Does my situation call for a visa in South Korea?

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eyver
eyver

Hey everyone, I've been searching for information on this subject for a while, but most visa information either seems conflicting or unclear on what my particular situation would call for.

I'm from the United States, and carry a United States passport.

My girlfriend is going to Korea in August to teach English. Her contract lasts for a year, and she's already covered with the appropriate visa.

I'm planning on tagging along with her for a while, on and off, over the course of that year. This means possibly past the 90 days I'm given initially with my USA passport, as well as traveling back and forth to the United States a couple times, and possibly even to neighboring countries like Japan.

I know from previous experience that some countries, like Thailand, make "visa runs" relatively easy - where I can just take a day trip to a neighboring country, renew my passport there, and hop back in.

However, everything I've found seems to indicate Korea is different in that respect.

So that leads to my question - will I need a visa to do what I'm planning on doing, or are "visa runs" like that a possibility? I would like to, hopefully, have the option of staying in Korea for a few months at a time throughout the course of the entire year my girlfriend is teaching there. Is there a year-long visa I could get that includes the option to leave the country a few times and then re-enter?

I won't be working while I'm there - this is strictly "tourism" on my end.

I'm currently in San Diego and can drive to the Korean consulate in Los Angeles to get a visa if necessary.

Thanks for any help you guys can provide!

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tomstar86
tomstar86

If you're staying for longer than a 30 day period, you'll need to register with the local immigration office in Korea as far as I'm aware.

If you're going past the 90 days, you will need a visa. I'd give the consulate in LA a ring if I were you, to discuss what kinds of visas are available for you.

In terms of "visa runs", you can't really get cheap flights in and out of Korea to neighbouring countries, so unless you've got a lot of money to burn, that probably isn't an option.

I hope that helps a tiny bit, let us know how your situation turns out. Enjoy your time in Korea!

Tom

http://waegook-tom.com

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jake_kim
jake_kim

As far as the Immigration is concerned, multiple visa runs don't make a huge problem by itself as far as there is no probability of your working illegally in country. But then, those who do work illegally, especially those from English-speaking countries with visa waiver privileges do exploit the system the most often, and the Immigration knows that too, which leads to the scrutiny upon re-entry.
A simple way to avoid the issue altogether is for you to carry your latest U.S. bank statement showing convincingly enough balance with you in order to prove that you don't need to make any money in Korea, in case you're questioned by the officials.
Nevertheless, as Tom briefly mentioned above, those without visas valid 90+ days are not eligible for 'Alien Registration' which assigns you an equivalent of national ID number. Given that tourists and residents have significantly different needs, there is so little you can do without a registration card when it comes to services like banking, getting mobiles, online shopping, etc etc, whilst you'd be a de-facto resident of country for almost a year. A lot of things will need to be set up under your girlfriend's name, or worse, under her Korean co-teacher's.

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cwbush83
cwbush83

You'll need to skip across to Japan (or China) every ninety days if you don't want to get a real visa. Might be worth looking at a spousal visa, but from personal experience (my sister and her husband moved to Korea in 2008) - you need to be married to get that particular visa.

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pskully
pskully

You might look into a F-3 (Family Dependency) visa...
This website [http://www.hikorea.go.kr/pt/InfoDetailR_en.pt?categoryId=2] has information on the different visas.

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