Day 136: Paperwork
Today was a pretty slack day, but I'm cool with that!
I went into Poly this morning to do a bunch of paperwork, mainly centering around the signing of my new contract. It felt SO GREAT to be able to sign that contract. That job contract represents everything in my new life, and I'm so grateful for being adopted by Poly into their family. The only thing left to do now is wait.
Ahhh yes, the waiting game continues...
I may have a new job contract now, but I still can't yet begin to work. All of my paperwork has to go off to Immigration for them to approve. All the little important pieces have come together and now it just needs the legal stamp of approval for me to get my new visa. This usually takes about 72 hours to process, providing there's no more major hiccups along the way. With Korean Immigration you just never know!
After that, I just have to do my 'Visa Japan Run' and I'm all good to begin teaching again in Korea. Korean Law has a funny rule about having to get your new visa ONLY from outside the country. For some strange reason, it can't be processed within the country and your last stamp has to be done at a Korean Consulate's office somewhere - anywhere - outside of Korea. This sounds complicated but it's actually a fairly simple (and common) procedure. So this means that I'll have to go to the nearest foreign country to get this stamp in my passport, and that would be Japan! Yes, I'll soon be going to Japan for the day, all on Poly's expense! ;-) I'll have to fly to Japan in the morning (most likely Osaka), get my stamp in the passport and transfer some more paperwork, and then the very same day fly back to Korea. How cool is that!!! How often do you get to say "I went to Japan for the day!"??? ;-) My little hop over to Japan will hopefully be at the end of this week, but probably be early next week.
What can I say? It's all just another day in the life of Scotty and The S2H World Tour! ;-)
posted by S2H at 8:14 a.m.
2 Comments:
Ah, yes, the visa run. That's actually common for almost every country over here - I think it may even be for other countries worldwide (I seem to remember talking to people in Australia who had to pop out and in, but that could be wrong). In Taiwan, you do a day trip (most people take the weekend) to Hong Kong.
7:56 p.m.
You might want to consider Fukuoka. That seems to be the most popular visa run destination, if the ESL Cafe message boards are to be believed. It's big enough to be a lot of fun, has a decent PLU scene, there's a Korean consulate, it's quite close to Korea (ergo, short & cheap flight), and the subway goes to the airport. If you fly into KIX, it's a much longer and more expensive train trip into Osaka. Or, alternatively, take a little extra time and head for Kyoto! Just thoughts... if you want me to get more information, I'm a member of the Korea boards and can get details, directions, hotel recommendations, etc. It's all there.
Marshall
4:52 a.m.
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