Pre-Preperation: Visa – Part 2

My visa application is finally sent off to Chicago. Here is how it worked for me:

The people at Sunlin requested the information to prove financial capability (on my part)  and anything that the visa issuance people in Korea asked for. When that cleared, I had a visa confirmation/approval/pre-approval number. It seems to be referred to by several names. So, with that number, I called the visa office in Chicago and confirmed that I had all I needed (the website in the prior post lists what you need to send: $45 money order, a postage paid, addressed envelope for them to send back your visa, your passport and the filled out form you can download from the site). Sunlin provided guarantor information, as well. Then it was just mailing it off, certified mail. Now I’m waiting to get it back.

My suggestion for anyone planning to take this path, is allow for a month on the Korean side and a month on the American side. It may very well go quicker than that, but if it doesn’t, you’re in trouble. And, of course, order your Passport 2-3 months before that, because you have to have a passport to get a visa.

Pre-Preperation: Visa – Part 1

Finding information and websites for visas to Korea is a pain. It’s made worse by the fact that there are so many sites wanting to sell you visa processing (for twice the cost).

So here are some sites I found after deep searching:

http://www.dynamic-korea.com/ , a site for the generic Korean Consulate General in America. which has forms you can print. It directs you to contact your local Korean Embassy, which it doesn’t give you a list of or contact information for. I think it used to have these links, so maybe it will be added back in the future. Unless you live in a major city, you’re likely going to have to call the embassy nearest and then mail in your application.

http://www.travelguru.net/html/consulates/koreasouth.html has a list of addresses, numbers and other contact info for the the Embassies. This is nice, but the majority of the embassies don’t have email or website links, so you’re stuck using the phone (which I hate).

The American/Seoul Embassy Site from America is http://seoul.usembassy.gov/visas_for.html , and it contains very little information for Americans trying to get visas to Korea. It seems to have a lot of information for the inverse, so I suppose it’s worth something. For Americans, it simply points you to the Korean site above, telling you to contact the embassy closest to you, which neither site lists, necessitating the TravelGuru link.

I’ll be contacting the Embassy in Chicago tomorrow, which is the closest one with a phone number (2 states away). We’ll see how that goes. I’ll copy the contact info for that embassy below, in case someone needs it later. Considering the pathetic search results I got, maybe it will help:

Chicago

NBC Tower Suite 2700, 455 North City Front Plaza Dr. Chicago, IL 60611

T:(312) 822-9485 F:(312) 822-9849

Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin

Edit: Either I missed it the second time, or it’s back, but here his information on the locations for the Korean Consulate General in the US :http://www.dynamic-korea.com/consulate_service/information2.php