By SHELTON BUMGARNER
Marmot’s Hole Guest Blogger
While not every foreign expat in Korea must go through that rite of passage known as the "visa run," enough do have to go to warrant a review of my most recent run. Maybe it might help you.
 The Korean Consulate |
For me, the key to a successful visa run to Japan is money. Compared to Korea, Japan is extremely expensive. Figure out how much you can afford to bring with you, then throw in an additional 30 percent over the original total. I suggest taking at least 300,000 won for the two day trip. Many companies will set you up a room with a hotel so you don’t have to worry about where you’re going to stay the night.
In my previous experience, I took some documentation with me when I went to Japan to get my visa. This time around, however, I simply had a conformation number.
Later, Katie Leitch told me she had experience similar feelings to mine before she and her husband made their visa run. " I was kind of ticked off about not having a hotel room booked for us. Also, we knew even less Japanese than Korean, and we heard that very few people speak English in Japan," she said. "Basically, I was expecting to be grumpy for 32 hours straight."
Once you get to the Fukuoka airport, you need to take a free bus to the domestic terminal
At this point, you have to get on the subway. It costs 290 yen (about $2.90) to get to Tojinmachi Station from the airport. After about 30 or so minutes, we got there. You take a left, it’s exit number 1.
Once you leave the station, you walk straight head until you hit a Cosmo gas station and take a right. Then you walk down that street and pass another gas station. You will soon see the rather large Korean Consulate smack dab in front of you.
 The Map |
In order to get your visa process by the next day, you need to get there no later than 11 a.m., if I read the sign correctly. Otherwise, you’ll have to wait until 11 the day after you submit it. I think. The sign seemed confusing to me.
You fill out a pretty simple application and pay the equivalent of about $US54. That’s for an American getting a visa. Your prices may vary according to nationality. As an example of how expensive Japan is compared to Korea — the micro "Internet corner" at the airport gives one access to the Internet for about $1US for 10 minutes of use.
Here to hoping that your next visa run will be safe and as inexpensive as possible.
Author’s note: This post has been edited since it was originally posted. The original may be found here.
Author’s additional note: Mae-long.
20 Comments
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Unless you’re luckily enough to be married to a Korean, if you want to work legally in Korea you’re going to go on a visa run somewhere eventually. So even the most jaded, bitter expat who claims to have been here since they were still calling the place Silla can just sit right now and read this. Korean visa law requires that anyone working in Korea has to get said visa somewhere that isn’t the Land of the Morning Calm.
Where do I start?
Married to a Korean or not doesn’t change a thing. You need a visa to work. Period. The visa you get as a spouse doesn’t allow you to work.
Now, the visa runs is something that is apparently enjoyed by hagwon and University slaves. My last visa run was actually done in France, picking up a new visa, and between 1998 and end of 2004, despite many other problems, I never had to go abroad to have it changed/renewed. The longest trip I had to take was Mok-tong, with a paralegal. I know many expats who’ve never seen the inside of a Korean consulate.
Like oranckay said.
This jaded, bitter expat sat down and read the article but discovered nothing new, except perhaps that there really are folks whose typing skills rival those of dyslexics. Whom, for example, does the consolate console?
dda, those who continue to work for the same employer need not leave the country in order to renew their visas (whether slave or free).
gbnhj:
read carefully
I never had to go abroad to have it changed/renewed
As in change of visa. As in new employer. As in new visa category.
And this changes what I wrote how?
z z z Z z z z . . .
This has to be the longest, most boring and most pointless blog entry ever on the Marmot’s fine page.
“As an example of how expensive Japan is compared to Korea — we had to pay the equivalent of a dollar (100 yen) — for 10 minutes of Internet usage. Damn, that’s expensive.”
Mother of fuck, do I feel ripped off… I had to pay a dollar for FIVE minutes of internet usage at LAX in Los Angeles.
They had free access in Incheon and Changi (Singapore) airport.
> “Fuk-u-oka! TeeHee”
…
This entry should be renamed Visa Runs for Dummies.
Well, I thought it was a nice post and lightened things up a bit.
Can I post here about all my visa problems too? Nah, I\’d rather post racing girl photos.
OMFG! looks like you forgot to link to your own page this time. you’re starting to get sloppy.
Ugh. What a long, dull and dim-witted post. Especially since Fukuoka is full of hotels that cost less than 5,000 yen a night (I’ve found them for as little as 4,300). The hotel help desk at the airport is a good place to start.
I should add, in an attempt to sound like something other that a total jerk, that it was the shear length of the post I found more annoying than anything. If it was just a graph or two (linking to the longer post somewhere else), I would have just ignored it and been on my merry way. Maybe the Marmot could add that feature (a preview linking to the full post) for very long posts.
For the record, there were FOURTEEN comments knocking this Ahssa-esque post before I ever said anything. Let it be known I am not engineering, encouraging, or enabling the backlash.
Shelton, this really was way too long and too trite for Marmot’s Hole, in my ever-humble opinion. You’re lucky Dr. Hwang SHAT ALL OVER KOREA right after this was posted, so nobody will remember this fiasco.
Shelton, I know you can do better, but first you must recognize who your audience is and what they want.
(Sorry about the swearing, Mi-hwa. But it was done in archaic Shakespearean style, so that makes it classy.)
I never had to leave the county for my visa. I had a D8 one, so I was lucky.
If you guys ever make a visa run to Tokyo you’re welcome to crash at my place.
Does Shelton still have a girlfriend?