The Joys of Getting an ARC
And the saga of my bad luck continues. I went to get my arc at the immigration office last Friday. The office you go to depends on where you live. For my area (Seodaemun-gu, I had to go to the second floor of the immigration office near Omokgyo station.
To get an ARC on a D-4 visa, you need a
1)certificate of admission which should have been included in your admissions package
3) an application form (the forms are available at immigration)
4) a copy of your passport info and visa info on the same page (this can be done at immigration for 200 won)
5) You also, of course, need money. There is a bank inside immigration on the second floor where you scan your passport and pay.
I had thought it would cost 20,000 won with an optional 3,000 won to deliver the card to my home. Nope, I paid 33,000 won in total. And apparently I was supposed to bring cash. I thought I could just do a bank transfer via the atm. No. No I could not. I had to take out money using the atm, and then deposit the money back into the atm. O_o.But hey, at least I got it done.
Before I did the whole banking thing, I grabbed a ticket from the machine on the second floor (choose the non-Chinese applicant....if you are not Chinese) and waited for a short bit. Keep in mind I arrived exactly at 9:00am and there were already people ahead of me. I actually missed my number while filling out the application, making copies, and paying the fee so I had to grab another ticket.
Finally I handed my packet of documents to the immigration officer (employee? worker? IDK). Then she looked at me quizzically and asked for my certificate of admission.
I had never thoroughly checked Yonsei's packet of documents. Apparently, they had forgotten to mail it to me as part of the admissions package. The immigration offer would not accept payment receipts as proof (even though, if you think about it, how could I even get the visa without being approved by Yonsei?). I was upset, but I couldn't really fight her on it. She was just doing her job. T_T
Instead I went to the Yonsei KLI building, got a Certificate of Enrollment (which can work as proof of admissions if you don't have a Certificate of Admission), then went back to the immigration office, and waited another hour to hand in my documents.
Recap: I got to the office at 9:00 am in the morning and did not get to hand in my documents until past 1:00 in the afternoon. >.<
On the bright side, for those who do have all their documents in order, a trip to immigration can take a half hour if you arrive at or before 9:00am.
