Did I ever tell you the story of my federal background check and apostillized diploma getting lost in the mail? Well they did. And these were things that everyone said that I needed in order to renew my visa to stay at my school. My co-teacher told me, worst case scenario, you can’t work until the new background check shows up (in 4-6 weeks). Leaving me unemployed for a month and a half but still living in Korea on an extended visa. And paying my rent. And student loans. And somehow affording food. Oh and by the way, I just spent all my savings on a plane ticket home in August. So that would mean living off of one paycheck for about 3 months.
Thus, shit was flipped.
I’ve been in panic mode for the last three weeks worrying about all of this. It had been a while since I had my last 3AM Hour of Terror, so you know, I was missing it.
Yesterday, my co-teacher and I finally decided that we’d waited long enough hoping for my background check to unlose itself and we’d exhausted all possible methods of tracking it down (hey guys, piece of advice, when you mail important stuff PUT A TRACKING NUMBER ON IT). We tried to come up with some consolation prizes for the Immigration Office though.
Can’t have my US Federal Background Check? How about my Korean background check! It’s not like I’ve been back in the US in the last year anyway! BONUS: Three sets of fresh fingerprints!
Can’t have a copy of my diploma with Apostille? How about my ACTUAL UNIVERSITY DEGREE! Complete with shiny red case and fancy gold embossed seal! Also included, two sets of never before opened transcripts! Shazam! I told you I graduated from college!
Can’t have a peaceful final hour at the office before going home? How about a panic stricken white girl giving you sad puppy eyes in hopes of getting her visa renewed and not being left unemployed! Ok, you don’t have to take that one.
My co-teacher had spent the last couple weeks chatting up one of the guys at the immigration office who had helped her out before when the last Native English teacher bailed. It turns out though that he has nothing to do with visa extensions and we were sent somewhere else. You’d think he’d have mentioned…
So we were sent back to the same part of the immigration office that I first went to last year, fresh off the plane and pouring buckets of sweat because I’d never experienced such humidity in my entire life. I had a little flashback remembering the huge Filippino family that was there last time. And my co-teacher talking about an obscure distant relative who couldn’t find a nice Korean wife so he ordered one from South East Asia. And that kid who was playing with a fake gun and who would have never gotten away with that in a federal building in the US. It made me remember the sign outside of the entrance to the Saint Louis Arch that said something along the lines of, “If you even think of joking about terrorism, we’ll arrest you.”
It turns out, after a few quick words with the Immigration guy, the government changed their mind about needing a federal background check and apostillized visa for 1st year renewals. Yeah, they sent out that whole super serious letter at the beginning of the year demanding everyone get their business in order before renewing, but expecting them to send out a notice ammending that requirement and explainging that they changed their mind BEFORE you spend weeks attempting to track down your lost mail, calling your postman personally, and pissing off the Police Fingerprint Guy for the third time because WHY THREE MORE SETS IT’S ALMOST CLOSING TIME – well that’s out of the question.
So yeah. My visa is renewed. Everything’s fine.
