Approved South Korea Visa with only 30+k show money and without ITR (2018)

This is such an unexpected blessing! I never thought that getting a South Korea tourist visa would be possible for someone like me who is nearly broke. Haha. I still couldn't believe it. Blogs of people whose visa applications got denied made me really worried at some point. It's a good thing that I'm a risk taker when it comes to #internationaltravelgoals and still pushed through with my application. Since I am not an expert and it is also my first time, I will only be sharing my experience and give some tips that I have come up with after completing my visa application at the Embassy of South Korea in Manila. More complete and extensive visa application guide can be found on various blogs on the web.

Tourist Visa Requirements for employees

1. Application Form

(Print on A4. Rule of thumb here is to put N/A for all items not applicable to you and do not forget to include your signature. Your intended days of stay and budget should be appropriate to your financial capability backed up by your documents during application. For example, I only had 30+k on my bank account so I wrote 4 days with 600USD budget which seemed like I would spend 150USD per day in Korea.)

2. 1 piece passport-size colored picture

(Just tell the photo studio that you will be using it for South Korea visa. Paste it on the application form.)

3. Original passport

(This should be valid for more than 6 months from the date of travel to be safe.)

4. Photocopy of passport bio-page

(Just photocopy page 2 of passport.)

5. Original and photocopy of valid visa/s and arrival stamps to OECD member countries for the past 5 years if applicable

(Original means the ones pasted and stamped on your current and old passports. The 34 OECD member countries at the time of writing are Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Submit your current and old passports containing these visa/s and stamps.)

6. Original certificate of employment

(This must include applicant's position, date hired, compensation, office address, HR landline number, and HR e-mail address. Cell phone number of HR personnel is not allowed. Some said that they really contact the companies for verification purposes. Our office did not receive any form of communication from them though.)

7. Original bank certificate

(This must include account type, current balance, account opening date, and ADB. For your information, the bank certificate I submitted showed that I only had 30+ thousand pesos current balance and 30+ thousand pesos ADB.)

8. Original or certified photocopy of bank statement for the past 3 months

(Some banks provide bank statements for free. If your bank asks for a fee, you may opt to just print your bank transactions as reflected online. You have to be enrolled in your bank's online facility to do this. This is what I did after verifying with the embassy via phone that they would accept it. If you have passbook, you can just photocopy and it will be considered as bank statement. I used my payroll account for bank certificate and bank statement requirements to prove that I have a regular income.)

9. ITR or Form 2316 copy

(ITR = Income Tax Return; Form 2316 = Certificate of Compensation Payment or Income Tax Withheld)

This should not be a problem for employees in a tax-paying company. Contractuals with certificate of registration can directly print from their BIR accounts. If you are not a frequent flyer but does not have an ITR, just provide a letter explaining why you do not have one. One example would be is that if you are just newly hire. Frequent travellers who have travelled as tourist to OECD member countries within 5 years are exempted from submitting ITR. For reference, I travelled only once to Greece for 6 days last year and I am already considered a frequent flyer.)

10. Photocopy of PRC or IBP card if applicable

(PRC = Professional Regulation Commission; IBP = Integrated Bar of the Philippines

I guess the embassy/consul more likely believes that a professional will really act as a professional, i.e., would less likely be an illegal alien/'TNT'. I submitted a photocopy of my PRC ID hoping that it would have a bearing on my application.)

Additional requirements are as follows:

a. If personally invited by a Korean
  1. Invitation Letter
  2. Photocopy of invitor's Passport or Identification Card (authentication not required)

b. If invited by Company in Korea
  1. Invitation Letter
  2. Photocopy of Korean Company Business Permit (authentication not required)

Dated documents should be within 3 months from the date of application. Submit only 1 set. There's no need to provide supporting documents not listed in the requirements. They will just remove and give it back to you afterwards. Only passports will be returned during releasing of visa so make sure to provide only photocopies of your important documents. Give original only if it says so in the list of requirements.

