tales from Korea

It has been a while, a long while in fact – I realise that. I’ve been going through the paperwork routine for the last two months, and this post was waiting until I actually received my visa and there was no paperwork left to submit. I’m so glad it’s over, really – I knew it would be a pain in the butt to get everything, but the level of absolute incompetence and bureaucracy I experienced with the paperwork was absolutely shocking. I’ll have to try and explain this without mentioning names and exact places, for obvious reasons. Least to say, my agency and its staff over at Koreaconnections were exemplary – They were really great at helping me and answering my 100+ emails over the last two months.

The documents required at time of writing for entry to the SMOE (Seoul metropolitan office of education) program are as follows:

• Copy of degree/degree confirmation letter – Signed, notarised and apostilled.
• Printed transcripts of results double sealed and signed over flap of envelope.
• Criminal background check (or Certificate of character as it’s referred to in Ireland) – Signed, notarised and apostilled.
• Contracts, addenda, copy of passport, passport photos.

I was graduating in July and my results were not officially released until the beginning of that month, so I had to forget about them for the moment and concentrate on the other documents. The contracts, addenda etc were very straightforward as you might imagine – some photocopying and signing to do, no problem. The next important one I tackled right away was the CRC, which after checking around found out you must apply at your local Garda station. I called my local station and asked about the requirements for an oversees application. I talked to a guy who appeared to know what he was doing; he asked me for a number of documents and asked me to fax them over the next morning. I got two bank statements, a copy of my passport, copies of emails from my agency (You must prove a reason for requesting a CRC). I faxed the documents off the next morning and got a confirmation response that all pages had been delivered – great! The CRC takes, according to the Gardai, up to four weeks to process. I called back in two weeks and spoke to the same Garda who actually remembered me. He informed me that “I actually can’t do it sorry, you have to call the Garda Vetting Unit”. I was fairly annoyed for him wasting two weeks of my time without letting me know he wasn’t going to be doing it, I provided my contact information in case there was a problem. I called the Vetting unit and talked with a soft-spoken woman who insisted the vetting unit have nothing to do with CRC’s! I told her I was getting passed around and she told me to call back my local station and be persistent in asking them to get one for me. I did just that – this time asking directly for the superintendent. They wouldn’t put me onto him, but I got through to a clerk who told me “Yes we do issue the CRC’s and I was calling the right place”. She was very helpful and within one week I received the CRC in the post, maybe that was too easy, right? Yeah it was – some details were incorrect, including my DOB, so I called her straight back and within another week I received the correct CRC. Finally I got it! I posted it to my dad who got it apostilled at the Dept. of Foreign affairs in Dublin.

By this stage I had my results confirmed and went to the university to pick up a set of transcripts. I also asked my programme leader to make me a letter confirming my degree, as I wouldn’t be actually getting the degree parchment for another two weeks. He wrote a great letter, but I was later informed he didn’t really have enough ‘authority’ to be signing the letter, I got a new one with a signature from the head of school.

I got both documents notarised at a local solicitor in Edinburgh – this proved to be the most painless part of the process – he were very helpful and did it on the spot without even asking for a payment (A donation would be nice though, he said). Good stuff for a local place in the middle of a recession.

The degree letter is where things started to get completely insane. Firstly, trying to find out where actually apostilled a Scottish educational document was a nightmare. I googled around but didn’t find anything solid, so I called the Scottish government. They had less of a clue what an apostille was then I did but eventually found a number for me to call. I gave this mysterious number a call and they turned out to be a private company who went to the official offices and did it for you, and for a hefty commission. After crawling through some message boards I eventually came across people in the same situation and they were saying that the U.K. governments Foreign and Commonwealth’s Legalisation office deals with apostilles. They were correct – their website had a breakdown of what documents they process and how to get a educational document apostilled. I eventually sent off the letter with all the other required paperwork and payment, and stamped address envelope. We were due to leave the flat in two weeks at this stage, but I thought that should be enough time – how wrong I was. I sent the package as recorded mail and saw it was delivered the next day – excellent, I waited for a week before deciding to give them a call to find out if it was near processing. I called, but no answer, I called again but no answer. I then sent an email. The next day I called again, but no answer, all day I left a voice mail but no call back. I called the next day – no answer all day. At this stage I was getting worried about not being able to receive it before I was due to leave the flat, so I sent another email asking them to change my address on the envelope. At this stage I had received no communication at all. It took me five days of calling before someone picked up the phone – I was absolutely shocked when he did answer, I was beginning to think Mozart was living in my ear from listining to the hold tone for so long. The guy was quite nice, I explained I had been trying to get through for days and there was no answer – he explained they were very busy, and all postal applications had a three to four week delay! I was absolutely shocked and contemplated getting the train down to Milton Keynes where the office was located and do it in person. The wait for the counter service is just 24 hours – absolutely insane system, 24 hours in person to 4 weeks for a postal application. If I had known that I would have course gone down to the counter and done it in person, but there was no information or warnings on their website to let you know of the delay. I do regret this immensely – not checking before sending it off, you just can’t assume anything. I told him fair enough and explained that I was going back to Ireland the next day and needed the address changed on the self-return envelope. I emailed him with my details and he told me he put “Notes on the system”. About a week and a half after I got back to Ireland I was informed that the deadline for documents being sent to Korea was August the fifth – I had just over a week to get my apostilled degree letter back and DHL it over to Korea. At pretty much the same time I got an email from the Foreign & Commonwealth office stating my order was being processed! I emailed both the billing department and my contact at the office to double check before the document leaves that the address is correct. The next morning – a bombshell – I get an email from my contact saying they have posted it and it has been sent to my address in Edinburgh.

I was so fucking mad, I could have killed someone. Something this important, something that would have taken a few minutes to just slap a post-it note on the front reminding whoever was posting it to change the address. The guy seemed sympathetic, and after checking the royal Mail status told me it was delivered to my flat and signed for (?). No one had moved in yet, according to our agency. To add insult to injury, the billing department emailed me explaining how they felt it was my fault for not “Putting the correct address on the envelope in the first place”. The fact it was not in their hands any more made me just forget about it, I did feel like calling them up and giving them a major fuck you – of course I’d be waiting another five days before they would have picked up.

To make this already long story shorter, the Royal Mail in fact hadn’t delivered it and it was sitting in a Royal Mail delivery office in Edinburgh (I skipped a part about a mate trying to get in touch with my neighbour to see if he signed for it). I got in touch with the RM and they told me it was impossible for them to forward it to my address because it was a recorded signed for envelope. This was a shitty situation, it was looking like I might have had to fly to Edinburgh just so I could walk into the delivery office with my I.D. and pick it up. I called the delivery office directly and the guy there said “Send a friend in and I’ll just give it to them”. This guy, this one random dude sitting in a delivery office, defying Royal Mail’s rules ended up being the only guy along the way who actually did something great and helped me to complete the paperwork. My friend did in fact pick up the package and sent it to Korea for me. It arrived two days before the deadline.

I have since received my ‘visa package’, applied for my visa and just collected it.

Nothing can stop me coming to Korea now! Or can it? In this insane world anything can happen.