If you’re an expat here, you can now find information about immigration issues, labor relations and investment opportunities all on one government website.
The new G4F of Korea collects info you previously had to search for in various different different divisions of various different agencies (Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Labor, Seoul Help Center for Foreigners, KOTRA, etc.) all on one web portal. (G4F= government for foreigners. Cute, huh?)
Particularly useful, I think, is the section dealing with employment issues. Information about Korean labor regulations and the requirements for changing your employer, applying for permission to extend your stay, or applying for permission to work beyond the status of your current visa are all there and easy to find.
Contrast that with the hours I had to spend last month looking up different regulations on a variety of government websites or privately run expat forums, trying to balance conflicting interpretations, and searching through lots of Q&A sections looking for my answer.
Even then, I didn’t think it required a super-human effort. I am sure immigration regulations back in the States are equally, if not more, cumbersome. But, the new website makes finding such information much easier. And, at least in the five or 10 minutes I spent looking at it this morning, there don’t appear to be any glitches, bad links, or out of date information. It’s a pretty impressive effort.
{ 1 comment }
Brian B 08.18.06 at 3:38 am
Wow. Things have improved so much just in the few years I’ve been toodling around these parts. This would have been so useful when I was dealing with my own immigration issues recently. I got through it the hard way, but still, what a resource! Thanks for the information. It will no doubt come in handy in the future.
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