Ive mentioned it a couple of times elsewhere, but my eldest daughter is (finally) away to South Korea to teach English for a year... and its been a marathon effort to get her there.
Pages and pages of forms, sending qualifications away to be first stamped by a notaries public, then apostiled... (new word for us!) then sent back because the notaries public hadnt stamped an original copy of something... then everything sent to the job agency in Korea, back again.....
Finally they sent her a letter of contract of employment... without that, she couldnt get the work visa to enter the country... That arrived on Tuesday 6th of August....
Same day applied for said work visa, which meant sending a copy of this contract, and her actual passport to the embassy in London... Sent using Royal Mails next day by 1pm delivery service, with another same 1pm envelope for returning the passport.... (no passport, no fly... and she had her flight already booked for Friday 16th)
She gets an email on Thursday 8th..... "Received"
Another email on friday 9th.... "Processing"
They dont work weekends, of course, so next we hear of anything is last tuesday 13th.... "Your Visa is processed and will be available online from....... We will send back your documents."
Fine.... with the 1pm envelope, we'll get it wednesday, or thursday at the latest.... (remember, shes flying on friday)
Nothing in the post Wednesday, so she emails them and asks for the tracking number... (its a guarenteed delivery envelope... there should have been a tracking number).... "No, sorry... we dont have the tracking number"
Oh crap.
Luckily, I am at home on Thursday and catch the postman before he starts walking the streets... He has a look in the van, but theres no 1pm envelope....
Double crap
Friday morning, i go straight to the sorting office, see if i can catch it before its put onto a van.... Helpful gent behind the counter says it hasnt come in at 6am, but theres another drop at half 9..... He takes my number and promises to call me....
9:20, i get the call.... "Yes, its here..." We drive out and pick it up, by this time, she is in hysterics, my wife is at the end of her tether.... I had to pick the middle one up from work because she was sad, and the youngest from school... because she wanted to go to the airport anyway...
So, we have everything.... passport back in her hand, visa printed out at least 3 times, plus being on her phone.... As we drove home, she checked the tracking number which was now printed on the envelope... apparently, it hadnt been scanned at any royal mail depot until 5:30pm the night before!... It hadnt been posted on the day they said it would... no wonder they didnt have a tracking number...
We got the car packed, and scooted away up to edinburgh airport in plenty of time, said our goodbyes. The flight was at 5, change in Paris, next flight only 1 hour later... Land in Seoul after a 12 hour flight, and have 2 nights before the induction which started on Monday.....
Of course, the first flight was delayed by technical difficulties for 2 hours... which meant she missed the second plane. Spent the first night in a Paris hotel, with food vouchers supplied by the airline, and a seat on the next available 777. Not the seat she booked, but at least she was on her way.
It landed in the morning a day later than it should have got there... and she was still in time for the breakfast she would have got if she had actually used the room... (she paid for the 2 nights in Seoul hotel, no refund for the first night, but Air France will be compensating her anyway)
Now Day 2 of her induction week... and everything is running smooth now. They are 8 hours ahead, so the best time to message her is morning for us.
By this Friday, the induction will be complete, she will be moved to the school she will be working in, given accomadation and start her year as an English teacher in Korea
Pages and pages of forms, sending qualifications away to be first stamped by a notaries public, then apostiled... (new word for us!) then sent back because the notaries public hadnt stamped an original copy of something... then everything sent to the job agency in Korea, back again.....
Finally they sent her a letter of contract of employment... without that, she couldnt get the work visa to enter the country... That arrived on Tuesday 6th of August....
Same day applied for said work visa, which meant sending a copy of this contract, and her actual passport to the embassy in London... Sent using Royal Mails next day by 1pm delivery service, with another same 1pm envelope for returning the passport.... (no passport, no fly... and she had her flight already booked for Friday 16th)
She gets an email on Thursday 8th..... "Received"
Another email on friday 9th.... "Processing"
They dont work weekends, of course, so next we hear of anything is last tuesday 13th.... "Your Visa is processed and will be available online from....... We will send back your documents."
Fine.... with the 1pm envelope, we'll get it wednesday, or thursday at the latest.... (remember, shes flying on friday)
Nothing in the post Wednesday, so she emails them and asks for the tracking number... (its a guarenteed delivery envelope... there should have been a tracking number).... "No, sorry... we dont have the tracking number"
Oh crap.
Luckily, I am at home on Thursday and catch the postman before he starts walking the streets... He has a look in the van, but theres no 1pm envelope....
Double crap
Friday morning, i go straight to the sorting office, see if i can catch it before its put onto a van.... Helpful gent behind the counter says it hasnt come in at 6am, but theres another drop at half 9..... He takes my number and promises to call me....
9:20, i get the call.... "Yes, its here..." We drive out and pick it up, by this time, she is in hysterics, my wife is at the end of her tether.... I had to pick the middle one up from work because she was sad, and the youngest from school... because she wanted to go to the airport anyway...
So, we have everything.... passport back in her hand, visa printed out at least 3 times, plus being on her phone.... As we drove home, she checked the tracking number which was now printed on the envelope... apparently, it hadnt been scanned at any royal mail depot until 5:30pm the night before!... It hadnt been posted on the day they said it would... no wonder they didnt have a tracking number...
We got the car packed, and scooted away up to edinburgh airport in plenty of time, said our goodbyes. The flight was at 5, change in Paris, next flight only 1 hour later... Land in Seoul after a 12 hour flight, and have 2 nights before the induction which started on Monday.....
Of course, the first flight was delayed by technical difficulties for 2 hours... which meant she missed the second plane. Spent the first night in a Paris hotel, with food vouchers supplied by the airline, and a seat on the next available 777. Not the seat she booked, but at least she was on her way.
It landed in the morning a day later than it should have got there... and she was still in time for the breakfast she would have got if she had actually used the room... (she paid for the 2 nights in Seoul hotel, no refund for the first night, but Air France will be compensating her anyway)
Now Day 2 of her induction week... and everything is running smooth now. They are 8 hours ahead, so the best time to message her is morning for us.
By this Friday, the induction will be complete, she will be moved to the school she will be working in, given accomadation and start her year as an English teacher in Korea
