The wife and I were all prepped and raring to go on our first snowy winter holiday ever. We submitted our Visa application and supporting documents at the Korean Embassy at McKinley Hill in Manila on Nov. 24, 2012. Thinking it was practically a shoe-in because we had friends we were supposed to stay with in Seoul, we booked our flight the same night for Dec. 11-17 and patiently waited for our Visa release on Dec. 3.
The day came and we visited the embassy again only to be met with the most ridiculous request from the consul. They called our number to proceed to the release window and the guy hands us a sheet of paper which simply said "Diploma - Transcript". So the Filipino official who is sitting next to the window in case of translation issues tells us the consul requires a copy of our college Diploma and Transcript of Records (TOR) before they can issue our Visas. My first reaction was to say, "What? I'm already 34 years old". The Korean man behind the window wasn't entertaining questions too and prompt called the next number and the guards asked us to move along. Well to cut that part of the story short, we left the place without a Korean Visa and our holiday plans nixed.
What in the world do they need our Diploma and TOR for?! How in the heck does that prove that we are well-meaning visitors to their country and have full intentions to come back here to Manila?! Was this simply a case of the embassy officials making it hard for us to enter their country while we freely welcome them here in the Philippines? We submitted all relevant documents they required such as Certificates of Employment, Official Bank Certificates, and our Marriage License. The wife and I, recently married, were meaning to make this particular holiday our official honeymoon too so we are extra pissed off.
Screw you Korean consul.
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Have u attempted to ask them why??
ReplyDeletethis was way back in dec 2012 but anyway apparently you can't ask them why. however we did ask the pinoy security guards out of frustration and we were told that recently at that time, there was a case of falsification of documents so the immigration department decided to get anally strict. so yes once again one stupid act by someone affects the rest of us.
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