C4 and South Korea

There is a lot one needs to know about the C4 visa (entertainment visa) in South Korea, but the most important of them all is that you cannot expect things to be the same as with an E2 visa, or any long-term visa type.

As long as you keep that in mind, being flexible and able to adapt to things as they come is about the best you can do, because you'll have to face many walls, and there is often very little you can do on you own.

DON'T BE ON YOUR OWN!

Korea doesn't let short-term visa holders do much on their own. It is "spy country", so if they don't have everything on you, they pretty much don't let you in the system.

C4 VISA:

Doesn't provide you with an ARC (Alien Registration Card) which means, all in all, that:

- you will not be able to open a bank account in your name;

- you won't be able to get a phone contract (now I hear you can just pay the phone and get prepaid cards so that's not so bad an alternative);

- you will not be able to take out more than 2 000 000won out of the bank per day (roughly $USD2000);

- you might not be able to get a normal officetel / one-room apt on your own (I could, but that was because I cheated the system, by remembering my ARC number);

- you won't be able to subscribe for an Internet connection;

Now the reason you'd want to do those things is because they simplify life.

Having a BANK ACCOUNT allows you to make money transfers directly from your phone (lots of store let you leave with the things you want to buy provided that you'll pay them through transfer during the day...yes, I know, it's nuts....in a good way) and that will usually lower the price of things, the same way it does when you pay cash. The money you have in your country, no matter how much you have, will not be accessible in whole. You cannot get your money from an international bank at the counter, they want you to use the machines (whatever lies your bank tells you, even if you have your passport and bank card with you they will show you the automated system. Result: you cannot get more than $200US. If you need to put the downpayment of an apartment, (which usually is between 5K to 20KUSD) you will have to think of getting some money out everyday in a set amount of days to get all of it.

Having a PHONE CONTRACT makes it possible for you to have the newest version of phones for a lesser downpayment than having to lay out all the bills and buy a real phone; you also get better deals for data and phone calls. You want a phone in Korea. The bus system, the metro system, the cards etc. are really well made in inphone apps, and you will never really get lost if you have a phone with wifi access (if you only have a phone for the first days, go in literally any coffee shop they will have wifi: I love Korea for that, plus, you get the pleasure of drinking a good latte :)

Not having an ARC restricts your every movements in South Korea. If you are moving from a long-term visa to a C4 or another short-term visa that won't get you an ARC, memorize your number, it'll come in handy very often: Pretend you didn't bring the card but remember the number, the card number will always be associated with you, so it will exist in the records even after you depart from Korea (the same way getting a new ARC will get you the same number on the card).

Now I say DON'T BE ON YOUR OWN for a reason. All those things can be bypassed by having a Korean get those for you in their names. But let's be frank. It's not easy to find someone who you trust, and who trusts you enough to do that for you. If you pay for someone for a 1 year contract, for example, and they disappear before the year is over, then you get to pay for everything, and they'll still have the phone. You see where I'm going? That and, if a person opens a bank account in their name for you, they could decide to have the money moved to another of their accounts (what stops them?) and you find yourself with nothing and not a word to say in it.

Get good friends before getting involved in sponsorship stuff like those.... or bear with the price of converting money from your home country account to Korea every time you use money...

Now.

That being said, I wish I'd say all was well. But everything seems to fall on me at the same time these days, as I deal with important stuff, so every little thing that goes wrong gets me to feel pretty depressed.

One bad luck calling another here is a couple of examples that have happened to me over say the last 4 days..

- missed the metro/ got on the wrong side of the metro in transfers;

- gotten on the metro and got a seat.... got off too early, had to wait for next one: no seat;

- go do my nails to relax, the things I do before take more time and I end up stressing load to get there;

- nails chip off 2 days later (when I do gel they usually last over 3 weeks);

- ask the girl to fix them, get all the way to her store again, it's closed cuz she says she got bad allergies and went home without telling me... bad allergies on a Saturday night? yah right. Bitch;

- Found a nice coffee shop near my place, I go again: the business went under and they're now closed;

- I went to eat cake in the morning: the cake falls on me like a gag TV show: slow motion -> fail;

- I need to send money to someone, the ATM weirdly seems to be closed since 6pm THAT day only.

Being still half-jetlagged, having to find a place, start to work, get connected to Internet, getting used to my new visa status... everything is too much at the same time. I remember back in Canada I was stressing because I half saw all this coming but couldn't do anything more to prepare myself or do anything in advance...so here I am, living the stress I pictured myself living when I was back in Canada.

Just like a roller-coaster, the anticipation going up is just as nerve-wrecking as the going down part. But in a roller-coaster, you actually really enjoy the down part. In this case, both are really straining. I can't wait to have the formalities behind and start living...