home mail us syndication

It’s All Coming Together

May 8, 2007 at 5:49 pm · Filed under Lifestyle

After the interviewing process and acceptance with my Korean employers, I had to haul bottom and get my paperwork together for my working visa. Without this, I cant teach. Well, a few weeks ago, the Korean Immigration office had received all my paper work. This batch of documents consisted of:

  • A photo copy of the picture page of my passport.
  • A resume
  • Original University diploma
  • Official unopened university transcripts
  • The signed 1-year contract with my school
  • 2 passport sized photos

    • I had to FedEx all this stuff overseas to my school. They, then, took them to the Immigration office and issued me a Visa Registration number. This basically meant that I was eligible for an E-2 working visa. Once I got this number, I had to get my visa and have my passport stamped. For this, I had to go to the nearest Korean Consulate with more papers.

  • Valid passport and 1 copy of the personal page
  • Completed Visa Application w/ Registration Number
  • 1 passport sized photo
  • Visa Fee of $45

    • Fortunately, there is a Korean Consulate here in Chicago. Otherwise, I would have had to mail all this stuff to the consulate and have a self addressed envelope for them to send it back to me. It takes them 3-4 days them to issue a visa. Luckily, on Friday, I was able to walk in the Chicago office and fill out my application with no appointment.

    Tomorrow, I should be able to pick up my visa and passport (fingers crossed). Next, I need a plane ticket.

    UPDATE 5/9: I picked up my visa, today. All systems are GO!

    Korean Consulate

    clear :) said,

    May 8, 2007 @ 8:46 pm

    wow it is all coming together and seemingly quite nicely! How freaking exciting! I wonder how much a ticket to Korea costs…

    clear :) said,

    May 8, 2007 @ 9:05 pm

    hmmmm I checked a couple of different flights. In May, sort of for you and September for who knows…curiosity…perhaps? It looks like, for flying into Seoul, Incheon airport is a little cheaper than Gimpo.

    I don’t know if this will be at all helpful to you but I often check things at http://www.bookingbuddy.com as well as individual carriers (just to see if the carrier offers a better rate from their own site).

    Does your school/employer help you with that? My German au pair friend had her arrangements made through the company that brought her here/sponsored her or whatever.

    ~Mers said,

    May 8, 2007 @ 9:40 pm

    Ah, WTF?

    I should say that I’ve already purchased tickets. I used orbitz.com. I’ve never heard of BookingBuddy, but it looks helpful. I just re-checked ticket prices on orbitz and they’re listing my exact flight for $100 less. What gives? I guess there’s an element of luck when using these sites.

    clear :) said,

    May 9, 2007 @ 10:05 am

    You answered your own question. There is an element of “luck.” I’m sure the airport industry has a name for it (my un-educated guess: random frequent regenerative pricing), but I think luck sums it up.

    If you wait to the last second to get tickets at a time when everyone else wants to go and to a place everyone goes to, it could be a lot. If you go to a place that no one wants to go to at a time when no on else wants to go, it could be cheap-ish. It could also be a lot. And if you check around at a weird/random time of day, you might hit the jackpot so to speak.

    Booking buddy is helpful-ish. Doug always checks directly with the carriers to see if the carrier offers something better. I bought a ticket to see Sal and I almost got a ticket through ultimate fares. When I noticed that the price seemed to jump quite a bit with all the extra fees, I decided to check jetblue for the heck of it. Long story shorter, I got a slightly cheaper ticket (30-40 or so) through jetblue and I’ve been wanting to try them ever since I first heard about them which was as much as five years ago.

    I think Ceej has a really good recent story about getting his and M’s tickets for DWorld for 200-ish? Did I remember this wrong?

    clear :) said,

    May 9, 2007 @ 6:31 pm

    What day do you leave?

    ~Mers said,

    May 9, 2007 @ 7:17 pm

    May 18th from STL.

    clear :) said,

    May 10, 2007 @ 3:54 pm

    Dude! I thought you weren’t leaving until the end of the month…that’s barely more than a week from now!

    Ceej said,

    May 10, 2007 @ 7:16 pm

    Maaaaahhhhh! Wow! That’s sooner than I expected. You, M, and I will all be on a plane on the 18th. Though I suppose our destinations are different. Send us an e-mail on when you leave and we’ll converse before or the day before.

    I did get a wicked deal on our tickets and I think Clear is totally right…..Luck….all Luck!

    ~Mers said,

    May 11, 2007 @ 5:44 am

    I’m about to pack up my computer, so dont expect many posts for awhile. I might also be using the Korean blog more frequently. If you need me, you know where to call.

    Annyong-hi kyeshipshio

    clear :) said,

    May 11, 2007 @ 10:53 am

    We know where to call? I don’t think I do…or do I do?

    Albright said,

    May 13, 2007 @ 8:39 pm

    Wait. Your school didn’t buy your ticket for you? I’d heard that *all* of the hagwon did that. You got gipped. =[

    ~Mers said,

    May 13, 2007 @ 9:55 pm

    They’re going to reimburse me. Let’s all be cool here.

    This way I can book the flight that best suits me for departure city and time. The only gip is seeing the same flight $100 less in a matter of 2 hours. But since they’re reimbursing me, it matters not.

    Melissa said,

    May 14, 2007 @ 8:28 pm

    Will your cell phone reach still??????

    RSS feed for comments on this post · TrackBack URI

    Leave a Comment