Today my boyfriend had internet set up in the apartment, so I'll post more than once a month. Sorry about keeping you all in the dark. Anyway, this one will be short.
We bought couple plane tickets to America. We will sit next to each other on three planes for the approximately 20-25 hour journey. Then he will return to Korea on my birthday, March 25. Bad timing, but that's the way the allowed 90 days in the country fall. There is only one other option, after extensive research, that is available to us that would allow him to stay in the USA for more than 90 days. We could get married. We have neither decided to do that nor ruled it out.
Why is it that I can get a visitor's visa to Korea in 3 days with no interview and very little information given, then leave and return twice, extending my stay to 9 months? But, my boyfriend was told he had a 70% chance of failure getting a travel visa to America if he applied, which would require extensive paperwork, proofs of wealth and residency, proof of intent to leave America in a limited amount of time, and an interview. If he failed, he would not be allowed to enter the United States for a year. At all. Not even for 90 days. I know Bush's policies were intended to cut down on terrorism, but how many South Korean terrorists have you ever heard of? South Korea and the United States are extremely close and economically intertwined allies, and therefore I think the immigration and visitor policies for this country should be relaxed. It's like telling a Canadian he or she can't come to America. How ridiculous is that?
Anyway, ranting over for today. More later, as always.
On March 26, 2009, I left my life in America and moved to South Korea. I put my worldly possessions into two suitcases and a backpack and got on a plane. On December 8, 2012, I returned not to my hometown of Detroit, but to Silicon Valley, California, where I married an Indian engineer. In 2020, I divorced and moved to southern California. In this blog are my successes, failures, and observations of life in different cultures.
Actually, it's not about preventing terrorism (as far as Koreans traveling to the US are concerned). All the obstacles and bureaucracy you encountered are more about preventing South Korean illegal immigration to the US, which I suppose is a somewhat valid concern. That's why there's all that stuff about proofs of wealth - he must demonstrate that he has enough ties to Korea that sufficiently deter him from wanting to make the US his permanent residence.
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