Korean Job Discussion Forums

Guest · Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2003 6:39 am Post subject: anyone have my passport?

of course you can't answer that, but immigration LOST my passport in the process of getting my alien registration card...
i saw them looking BEHIND THE *beep* CURTAIN for it in the office Shocked

from what i could gather they mumbled something about 'maybe someone collected my one by mistake" or maybe "its been posted somewhere'... Evil or Very Mad

can you imagine how *beep* i would be if i'd gone to japan for chuseok, which i almost did.
jeeezzz....

camel96 · Guest

What...?
They lost your passport...? That's fucked up.
What are they doing to get it back...?
Anything? Or is it just a case of too bad for you?
Stay in contact with your embassy it may get sent there.

BTM · Joined: 20 Jan 2003 Location: Back in the saddle.

Man, I'm sorry to hear that, and I feel for you, but that has got to be one of the funniest things I've heard this week. Ah, Korea....

At least they can't throw you outta the country if it's their fault!

canuckistan · Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2003 6:23 pm Post subject:

That is not funny. That is very very very not funny. Until you get another passport issued you are sort of "statenlos" ie: without a country.
Let's pretend that all hell would break loose here in S.K. with N.K.--mon ami, you'd be screwed. Go to your embassy now and get another one tout-de-suite. Let the red faces at immigration do the explaining. You don't ever want to be in a foreign country without a passport.

Guest · Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2003 6:47 pm Post subject:

i must say it was pretty funny, i'm watching people look in one room for an IMPORTANT document, that just seems to have disappeared...and they're looking behind desks, lifting up papers....
that was a moment of suspended disbelief i'll never forget...

but i hear ya canuckistan...must sort it out asap.

BTM · Joined: 20 Jan 2003 Location: Back in the saddle.

Hell, yeah, it's funny.

Not for poor blake, of course - if I were him I'd get to the embassy immediately, as you suggest, and get them to lodge a formal complain of some kind.

But there's funny 'oohh-hoo-hoo that's just silly you big scallywag' and there's funny 'dear god the stupidity of the human race (or some subsection thereof) never ceases to amaze me' and there's funny 'that's just absurd' and so on.

In this case, the latter ones, and Korean immigration are the absurd dummies in question.

eamo · Joined: 08 Mar 2003 Location: Shepherd's Bush, 1964.

Looks like the immigration boys are keeping up the good work. Rolling Eyes

This is only a few weeks after they denied myself and a few other teachers E-2 visas because our middle names appeared on some documents and not others.

They're a running joke but there are a few signs of logic these days.

Have you noticed they now have signs up in Omokyo subway station to let the steady stream of foreigners know which exit to take for immigration?

It took them years to do it but at last they have.

God bless them!!

Coffeecup · Joined: 30 Jun 2003

This thread seems confusing.

I understand the fret of them misplacing your passport, but should trouble arise they should be able to vouch for you, no? Did they give you a direct phone # to call in case someone demands your passport?

Also another side topic... Whenever a US citizen in Korea needs to renew their passport while overseas, from what I read is that they need to send in their passport which is currently valid, to be held approximately 6 weeks by the US Embassy (or someone), and they will be passport-less that whole time. My question is, isn't that correct? Also if it is correct then I could see how having immigration losing a passport wouldn't be too much of a worry, as you wouldn't be the only person without a passport.

Anyways someone please verify that if you can, because my passport ends May '04 (only about 7 mos away)!!

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

Actually this stuff happens in other places too. When I was applying for my new zealand citizenship the new zealand department of internal affairs lost my birth certificate and parents marriage certificate in 2001. Just before I left for korea (feb 2003.) the documents came back in the courier bag I had supplied the department when I intially applied.

Gotta love goverment departments.

CLg

Guest · Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2003 7:44 pm Post subject:

woohooo! redemption! 3 days later and perhaps a little spring-cleaning and they found my passport! Very Happy

matthews_world · Joined: 15 Feb 2003

Be careful man!

Someone could have taken it for a few days.

Hmm...I wonder if there are such a thing as Korean Al Qaeda operatives in the business of identity theft. Wink

Makes me wonder.

Very Happy

denz · Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2003 8:15 pm Post subject:

canuckistan · Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2003 8:22 pm Post subject:

Depending on which country the passport comes from, there's a rousing big business in certain passports on the black market.

I got offered 3000$ for "losing" mine by some Lebanese guy in Europe once, for which I promptly told him to flock right off.

I assumed he meant US dollars. Wink

A friend was shown around a city in Italy for a day by a man he met casually on the train and then was later drugged with a spiked drink. When he woke up in a park hours later, only his I.D. and passport were gone. He spent 10 days in hospital recovering while the Italian authorities tried to confirm his ID. He was told he was lucky because he was a big guy and the dose didn't kill him, only the week before same thing happened to a guy from B.C. and the dose killed him.

Anything for a passport.

Denz, no kidding, but he'd be doubly screwed as countries wouldn't want to let him in without a passport...