The elusive F3 visa

Written by admin on April 2, 2008 – 11:00 pm -

There were no bookings for me today so last night I decided to finally stop procrastinating to apply for my family’s dependents (F3) visa. I woke up early that morning to head to the immigration office in Mokdong.Traffic was heavy on the Olympic (88) expressway and the heavy rain was making it worse. Despite the gridlock I was lucky enough to find a parking spot when I arrived. I grabbed my documents and went to the information counter and inquired which forms I needed to apply for a dependents visa. The person at the counter was very polite and told me that I had to go to a different office which was only a few blocks away. 

Upon arriving at the general vicinity of the Immigration office I had to circle the block a couple of times as there was so signage until I found a small one which indicated that the office was 50m away. I decided to park and find the place on foot which would be easier. When I finally found the place, I filled up all the appropriate forms and got my cue number, the wait wasn’t that long and I was soon being serviced by an officer. After looking through my documents, the officer said that my family would have to apply for the F3 visa. I explained to the officer that my wife had already been to the consulate and was told that I would have to apply in Korea for them, but she politely insisted that there was nothing she could do about it, unless they were already in Korea. 

While driving back I was so frustrated and trying to rationalize why it was so difficult to arrange for a dependents visa while all the other countries I’ve worked in practically give them away once the principal’s work visa is approved.

That day I sent an notarized invitation letter, work contract, photocopies of my passport, work visa and alien registration card. My wife received the documents the next day and went back to the consulate. This time she was told that she also needed to provide an my employment certificate, an invitation from my office. So I that’s what I did and sent her documents the very next day… Now its wait and see if more paperwork is required.

Here come my comments..  Don’t they already have all of my information, the fact that I have an alien registration card, visa and re-entry permit should be proof enough that I’m a legal resident alien. So what’s with all the invitation letters? 

Getting a visa while in the country is different from other wherein you cannot change your status while in the country, you have to leave and get your visa from your country of origin thats the reason why I was counting on being able to process the visa from overseas so as to avoid all the expenses of coming and leaving. Why won’t they process dependent’s visas in overseas? 

 

 

Tags: Dependents, F3, Seoul, Visa
Posted in Immigration, South Korea |