US citizens get an automatic 15-day stamp upon entry, so I think we should reciprocate and allow Koreans a 15-day stay.

The concern about false passports is valid, but frankly, it is so easy to get into the US anyway with two long porous borders, it would be better for someone with a fake passport to enter the US directly rather than driving across the Canadian border. At least Border Control would have a record of their entry. What really puzzles me is that there is no passport control for people departing the US. I have visited twelve countries, and every single one requires visitors to pass through passport control upon leaving. Airline personnel at check-in do ask to see visas, but the US government, as far as I can see, has no way of knowing whether a foreigner is still in the country.

The US-Visa application refusal in South Korea stood at around 3.3 percent in 2004. The U.S. government requires the rate to be brought below 3 percent. Based on that fact alone, South Korea should not be given Visa free status, not just yet anyway. South Korea is almost there, but not quite. Yet ROK is improving year by year. Consider the fact that in 1999 during the financial crisis, the US visa refusal rate hit almost 8 percent. Before the financial crisis in 1997, the refusal rate was hovering over 5%.

We must also look at the rate of illigal overstayers in the US which is around 180,000 out of 2 million ethnic Koreans in the US. In other words, 9% of all ethnic Koreans in the US are illegal overstayers - a problematically high number.

I believe several things must be done by South Korea to be considered a US Visa free nation.

First, Koreans should do a better job obeying the rules and regulations of the visiting host countries, including the rules of immigration. Unfortunately, a few rotten apples spoil the entire barrel. It’s up to each individual Koreans to do their job and not tarnish the image of their country by breaking laws. Unfortunately, there have been too many cases of those Koreans who decided they wanted to break rules.

Second, South Korea should do a better job combatting passport fraud. Korean passport is too easy to forge, and is one of the sought after passports in Asia by unscrupulous individuals who use them to smuggle in illegal Asians. South Korean passport has Visa free status with Canada, Australia, and EU. Thus, many are stolen and sold in the black markets. The latest case of visa fraud involve Chinese illegal immigrants using forged Korean passports got caught in Canada.

Third, South Korea has a reputation by the US State Department to be both a source, transit, and destination of human smuggling. This is problematic. South Korea has to do a better job reducing human smuggling both, going out of South Korea and coming into South Korea.

Fourth, continued anti-American policies of the Korean government and the Korean press can be a problem. They are not breaking any rules or regulations of the US, per say, but what counts is the mood in the US. The US congress and its people are not going to be too pleased nor too accomodating toward Koreans if they continue to see hostile attitude coming out of S.Korea. Why should they? A US Visa is a priviledge, not something that you take for granted.

626,000 Koreans

We do not use drug and work hard to contribute to the mainstream US society. Unusual for recent immigrants, our children rarely drop out of school, but rather they are top of the class.

We are peaceful people. We do not harbor ambition to take over the US as Chinese or Japanese immigrants might do. We are glad to be a part of open society like the US and will do our best to protect fellow citizens of the USA. I like to see more immigration from Korea and good relationship between two countries.

What I hate to see is some xenophobic Koreans(=Korean Communists) putting strain between two countries and calling themselves patriots. They are not. Koreans,themselves, have to stamp these morans out. It is a kind of housecleaning Koreans must do to gain international(mostly American) support.

Korea needs the US more than ever in her history because upcoming Japan-China powwow. Don’t be a victim of somebody else’s war. Join USA for survival. Or, perish between two superpowers, Japan and China.

96% of those people aren’t immigrating to take advantage of your social programs and generally become trouble. 96% - the majority are going there to visit family, to tour, to do business, and to study. Ignore the negative newsheadlines for a minute, and you realize it’s got to be good for the US economy to the tune of a billions $ per year - and I’m not even counting unreported underground money and all the money bleeding out of Korea in the form of service deficit.

dave11130, 96% of those people are already headed for the States anyway, since that’s about what the visa approval rating is, so your fear of a yellow horde is probably unfounded.

What this would mean is that valuable resources can be used for diplomatic/State Department work other than going through piles of paperwork and then issuing visas to 96% of the people who come through the door.

Does the US embassy reject visas for male citizens who haven’t completed their military service? If so, would this issue unique to Korea be a factor in adding a few points to the rejection rate?

[Huh marmot has this new system against spammers?]