For Philippine
Passport Holders a visa is required to visit South Korea unless you are only going
to Jeju Island (visa-free, rejoice!) which means booking a direct flight with
Asiana that you probably would not like to afford after seeing how you could
land directly at Busan or Incheon for less than half the price via Cebu Pacific.
Besides, the visa fee is waived for 59-day single entry visas. What have you
got to lose? Please be reminded that this is not really an entry on how to get
a South Korean Visa per se, but rather an anecdote on how I got MINE. Getting
yours is so not my problem. Hence, I could not answer questions like:
A - “What are my chances of getting a South
Korean visa?” I do not work for the South Korean Embassy. Telling you not
to worry and that you will get a visa would be like your grandmother telling
you that you were cute when you were young just so your feelings won’t get
hurt. The South Korean Embassy processes a lot of visa applications on a daily
basis and there is ample reason to believe that they don’t have the luxury to
care about your “feelings”.
B - “I am a 49-year old housewife with no
income, will I get a visa?” I am not a housewife. I do not have a wife. My
mother is a housewife but she is not going to South Korea, and I would think
twice about inviting her to join me because she walks too slow and shops too
much. Hi, Ma! If you are twenty-something, have been in the same company for
almost two years, and have a bank account with xxx, xxx.xx, then hurray! We
have the same profile. You could gauge your chances against mine. But then
again, we won’t know unless you apply now won’t we? You don’t win the lottery
without buying a ticket, after all.
So, what
requirements did I submit?
Certificate of Employment – Get it from your company’s
HR Department. Mine took three days to process. Make sure that the date of
joining the company is stated along with your annual gross income. The embassy
dictates that you need an approved letter of leave. I did not have that but
they granted me a visa, which makes me think that it is not that essential. The
CoE is an important indicator for them that you are coming back here because
you have a job. This is actually more important than your Bank Certificate, IMO.
Bank Certificate – Get it from your bank. A bank certificate is
a certificate, NOT a statement. The bank statement is the one you receive
monthly showing your balance and stuff, similar to that of a credit card
statement. A bank certificate is just a piece of glossy paper indicating the
total amount of money you have in that particular bank. It takes a day to
process and costs 300 pesos at HSBC. Please don’t ask me if you have to get one
from HSBC if you bank in BPI.
ITR Copy – Only people who have multiple jobs and have no fixed income
could file for an ITR directly at BIR, I think. If you are employed like the
rest of us (employed = corporate slave) what you actually receive is a copy of the
Certificate of Tax Withheld, the code of which I think is Form 2316 or
something. It’s that long sheet of paper indicating how much has been deducted
from your salary to fund the European family holiday of your favorite corrupt
government official.
Application Form – You could fill one out at the embassy or print
the one they have at the website. I printed mine on A4 and accomplished
everything by hand. I am not sure if typewritten application forms are
accepted. Are there people who still use a typewriter nowadays? Haha. Hahaha.
Hahahaha. You attach a Passport-Sized
Photo of yourself on the form, if possible taken within the last six months.
Paste or glue would be preferable over sticky rice or stapler. Family pictures (Facebook?)
and whole body shots (PBB Audition?) are not accepted.
You do not need an
itinerary like the one they require for a Japanese Visa. You do not need a copy
of the Round-Trip Plane ticket like the one they require for a Chinese Visa.
You do not need a Travel Insurance that would cover 30,000 Euros like the one
they require for a Schengen Visa. Write N/A if a certain entry in the
Application Form does not apply to you. For example, I marked both “Residence
in Korea” and “Phone Number
in Korea”
with N/A.
Remember that the
visa is only valid for three months upon
issue. If you are leaving on December 1, you could apply one week before
September 1, or on September 1 itself. Mine took exactly a week to be released.
Who knows, the visa officer assigned to you might love doing overtime. If you
get it earlier, the three month rule still applies. Estimate lodging your visa
application accordingly. If you have been to any OECD country or if you hold a US, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand (-i, -er, -ese, -ian?),
or Japanese visa, the processing time is shorter and you have the chance of
getting a multiple entry visa.
The embassy is
located at McKinley Hill next to Jollibee and the gas station. Take a bus or a
jeep up to Market Market from EDSA corner Ayala. Then you could take the bridge
going down east of the Market Market parking lot if you love walking. If not, a
taxi would be good as long as the driver is not a grisly bastard trying to rip
you off because he is originally planning to go the opposite way to Quezon
City. I also saw jeeps plying the said route, although I wasn’t able to
determine where they were coming from.
You fill out the
attendance sheet at the guard house. There are separate sheets for applicants
and for those already claiming the visa. By the way, visa application is up to
11 AM only. The whole afternoon until 4 PM is reserved for claiming only. Just
follow the path left of the guard house for the entrance. The rotating silver
metallic thingy that looks like a medieval war weapon is actually the exit.
The woman by the
door would be more than willing to assist you and I bet you could ask her
questions as long as it doesn’t involve anything personal like her ATM Password
or TIN Number. There are separate windows for first time visa applicants and
those who already have valid visas from the countries mentioned a couple of
paragraphs ago. Typical waiting time is one week. I applied March 29, 2011 and
got the visa April 5, 2011. It is indicated in the paper you would receive in
exchange for your passport anyway. Again, the visa fee is waived. The only
thing you pay for is the bank certificate and the fare to and from the embassy.
