How I got my F-2 (Long Term Residence) VISA in South Korea!
Though I was already exposed to other countries and cultures from such a young age, I never thought that someday I would be a resident - a long term resident - as they said it, in a foreign country as I live and work there. Yes, I am an Indonesian citizen and a resident in South Korea.
So how did I get in here? 😜
Around four or five years ago while I was just finishing my Bachelor degree in Indonesia, I maintained contact with one of my senior who works in Europe and at that time I did not care much what's the possibility and the advantages or disadvantages for someone to work and live outside his or her own country. I was just thinking "Oh..that sounds cool!" and that's it.
Fast forward to early 2018 when I just graduated from my master degree in Teaching Korean as Foreign Language major, I actually did not really know what's next. I can't teach Korean here either anyway... (Duh😏). And the only thing I know was that I do not wanna have a long distance relationship (I know I know, I am such a hopeless romantic 😁), which for me will most likely do not work. So yeah, since my boyfriend is still doing his PhD here in Korea, I decided why not try to find a job here, there is nothing to loose, or as I thought hahaha. I was still in D-2 VISA or student visa at that time, and since my VISA will expire in less than a month I needed to change it into Job Seeker VISA so that I would not be an illegal alien here 👽. So I made an online reservation and went to Immigration office to changed D-2 to D-10 VISA. The requirements was simple for people who graduated here in Korea, I just submitted my diploma, academic score, TOPIK, and filled a paper for the Job hunting plan and submitted it. This particular Job Hunting Plan is a piece of paper where they ask you to describe what will you do in 6 months of your legal stay. So I just wrote that I will try to get a job in the first 3 months, and I will be interning on the last 3 months. So yeah that was about it. Oh and I had to pay 30,000 WON for issuing card and 100,000 WON for changing the VISA. I had to wait 2 weeks before I finally got my Alien Registration Card with a new VISA type printed on it.
Once I am legal to find a work here, I tried lots and lots of means to find a job in this foreign land hahaha. From facebook, craiglist, friends, friend of friends, apps, etc etc 💪. And from all of those ways (and many rejections) I finally found Saramin, a job finder app only available in Korean language where you can make your own Resume there and browse thousands of job listing on it. You can also narrow it down by filtering it with the filter you want. I put Seoul - English - Indonesian - translator. And they popped up! 😻. And I found this one job listing that ask for a translator for an IT company. I did not think that much, I just applied. In only 2 days they called me and ask for interview, and a day after interview they called me again and said that they want to hire me Yihaaaw 💃
Now that I got a job and signed the contract I need to change (again) my VISA to a legal VISA to work. Because D-10 VISA is specifically ONLY for "finding" your job, and NOT to do the actual job. It's funny, but yeah, it is what it is. Working on D-10 is illegal, but it is also not easy for a foreigner to get hired by a company who would support them to change the VISA into a legal working VISA. So it's a 50:50 chance. There are people who has to work full time or part time with their D-10 just so that they can survive to pay the rents and eat here, while still trying to find a company that would sponsor them. I was so lucky that the company that hired me practically has 100% Korean workers, that means they CAN actually hire a foreigner and support my VISA. FYI, for a company in Korea, in order to be able to hire 1 foreigner legally, they need to have at least 5 Korean staffs working in it. So yeah, it is NOT easy for a foreigner to find a job here in Korea, especially if you are a fresh graduate. But if you are an expert, well, that's another story. So yeah, I was lucky! (Not that I didn't work my ass hard either) 😝
It took me roughly 2 months from the day of my graduation to find a company who would hire and sponsor my VISA. So after I signed the contract I applied for online reservation (every bureaucracy thing-ies are online here in Korea) to the immigration office, I had to submit all the supporting documents. This time I needed a whole lot more documents to submit, mostly from my company. I might have to write it separately later on a different post. Actually I had the choice to change my Job-seeker visa into one of the two legal working visas which are E-7 and F-2. The E-7 VISA is a working VISA that has 82 job types where your job type needs to fit in the list in order for your application to be approved. E-7 VISA validity is only 1 year and needed to be renew every year, and if you change a work place you NEED to report it to the Immigration Office. People who use E-7 mostly have to have Bachelor degree with more than 1 year work experience, or Master degree in relevant area, or at least 5 years of work experience in the relevant area. And some others special requirements to get this VISA can be checked on the Immigration website. For E-7 VISA, when you are married and have a family, your spouse and your kids will have F-3 VISA which is a Dependent Visa that has the same validity period to the E-7 VISA they depend on, and its eligibility to work is still confusing (F-3 VISA holder was prohibited to work previously but now the law has changed I heard, but even that it's still hard for them to legally work in Korea). On the other hand, F-2 VISA which is a Long Term Residence VISA has much more advantages that got my eyes fixed on it. Also, since I am KGSP (Korean Government Scholarship Program) alumni, I have a privilege to get 10 extra points to change my VISA to F-2. So basically this F-2 that I applied is a point-based Long Term Residence VISA. The point is counted from a fast array of categories that includes your age, education, Korean language skill, job, salary, volunteering activities, KIIP (Korean Immigration and Integration Program) score, etc. If you are not a KGSP student, you can have the extra 10 points by enrolling in the KIIP Program that has 100 hours of learning and takes around 3 months to finish. To be able to get F-2 VISA you need at least 80 points out of 120, the maximum score. Each category has 1-5 points.
