A Little Moore Perspective AFTER Korea

One task we still had to perform yet was to get our visas changed over from 90 days to one year and register for our ARC or Alien Registration Card. The ARC is our form of identification while in Korea. Sarah already had a 1 year visa, called an E2 work visa, because she was employed with the school. But Ezekiel, Cadence and I could only get a 90 day ‘travelers’ visa until we had actually entered Korea and changed them over. Korea does not allow anyone to get a visa longer than 90 days unless you are employed by a company, the government, or a dependent of someone who is. In this case we are considered dependents of Sarah, so we are allowed 1 year visas along with hers.

The process itself is pretty easy actually. We only need Sarah’s ARC and a letter from her employer as proof that she is working for the school. The school had taken Sarah to get her ARC a week earlier, so she was set. Soon after, Sarah had talked to an immigration officer on the phone who told her what was needed for the rest of the family and that the cost was 60,000 Won (~$55).

We had withdrawn money to live on when we were back in Seoul, but that was running out, and we had yet to find an ATM in Chuncheon that would withdraw money from our US account. And Sarah did not get paid by the school until the 25th of September, still 2 weeks away. Between the two of us we were able to scrounge up enough Won to pay the fees, as well as a taxi to get us there and back home. After that, I guess we were just going to live on groceries from the store where we could use our credit card!

We take a taxi to immigration, fill out the appropriate paperwork and turn it in. That’s where the fun begins. The officer told us we did not have enough money. He informed us that it would cost 60k per person, not 60k total as the man on the phone seemed to make clear to Sarah. “No, misunderstanding” he told us. He said we could go to the post office next door where they have an ATM to get money. I wasn’t convinced it would work, but the post office does deal in, well, international stuff, so I had hopes that it might work.

After trying both machines, we could not get anything to go through. We employed the help of some postal workers. After some awkward attempts at communicating our problem, they tried again for us, then made some phone calls. They said it could not be done at their location, but that we should try the bank down the street and gave us directions. Ah, thank you!

We walk to the bank and try again in their ATMs. No luck. We go inside the branch and again ask for help. After spending a few minutes explaining our situation, an older gentleman we were working with got an idea and rushed over to his desk. He pulled out a piece of paper, and hurrying back he read “H-howw mai I halp yoo?”. Oh my. This was going to take a while.

The man eventually got several others involved, including someone who spoke a little better English, and again they were making phone calls for us. Finally they handed me the phone. “Hello?” “Hi, you are tryeeing to trans-fur money from US account?” “Yes!” More questions. Hand the phone back. Lots of Korean back and forth. The phone is again given to me. “You must go to KEB branch for global transfer ATM. There is one in Chuncheon.”. The man then wrote instructions in Korean for us to give to a taxi driver.

The school had given Sarah the afternoon off so we could take care of this. By now however, it was after 3PM and were getting concerned that we would not be able to get this done in time. We decide to stop back by Immigration to let them know the situation and ask when they close. The officer tells us “Any ATM will give you money!”. Yeah, I only wish it were that easy! They closed at 6PM, so we briefly tried to explained why we needed a global ATM. “ahh, very diffeecult!” he exclaims as we head out and find a taxi.

Once at the KEB bank, a teller helps direct us to the global ATM. Success! We get the cash we need and head back to the immigration office. Originally, we were going to have to make an additional trip the following week to pick up our ARCs. But I think by this point the people on the office felt sorry for us as another woman got involved and together they work on out application, printing our IDs as we waited. We were grateful to lose the extra trip and happy to bring this experience to a close! It feels a little better knowing the kids and I won’t get deported after 3 months :)