Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Soon to be Legal

I'm not quite sure how I was allowed to return to S. Korea after our vacation with an expired visa, but on Monday I sought to rectify the situation. We're very lucky that Samsung pretty much takes care of everything and I wouldn't have even had to make a personal appearance at the immigration office, except now they require all applicants for alien registration to be fingerprinted.

It was the most pleasant trip to a government office I've ever experienced. Getting a New York State drivers license was more complicated and hell of a lot more chaotic. My Samsung escort was a very nice girl about my age who has worked the last eight years in the Global Strategy Group doing these sorts of things. I think technically she's in H.R. We took a long 45 minute cab ride to the southwestern part of Seoul. Anything 45 minutes away is far when you're in a city. It was very familiar, much like a DMV, where you 'take a number' and sit and wait until you're called.

My Samsung escort had planned ahead and booked an appointment online so we only waited about 15 minutes. When we were called, all I had to do was sit, she went to the window and did it all! My only contribution were my finger prints that they asked for about 10 minutes later. That was it!

She said a couple of weeks ago there were close to 200 people there, so maybe 5:00 is the time to go, but it was incredibly organized, the employees looked friendly and the building resembled nothing of the lovely government buildings we're used to at home.

When will I officially be a resident? In about two weeks. Once I've been processed, my card will be delivered to the Samsung office. Oh, they also fixed my visa issue, but did not stick a new hard copy in my passport, which I am somewhat disappointed with. I liked the visa being a part of my passport. Now the expired one has 'Expired' written across it but apparently they've changed it in the computer. I hope so.

No more international incidents.

First time ever to a place like this.

At least the interior doesn't look like it was last updated in the 60's.
I mean, live plants at each window!

Waiting.

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