Basically, the higher your education the higher point you get, and it applies the same with your major (Hello humanities major discrimination 😒), salary, Korean language skill and so on. Except age, the highest point you can get is 5 and that is if you are between 30-35 years old at the time of applying the VISA, and the point goes lower the more you are younger or the more you are older that that. Interesting right?! I think they measure it based on the demography census which says 30-35 y.o. is the most productive years of your life or whatever hahaha. Anyway, the things that got me interested in F-2, especially F-2-7 the point based VISA, is that you normally get 3 years of VISA validity, thus you don't have to do the 'holy pilgrimage' to the Immigration EVERY YEAR, and you do not have to report IF you change your job or your company, AND the best of all, your spouse and family will also get F-2 VISA automatically, which means they too, can legally work in Korea in any field they desire to work. FANTASTIC! 💖
So after submitting all the documents on the day I reserved to visit the Immigration, I said I want to change my D-10 to F-2 VISA but the immigration officer was a bit confused, and asked me "Hmm...did you count your point already?" "Are you sure your point exceed the minimum 80 points?" etc etc etc I just said "Yes, I am sure, I am KGSP student and I have 10 extra points" and so finally she checked and recheck it on her computer and for a silent 10 minutes of waiting finally she said "Okay your application is approved. You will get it in 2 weeks"... OH YES!!! (See me smirking in the picture below 😆)
And so I live happily ever after ................
Na'ah ... just working my ass off in my company to survive in this expensive Seoul
😆😆😆
...
Almost 1 year later today... I read the news and I heard directly from some acquaintances that now the Korean government are tightening the VISA requirements for foreigner, mostly to the foreigners who try to get student VISA here in Korea, and also for foreigners who wants to get a job! Oh how I sigh a huge relieve that I changed it last year!
But!!!! For those who still want to try their luck, I still very much support you to try! (Considering Korea's minimum wage is so much higher than Indonesia, or other SEA countries except Singapore 😀) I know maybe working in South Korea is not as tempting as - say ... working in New York City - but! there are many things you can learn here in this fast-growing-high work ethic- nation! 👍
To that I say 화이팅!! Fighting!!!
Though I was already exposed to other countries and cultures from such a young age, I never thought that someday I would be a resident - a long term resident - as they said it, in a foreign country as I live and work there. Yes, I am an Indonesian citizen and a resident in South Korea.
So how did I get in here? 😜
Around four or five years ago while I was just finishing my Bachelor degree in Indonesia, I maintained contact with one of my senior who works in Europe and at that time I did not care much what's the possibility and the advantages or disadvantages for someone to work and live outside his or her own country. I was just thinking "Oh..that sounds cool!" and that's it.
Fast forward to early 2018 when I just graduated from my master degree in Teaching Korean as Foreign Language major, I actually did not really know what's next. I can't teach Korean here either anyway... (Duh😏). And the only thing I know was that I do not wanna have a long distance relationship (I know I know, I am such a hopeless romantic 😁), which for me will most likely do not work. So yeah, since my boyfriend is still doing his PhD here in Korea, I decided why not try to find a job here, there is nothing to loose, or as I thought hahaha. I was still in D-2 VISA or student visa at that time, and since my VISA will expire in less than a month I needed to change it into Job Seeker VISA so that I would not be an illegal alien here 👽. So I made an online reservation and went to Immigration office to changed D-2 to D-10 VISA. The requirements was simple for people who graduated here in Korea, I just submitted my diploma, academic score, TOPIK, and filled a paper for the Job hunting plan and submitted it. This particular Job Hunting Plan is a piece of paper where they ask you to describe what will you do in 6 months of your legal stay. So I just wrote that I will try to get a job in the first 3 months, and I will be interning on the last 3 months. So yeah that was about it. Oh and I had to pay 30,000 WON for issuing card and 100,000 WON for changing the VISA. I had to wait 2 weeks before I finally got my Alien Registration Card with a new VISA type printed on it.
