My first travel for this year is to Korea. So a month from my departure, I made sure to complete all my documents for visa application. Good thing Korea has relaxed its visa requirements, especially to qualified BPI and BDO Gold or Platinum cardholders until December 2016. So, yes, I was able to get a 5-year multiple-entry Korean Visa on my first application. Yay!
You don’t have to personally apply for your visa, but I like doing things on my own for experience. Without further ado, here are the requirements for employed yuppies:
Good thing I’m a BDO cardholder so I’m exempted from submitting numbers 7, 8, and 9. I just have to present my BDO card, a photocopy of my credit card for submission, and the latest Statement of Account. I have 2 qualifying cards, but keep in mind that you just have to submit ONE (1).
Common rules/questions in completing the application form:
- Don’t leave any field/item blank. Please put N/A instead
- Please avoid erasures at all cost!
- Be sure to glue your ID photo and not staple it
- 1.7. National Identity no. – please put N/A
- 9.4. Address in Korea / 9.5. Phone No. in Korea – I just put undecided
- 9.7. This is where I think you can somehow show your travel capacity. If you have traveled to anywhere abroad in the last 5 years, please note it down. Luckily I went to many places in the past 2 years that I was able to fill in this table completely. Bring your old passport, too, just in case.
- 10.1. For estimated travel cost (in USD), I just allocated USD500.00 per day. But if you are submitting your bank statements, be sure that the amount you put here is enough to be covered by your bank account, minus the maintaining balance required for that account.
- 10.2 Who will pay for your travel related expenses? I just noted myself… and my mom for emergency.
Just like for BDO and BPI qualified cardholders, frequent travelers who have traveled as tourist to OECD member countries within 5 years are exempted from submitting ITR.
After completing the needed requirements, go to the Korean Embassy at 122 Upper McKinley Road, McKinley Town Center, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig. It would be ideal to bring a driver. You can park for free and probably have breakfast first at the Jollibee before you reach the embassy–so be early!
The Korean embassy is very efficient. I was able to submit my documents in less than an hour. I was there about 9am. Visa processing starts at 8:30am – 11:00am, while the releasing of visa is at 1:30pm-4:00pm
Processing Time:
– 3 working days (for those who have been to OECD member countries within 5 years as tourist)
– 5 working days (for those who have not been to OECD member countries within 5 years)
Korean Visa application is FREE if you are staying for less than 2 months. For those staying 60 days to 90 days, a fee of Php1,800.00 is needed. Multiple-entry Korean visa holders are allowed to stay for 30 days.
For updated information, visit the Korean Embassy website of the Philippines.
UPDATE [01.05.2017] BDO and BPI Gold and Platinum cardholders can continue to enjoy this promo until Dec 2017 –> http://embassy_philippines.mofa.go.kr/english/as/embassy_philippines/visa/announcement/
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