Tag: Japan

Visas

Last Monday, the day after arriving back home from New Zealand, I went off to the Korean Consulate in Yokohama to get my spousal visa for Korea (the F-6-1).

It probably would have been a lot easier to get to the Embassy in Tokyo, but fortunately I called ahead of time, and they told me that because I live in Yokohama I have to go to the consulate.  Who knew… that they would even have a consulate in Yokohama with Tokyo right next door?  But I suppose there are enough Koreans living in Japan and the greater Kanto region to warrant more than one facility.

The consulate is in the middle of nowhere in terms of public transport, but right in the Yamate area, which is a beautiful (if uphill) walk, especially in the middle of cherry blossom season.

I brought my husband and mother-in-law (who was visiting) along for moral support.  I was also armed with the following:

1. Passport and copy
2. Japanese Alien Registration Card (外国人登録証… I renewed my Japanese visa right before the switch to the 在留カード) and copy
3. Invitation form (downloaded from the embassy website)
4. Reference letter (downloaded from the embassy website)
5. Marriage certificate and family register from Korea (where we got married)
6. Marriage certificate from America (or just the signed letter fom the US Embassy in Seoul)
7. Bank statement for my husband’s account
8. Contract for our apartment in Seoul
9. Picture
10. Fee
11. Application form (which we got and filled out there)

Things I did not have… proof of employment/salary for my husband (it’s complicated), any kind of health check or criminal record, any kind of credit record for either of us.

I was also really surprised because the application form I was asked to fill out was exactly the same as the one for every other visa type.  Having read up on the process rather extensively, I was expecting marriage specific questions, like when did you meet, what’s his favorite food… or something…

I brought along my Level 3 TOPIK results and my college transcript (to show employability? I happened to have it on hand because of the grad school apps, so why not?), but they didn’t ask for anything else.

The lady said to come back on Wednesday and sent us on our way.

We were too busy touring with the mother-in-law, so we waited till the following Monday and went all the way back up to Yamate to pick up my passport with its nice new visa.  Being a worrier, and feeling like we turned in way less than everyone else said they did, I was a little scared that the visa wouldn’t actually be given to me, but I just gave her the receipt for picking it up, and she gave me my passport and sent me on my way again.

Piece of cake!

BUT, I later realized I had turned in my application the day before the law supposedly changes, and requirements get stricter.  Phew!

The new law states that the Korean spouse (or the couple or someone) needs to be able to prove a yearly income of about 15 million won or more, and that the foreign spouse should be able to prove basic Korean skills (or they should prove that they can communicate in a language other than Korean).

On the one hand, this makes a lot of sense, but on the other hand it seems like a really hard thing to regulate.

It seems to make sense that you would want to be able to communicate with your spouse, and a little sad to think that there are people entering into something like marriage without being able to do that (prompting people to make such a law).  BUT, how do you quantify such communicative ability on a visa application?  It seems that level one of a test like TOPIK is the generally accepted level of Korean proficiency, but that seems like pretty basic communication.  And what if you want to prove that you communicate in a language other than Korean?  Do both have to give TOEFL scores if neither’s native language is English?  What if the couple speaks in French? or German? or Chinese?  Who is going to make standards for each, and then test them?

For the financial test, that’s a little easier, and it does seem to take into account that it may not be the Korean spouse who is the main provider in every household.  No problem there for now…  we’ll see.

Still, I’m glad I got in just under the wire….

Just a note, I am in Japan on a working visa, so this is not an account of the typical “visa run” to Japan.  The Yokohama Consulate did ask me on the phone if I was living here, and the impression I got is that they would not have processed my application if I did not.  Contact any Korean embassy/consulate ahead of time if it is not your home country or you are not living there currently before doing a visa run.

Journey Back

In May I’ll be leaving Japan for Korea.

As part of the preparation for my next journey I needed to go back to the university where I spent my year abroad to get my transcript from that time.

I spent my year abroad at International Christian University in Mitaka, Tokyo.  It wasn’t my first time in Japan, but it was an important step in bringing me to where I am.

The main school building at ICU
The main school building at ICU

Choosing a place to study abroad can be a difficult decision, especially if your university is like mine and has multiple places to choose from.  At the time there were 5 or 6 choices just in Japan.

Waseda and Keio were definitely the most famous of the bunch, but I decided against attending them.  For me the primary reason was that Keio and Waseda had special programs for exchange students.  There were special English based classes about Japan in subjects like literature, history or economics that only exchange students could take, and of course special classes to teach Japanese.  I’m sure students with a very high level of Japanese would be able to participate in regular classes with Japanese students, but I wasn’t that confident in my Japanese level.

At ICU it was a different environment.  Foreign students entered as OYRs, or One Year Regular students.  The key point being that we were “regular” students.  ICU’s selling point is the quality of their English education, and as part of that, even Japanese students have to take a certain number of regular courses (not EFL) in English.  That meant there was a wide variety of classes offered in English, and they were not necessarily populated entirely by foreigners.  In addition, there are so-called JE or EJ classes that are offered in a variety of Japanese and English, so lectures might be in Japanese with English textbooks, or vice versa.  As foreigners, we could take any class offered as long as we felt up to the language requirements.

I went to summer school before the regular year started, and ended up finishing the Japanese language program in the second of the three trimesters.  For my third term I was able to take a couple of JE classes that were relevant to my major back at my home university.  It was a good opportunity to test my language abilities and get to know the regular Japanese students.

The other good thing about being a “regular” student was that there was no barrier between the foreign students and the Japanese students, and we were free to participate in any club or student activities we wanted to.  That was where I made most of my friends – friends who are still among my closest friends in Japan today.

Everyone has a different idea of what they want to get out of their time abroad.  Everyone goes into the experience with different levels of Japanese, and different academic interests, so different programs will appeal to people for different reasons.  But don’t overlook the importance of the social aspects and integration into the school and the country.  The most common complaint I heard from people in other programs was that they wished they had had more interaction with the regular students.

Whether you go to a school that makes it easier to integrate, or to a school that keeps you a little more removed, making an effort to get to know people in the country you are visiting is an integral part of the experience, and worth all the effort it takes!

The entryway to ICU with cherry trees... in February
The entryway to ICU with cherry trees… in February

**This was 13 years ago, so programs at all of the schools mentioned above may have changed.  If you are planning to study abroad, take sometime to really look into the kind of program it is, and get advice from people who have been there before if you can.