New Visa!

Well, it's official - I'm staying for another year (at least). I went with my head teacher to the Immigration Office where, I swear, a 12-year-old in a t-shirt took a break from texting on his cell phone to shuffle through all my documents and then try to stamp my old (canceled) passport. Fortunately, a guy who knew what to do came along and took over from him....

Because of a change of laws in Korea, I had to re-do the entire visa process - that's three times in three years - but what had me the most stressed (and pissed) was the criminal check. Consider these facts:

• Getting fingerprints done: taxi + bus = $7, the first (fruitless) visit involved visiting 2 different police stations, then spending about an hour talking to someone who couldn't understand why I wanted fingerprints done. The second one took about an hour and half, and involved me translating the fingerprints form from Korean to English. Mailing fingerprints to Canada, with insurance = $15
• RCMP Criminal check: $25
• My mother had to courier the prints to the RCMP and then mail them back to me in Korea: $20
• Going to Busan for the Apostille stamp: bus = $45, taxi + subway in Busan = $9, hotel + supper + breakfast = $40, embassy stamp = $50 (NB: wonder what an "Apostille" stamp is? It's a smudged, blurry, crooked stamp that says "Government of Canada on it"). This process involved a 10-hour round-trip bus ride to Busan, about 26-hours of my personal and work time from start to finish.
• Finally, my head teacher and I spent about 45 minutes going to the central post office to pick up the stamped form.

Total (in Canadian): $201
Total personal/work time: about 30 hours
Emails between my coordinator and I figuring out what the whole process was, and what was involved and was it even necessary, since my last criminal check had been done in January 2006: too many to count

I do not have a problem with complying with government regulations. I mean, even Canada still has problems with illegal immigration and a few people who scam their way into social assistance and the like. As a person who has chosen to live and work in a foreign country, I must abide by the laws of that country and go through the necessary processes in order to keep my visa status. It works this way in every country - and that is fine.

My problem is that, after all this effort and inconvenience, they didn't even look at my criminal record form. When I handed it to the guy who was processing all my papers, he glanced at it and handed it back to me. Of course, I am keeping it - on one hand, in case they ask to see it (if they ever realize that it's missing) and as future proof that, unlike the CEO of Samsung, the current President of Korea and former the Korean President's son, to name a few, I have never been (allegedly) involved in any criminal activity.