Immigration on Your Own

Odds are your first trip to a Korean immigration office will be with your boss or some other member of the Korean staff from your school. However, there are instances where you may end up at an immigration office by yourself. What can you expect? What do you need to prepare in advance?

You MUST report all of the following within 14 days of their change. Your employer might not know these things or might be too busy to remind you so stay on top of these items.

- place of work **You must talk to your boss about this. You will need several documents from your company to file this change.

- residence ***Even if you change units in the same building you must report this***If your school controls this make sure you are given your address ASAP.  It may not be visible on your building. If you control this, make a copy of your housing contract and head over to immigration.

-  passport **If you have to renew your passport while living abroad you will have to report the new number.

The first thing to do is google the reason for your visit. Are you reporting a change of residence, passport, or visa type? There are tons of posts on blogs and ESL teaching sites, but many are from a few years back. If you are worried about having  up to date information you can always check out hikorea.go.kr the official website for government issues for foreigners.

Once you find out the documents you need make copies of everything just in case. Passport photos can easily be taken in subway photobooths that specifically exist for ID photos. These are all over major cities in Korea and there's even one at the immigration office. They cost 10,000₩. You will take three seperate photos and the booth will allow you to choose the best of the three to print. Right now immigration forms ask for pictures 35mmX45mm. Select 3.5cmX4.5cm in the booth. Copies of documents can be made at your place of work or at a stationary store such as Sdot.

The next step is making an appointment and going to immigration. There is a new way to pre-book your visit as of October 1st, 2018 for foreigners in Daegu. It is available on hikorea.go.kr under the "RESERVE VISIT" form. When you arrive at immigration there will be a counter with the same name. You can always call the  Immgration Call Center at 1345 for help with this process.

Walking in the door without an appointment the first thing you should do is grab a number from the ticket machine. Find the information officers, generally they wear lime green vests and are fairly close to the ticket machine. Tell them why you are there. They will scan your passport and ARC (Alien Registration Card). They will print out the proper form or tell you where to find it. They will show you which areas you need to fill in before meeting with an immigration officer.

BE PREPARED TO WAIT. If you don't have an appointment you will have to wait (I wrote this whole post while waiting at immigration myself). The eariler in the day you get there the better. If you work 9-5 you will have to ask your boss for time off. Don't let them hold it against you. You need to be in compliance with immigration so you can keep doing your job. You can lessen the stress on both you and your boss by scheduling your visit with the immigration office, but remember to factor in travel time when you ask for time off to do this.

Finally, be kind and patient with the staff. Ask if you are unsure of anything in a calm, polite tone. It's easy to get frustrated in this situations, but don't give in to those feelings. Keep stating that you want to do the right thing. I've almost always had the kindest immigration officers and the process has never been as daunting it seems.