Processing and Releasing Time:

Monday to Friday 8:30-11:00am - receiving of application

Monday to Friday 1:30-4:00pm - releasing of passports and results of application such as the visa or paper containing the reason for denial

(Check the embassy website often for holiday announcements or call them at 856-9210 for any concern. No appointment is needed. First come first serve rule will be followed. Be at the embassy by 10:30am to make sure that your application can be accommodated. As per the embassy website, an interview may be conducted prior to releasing of visa so first-time travellers are advised to personally claim their visas.)

Processing would take at least

a. 3 working days for those who have been to OECD member countries within 5 years as tourist

b. 5 working days for those who have not been to OECD member countries within 5 years

(I applied on Thursday, February 22 and got my visa on Tuesday, February 27.)

Visa Fee:

59 days or less stay in Korea -- GRATIS

60 to 90 days stay in Korea -- PHP 2,000.00

(I got my visa for free. Yey! I wrote 4 days on the application but our pre-booked flights actually entails us 9 days. I do not recommend booking flights prior to visa approval since there are really cases of denied application but who are we to say no to seat sales! Haha.)

Complete the requirements, submit, check online then claim!

The embassy address is McKinley Town Center, 122 Upper McKinley Rd, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig, 1634 Metro Manila. You just have to go to EDSA Guadalupe and ride a jeepney bound for C5-Taguig. From Commonwealth Avenue, just ride basically any bus with EDSA route like Alabang/Pasay-bound and alight at EDSA Guadalupe. You can also take the MRT if you prefer. Go to the road perpendicular to EDSA near Jollibee (North-bound service road). Jeepneys that would stop in front of the Korean embassy are located at the terminal near the down-end of that road. It would take approximately 15-20 minutes assuming there is light traffic. To go back to EDSA Guadalupe, just cross the street at the pedestrian lane near the stop light and ride jeepneys with 'Tulay' signage at the front.

I arrived at the embassy at 8:40am and left at 10:40am. On the day of application, first thing to do is sign on the list, then have the guard inspect your stuff (Eating and drinking are not allowed inside so they may ask you to leave your food and bottled drinks on their post. The guard let me bring my tumbler and told me not to drink inside the building.), fall in line for initial screening of documents and window assignment (different windows for group/family, frequent, first-timers, etc.), get number and wait for your turn to be accommodated, submit the requirements and get a claim stub. To ease the submission, organize your documents at they appear on the list, remove any paperclip, binder or passport cover. A ballpen would always come in handy so make sure you bring this with you. Picture-taking and by-standers are not allowed inside. There are seats just outside the roofed building. My friends arrived at the embassy around 6:00am and there were already at least 30 persons on the list. I guess you should be there by 5:00am if you want to be number one on the list. You would still wait for few hours though since the queue starts at around 8:00am.
UPDATE: According to PEXers though, during peak season, applications already have a cutoff, not just (10:30am) time cutoff but also number-of-applicants (sometimes 300 down to 200) cutoff. So it would be better if you go there very early.

After 5 calendar days (3 working days), I claimed my visa. Some applicants who were supposed to claim passports that day were asked to just come again the next day since the embassy/consul needed more time or has not yet reviewed their applications. I suggest checking the status of application online before going back to the embassy. A sample of online status is shown below. By around 5-6pm last February 26, 2018, the status changed from "Application received" to "Under review" then finally "Approved."

I also got my friend's visa on the same day. No need for an authorization letter. I just showed his claim stub. At the back of the claim stub/s, the name/s and contact number/s of the applicant/s should be written. The claiming steps are similar to the submission steps: show the claim stubs to the guard, sign on the list, get number (write name on the paper provided) and claim passport with visa (yes!). I just spent around 20 minutes waiting inside.

TADAA!!! Here's an example of a South Korea visa:

The visa is good for 3 months from the date of issue. Yey!Will share my South Korea tour experience in the future. 🐼