[runthegauntlet]

[hwarangi]

I would imagine that you may have restart the visa application process. That visa was granted to you as holder of the passport you provided; I doubt you could transfer it to another passport from another country.

Anyway, you'd best call or visit immigration and explain your situation in full.

Anyway, if your passport with the visa in it has not expired is just full and not out of date, why not just use it to go in and out of Korea with, and use your other nationality passport to go in and out of other countries.

I am also a dual national and this is what I do (i.e. In Europe I enter and exit on my EU passport, in Australia I enter and exit on that passport. Sometimes the airport will ask to see your other passport).

[Curiousity]

ok

[Alexander]

Sorry about that. My computer is having issues, so I used a workmate's, and didn't log him out properly!

Here we go:

Thanks for the replies thus far!

My current passport expires next year, and I don't plan to obtain a new one. In my circumstances, it makes a lot more sense to use the new one for everything.

If I do need to start the visa process again, I'll simply leave it until the end of the year (when my contract is up) and apply for a new visa for my new passport.

I think that you may have hit on a solution hwarangi. I still have 'amendment' pages free in my current passport. They're not meant to be used for entry and exit stamps and I had a problem with this on my last trip, though they relented in the end. I now have stamps on some of them, and Korea didn't seem to mind where they stamped it (the problem occurred in AUS). I see no reason why they wouldn't do much the same this time.

I may have to roll the dice and give it a go. I can't imagine it being a problem in Asia (and I don't plan to travel elsewhere until next year anyway, when I'll already have a new visa in my new passport). That said, entering Thailand (for example) with a squeaky clean passport could land me an interview with the boys in brown.

[Jane]

[crossmr]

[b-class rambler]

[hwarangi]

[CentralCali]

As I'm not a dual national, it wouldn't've mattered to me; however, I just remembered something. Many countries ask on the visa application if the individual applying holds other nationalities. Is that the case with Korea? I really don't remember if my visa application to come here had that question.

[b-class rambler]

[chris_J2]

I just renewed my Aussie passport, which expires in December. It was about 208k won, at the Aus embassy in Seoul, & you MUST go to your local immigration office within 2 weeks, to show them the new passport, or there's a 100k won fine. There is no change to your current ARC card. They just stamp the new passport. Take both passports when you travel o/s. Even if immigration at Incheon don't ask to see it, it's handy if you're applying for a visa to a third country, & your current, new passport, is in the mail. Hotels in China eg, wanted proof of id, when my current passport was in Mongolia, but my old passport was sufficient. Here's the text of an email I received from DFAT in Seoul, which is staffed & operated by Korean nationals:

[sigmundsmith]