Once I am legal to find a work here, I tried lots and lots of means to find a job in this foreign land hahaha. From facebook, craiglist, friends, friend of friends, apps, etc etc 💪. And from all of those ways (and many rejections) I finally found Saramin, a job finder app only available in Korean language where you can make your own Resume there and browse thousands of job listing on it. You can also narrow it down by filtering it with the filter you want. I put Seoul - English - Indonesian - translator. And they popped up! 😻. And I found this one job listing that ask for a translator for an IT company. I did not think that much, I just applied. In only 2 days they called me and ask for interview, and a day after interview they called me again and said that they want to hire me Yihaaaw 💃
Now that I got a job and signed the contract I need to change (again) my VISA to a legal VISA to work. Because D-10 VISA is specifically ONLY for "finding" your job, and NOT to do the actual job. It's funny, but yeah, it is what it is. Working on D-10 is illegal, but it is also not easy for a foreigner to get hired by a company who would support them to change the VISA into a legal working VISA. So it's a 50:50 chance. There are people who has to work full time or part time with their D-10 just so that they can survive to pay the rents and eat here, while still trying to find a company that would sponsor them. I was so lucky that the company that hired me practically has 100% Korean workers, that means they CAN actually hire a foreigner and support my VISA. FYI, for a company in Korea, in order to be able to hire 1 foreigner legally, they need to have at least 5 Korean staffs working in it. So yeah, it is NOT easy for a foreigner to find a job here in Korea, especially if you are a fresh graduate. But if you are an expert, well, that's another story. So yeah, I was lucky! (Not that I didn't work my ass hard either) 😝
It took me roughly 2 months from the day of my graduation to find a company who would hire and sponsor my VISA. So after I signed the contract I applied for online reservation (every bureaucracy thing-ies are online here in Korea) to the immigration office, I had to submit all the supporting documents. This time I needed a whole lot more documents to submit, mostly from my company. I might have to write it separately later on a different post. Actually I had the choice to change my Job-seeker visa into one of the two legal working visas which are E-7 and F-2. The E-7 VISA is a working VISA that has 82 job types where your job type needs to fit in the list in order for your application to be approved. E-7 VISA validity is only 1 year and needed to be renew every year, and if you change a work place you NEED to report it to the Immigration Office. People who use E-7 mostly have to have Bachelor degree with more than 1 year work experience, or Master degree in relevant area, or at least 5 years of work experience in the relevant area. And some others special requirements to get this VISA can be checked on the Immigration website. For E-7 VISA, when you are married and have a family, your spouse and your kids will have F-3 VISA which is a Dependent Visa that has the same validity period to the E-7 VISA they depend on, and its eligibility to work is still confusing (F-3 VISA holder was prohibited to work previously but now the law has changed I heard, but even that it's still hard for them to legally work in Korea). On the other hand, F-2 VISA which is a Long Term Residence VISA has much more advantages that got my eyes fixed on it. Also, since I am KGSP (Korean Government Scholarship Program) alumni, I have a privilege to get 10 extra points to change my VISA to F-2. So basically this F-2 that I applied is a point-based Long Term Residence VISA. The point is counted from a fast array of categories that includes your age, education, Korean language skill, job, salary, volunteering activities, KIIP (Korean Immigration and Integration Program) score, etc. If you are not a KGSP student, you can have the extra 10 points by enrolling in the KIIP Program that has 100 hours of learning and takes around 3 months to finish. To be able to get F-2 VISA you need at least 80 points out of 120, the maximum score. Each category has 1-5 points.
Basically, the higher your education the higher point you get, and it applies the same with your major (Hello humanities major discrimination 😒), salary, Korean language skill and so on. Except age, the highest point you can get is 5 and that is if you are between 30-35 years old at the time of applying the VISA, and the point goes lower the more you are younger or the more you are older that that. Interesting right?! I think they measure it based on the demography census which says 30-35 y.o. is the most productive years of your life or whatever hahaha. Anyway, the things that got me interested in F-2, especially F-2-7 the point based VISA, is that you normally get 3 years of VISA validity, thus you don't have to do the 'holy pilgrimage' to the Immigration EVERY YEAR, and you do not have to report IF you change your job or your company, AND the best of all, your spouse and family will also get F-2 VISA automatically, which means they too, can legally work in Korea in any field they desire to work. FANTASTIC! 💖
So after submitting all the documents on the day I reserved to visit the Immigration, I said I want to change my D-10 to F-2 VISA but the immigration officer was a bit confused, and asked me "Hmm...did you count your point already?" "Are you sure your point exceed the minimum 80 points?" etc etc etc I just said "Yes, I am sure, I am KGSP student and I have 10 extra points" and so finally she checked and recheck it on her computer and for a silent 10 minutes of waiting finally she said "Okay your application is approved. You will get it in 2 weeks"... OH YES!!! (See me smirking in the picture below 😆)
And so I live happily ever after ................
Na'ah ... just working my ass off in my company to survive in this expensive Seoul
😆😆😆
...
Almost 1 year later today... I read the news and I heard directly from some acquaintances that now the Korean government are tightening the VISA requirements for foreigner, mostly to the foreigners who try to get student VISA here in Korea, and also for foreigners who wants to get a job! Oh how I sigh a huge relieve that I changed it last year!
But!!!! For those who still want to try their luck, I still very much support you to try! (Considering Korea's minimum wage is so much higher than Indonesia, or other SEA countries except Singapore 😀) I know maybe working in South Korea is not as tempting as - say ... working in New York City - but! there are many things you can learn here in this fast-growing-high work ethic- nation! 👍
To that I say 화이팅!! Fighting!!!
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